Game Help:Launcher CC Issues

Issues

1. You see custom content in your game, but is not listed as "Installed Content" in the Launcher
2. After Patch 1.55, your game wont load, you get a black screen, launcher won't load and/or is black.

Causes

Custom Content in Game, but not in Launcher

The most likely cause (and so far the only one) results from downloading and installing a sim from a sims3pack file. When you install a sim as a sims3pack, more times than not, custom content is also included with the sim. When the launcher installs the sim, it places a .sim file in the SavedSims folder. A typical .sim file (without CC) is only 300-500 KB in size. It's not uncommon for .sim files, with cc attached to them, to be over 100,000 KB in size and the CC attached to the .sim file DOES NOT show up in the Launcher under Installed Content.

Long Loading, Black Screen, Unresponsive Launcher

From the 1.55 patch notes: Users who have a large amount of Store content installed will no longer experience their content disappearing from the launcher. It appears, from several reports, that EA's answer for the issue was to create tmp files in the DCCACHE folder. Now, what exactly is a "large amount"? While the amount may not be known, when they appear in your DCCACHE folder, you essentially double the size of the information in your folder. If you had 2GB of info in your folder, with the tmp files you will now have 4GB of info. Which means your game will have to load DOUBLE the info.

Solution

Custom Content in Game, but not in Launcher

1. The easiest/best solution is to remove the CC before installing the sim.
2. Chances are, that isn't the case, so now you need to go to the SavedSims folder and remove the .sim file with the issue. If you have a number of .sim files, this could be a little tricky to find the correct one. Under the typical User Files placement, go to C:\Users\Username\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\SavedSims

Long Loading, Black Screen, Unresponsive Launcher

You can delete the tmp files from the DCCACHE folder, but they will likely be regenerated. Best way is to delete them, start your game by "Bypassing the Launcher", deleting them again if you install other sims3packs.

If That Didn't Work...

If removing the .sim files did not take the CC out of your game, are you sure it's not a .package file in your Mods/Packages folder? Or possibly in the Virtual Store location?

If you still have issues with the launcher and/or game not loading, black screen, etc, you may need to move or rename your User files. If that doesn't work, you could try and uninstall, then reinstall the base game only.

Further Reading

• Game Help:TS3 Finding Problem Custom Content
• Game Help:TS3 Organizing Custom Content
• How to find a certain download in your Launcher