Author Topic: How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 3  (Read 40437 times)

Offline Flynn Arrowstarr

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How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 3
« on: August 26, 2012, 10:31:41 PM »
Post Updated May 2023

Manually Backup your EA Games Install Folder

You can back your EA Games (sort-of) by making a copy of the install folder and copy it to a usb drive, external drive or online storage.

EA App: (Default Paths - Yours may be different if you have a custom install).
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\

When you want to install the game again, you'll still need an internet connection, as the EA App will need to verify your account and game. Plus it'll want to download any updates. It'll start to download the game, let it do so until about 2% of the download and then pause the download. Exit out of the EA App, and copy over your backup to

[C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\]

Or

[C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\]

It's okay if it overwrites the files that are there.

Open the EA App, un-pause the download. After a few seconds or so it should say something like preparing instead of downloading. It's okay, it's verifying files and such. And will start downloading after the verifying is finished.

After it's done downloading you should be good to play the game.

----

Reference Link:

Possible to backup games, to avoid re-downloading them in the future?
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Origin-Mac-Client-Technical/Possible-to-backup-games-to-avoid-re-downloading-them-in-the/td-p/9988648




✽  Our article below is out of date and may no longer work, The first part is under the spoiler.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Offline Flynn Arrowstarr

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How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 3 From Origin
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2012, 10:58:52 PM »
Updated December 12, 2015: This article is now out of date as the backup and restore process is the same as outlined in my article How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 4 From Origin. I have left this article here for historical purposes. Feel free to ask if you have any questions on backing up or restoring your games. Thanks. :)

Flynn

Part Two: Restoring your games.

When restoring your Origin downloads, you will want to go into Origins and make sure your settings are the same as before. I've posted a quick recap of the setting in the screenshot below. These instruction assume you are installing the game after either uninstalling your current games, or are installing the games onto a new computer.


Settings recap.

Remember the install location will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\ for 64-bit Windows, and C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\ for 32-bit Windows.

Once you've verified the settings, exit Origin completely. To do that, right-click on the Origin icon near the clock in the lower right corner (you may need to expand the list of icons before it shows up) and select Exit from the menu.

Copy the compressed files from your backup location to a temporary folder. Again, I'm using D:\Temp\Sims 3\ for this example. Right-click on each file and uncompress the files into the temp folder. This will create a folder structure similar to the one we had before.


After uncompressing and removing compressed files.

Now, copy each of these folders into your Origin game install folder:

32-bit -- C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\
64-bit -- C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\

Note you will get a warning from Windows that you need Administrator privileges in order to copy files into your Electronic Arts folder. Click Continue to allow the changes. If you are not using an Administrator account, you will be prompted to enter the username and password for an Administrator account.



For each expansion/stuff pack, you'll want to go into the game's folder and run the setup program. I'd like to say the setup files are in the same location for each program, but that's not the case. There are two locations the file can be in. I'll show two examples below.


Diesel Stuff installer is located in the The Sims 3 Diesel Stuff\__Installer folder.


Generations installer is located in the The Sim 3 Generations\ root folder.

Run the setup program and accept the defaults and wait for the installer to finish.

Once all of the packs are installed, launch Origin and verify each game has been installed.


Ready to play Diesel!

Launch the game and enjoy! :)

Part Three is next.

Flynn
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Offline Flynn Arrowstarr

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How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 3 From Origin Downloader
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2012, 11:14:56 PM »
Updated December 12, 2015: This article is now out of date as the backup and restore process is the same as outlined in my article How-To: Backup and Restore The Sims 4 From Origin. I have left this article here for historical purposes. Feel free to ask if you have any questions on backing up or restoring your games. Thanks. :)

Flynn

Part Three: Notes and wrap-up.

Update Feb. 8, 2013: The current version of Origin requires he product key when installing games from backups. Follow the steps below to find your product key. You can also highlight and copy/paste the key into the installer instead of typing them in by hand.

Aside from renaming a couple of folders, I did run into an issue with the Katy Perry edition of Showtime. It was the only game that required me to enter the product key manually when I installed it. So, to find your product key in Origin, launch Origin and go to My Games. Hover the mouse over the game and click on the i icon.


Getting more information on the game.

The product key is on the right side of the screen for the game.


Product key is located here.

Edit: Supernatural also requires you to enter the product key when installing from backup.

Also, for some reason, Pets didn't install after the download and I had to install it manually, using the installer in the The Sims 3 Pets folder.

That aside, the process went pretty smooth. Until Electronic Arts builds a backup program into the Origin client, this method will have to do for backing up the game installations.

I'd like to thank judewright for the inspiration for this how-to. I'd also like to thank Trouble Girl for her blog post How to backup Origin games that got me pointed in the right direction. And thanks to MrsFlynn for helping me keep notes and giving me ideas to try out, and just for overall encouragement.

I hope this helps out anyone who wants to back up their games to re-install without having to re-download everything. Let me know if anything is unclear or confusing and I will do what I can to help you out.

Happy Simming!

Flynn
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