What to do if Your Game Slows Down (Clean Up Your Game)

[Angélique]

I made the mistake of deleting my ccmerged.package file but I managed to find it in my recycling bin. Will my premium content work again if I replace the new ccmerged.package file with the old one from the recycling bin?

Yes, I think it will. I tried that a while ago, just to see if it was okay, and it worked fine, exactly as before. So go ahead and replace it, Snuffles, if you haven't already. You've got nothing to lose. You can't do the switch when the game is running, though. Windows won't allow that. Do it before you start the game. Good luck with getting your premium stuff back in tip top shape!

[simlover16]

I'm sure this has already been mentioned, but a Factory Reset SAVED my game. If done correctly, It will delete EVERYTHING but your saves, CC, and mods. I'd been meaning to delete all of my, for example, saved hair colors, ect. My game is running unbelievably fast now. It saved my dynasty.

[Snufflesxx]

It worked! My Premium Content is back to normal now. 

[Angélique]

That was good news, Snuffles! My sims really love the wood fired oven, and would be heartbroken if they couldn't use it all of a sudden.

[Nancy1989]

This is great! I already knew about it, but they never told me to leave the ccmerged file alone. So when I tried it I had to reinstall every single store item again....And I have -a lot-. So that's not something I wish to do more than once. With your tip I was able to remove nearly 5000 files combined the size of nearly 8GB. I thank you kindly!

[Tandrael]

I was so glad to run into this cause my game has been so annoyingly slow!!! But I went to My documents-electronics arts-Sims 3-DC backup... and there was nothing in there! Then I went to check my ScreenShots, and I only found my old ones.  Even my saved games, the new ones just don't appear. Do you have any idea where everything might be going now?

Or should I just erase and install the game all over again?

[AudreyAwesome]

 woh thaks! i got rid of 850 objects!

[chetanhaobijam]

Back when I was a nooboo to Sims3 game, I didn't even know what to do to those cache files. I keep them as it is. And so my game keep crashing to desktop and my computer auto shut down. But now that I know it, I delete them everytime I close the game. My gameplay is somewhat fast now and is never crashing. I have just base game so there is no DCBackup in the sims3 folder. My computer is an old cheap slow one, so playing sims3 on it is hard for me. The game doesn't lag but it takes sometime to load a save file, house and lots. And the game rarely crash now when I keep the game  in create-a-sim and build mode for long time. Thanks to the forum for giving the tips about deleting the cache files.

[Jamie]

I have Nraas's Errortrap mod and when I was deleting these files, I found some files called "Script Error". Should I be worried about these or is there anything I can do with them?

[Tandrael]

Still no word of my problem? How can I know where my files and screenshots go? They don't go where they are supposed to go! I just can't find anything!

I bought a combo of sims and pets, then supernatural in a CD and downloaded ambitions from the EA page. I have files of test games and screenshots with all of those expansions, but something happened, I don't know what, and now I don't know where everything goes! I think I made a backup folder... But I can't find anything, and still, why would files go to a backup folder? Or maybe I don't know what to look for?

The good thing about this is that my game doesn't crash anymore  I used to delete caches every now and then because the game used to crash if I didn't, now well, I can't even find those caches!

[cathyknits]

I found a new folder - "FeaturedItems" - that has hundreds of thumbnails of (I'm guessing) in-game store items. Can these be safely deleted?

[Lisa46]

Best. Advice. Ever. I have been playing since 2011 and it was getting so slow... I thought it was just my computer and I'd have to live with it, but wow, it's fixed!

[stallias]

More than 450 CCbackup packages I was able to delete as well as the 4 cache files. I restarted my laptop, now to see if my game is faster.

EDIT: Well, the loading screen still loads in fits and spurts, but it's not taking eons anymore. Edit Town is much faster and smoother. Loading build/buy in the actual game took a few seconds longer to load, but seconds don't really matter. Gameplay itself is SO much better! Overall, I'm so grateful for this thread being here! Thanks!

[Lisa46]

Hi Stallias, welcome to the forum and glad all the moderators' work payed off!

[notjustabook]

Yikes, I had almost a gigabyte worth of files in the DC Backup folder. Excited to see if it makes a difference when I play.

EDIT: Oh wow, seems to be working like a charm. Loading times aren't improved (but then I do have a lot of CC), but the game runs very smoothly as far as I can see. Thanks for the info!