How To Take Care Of Your Sims Save File

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[00:00:00] Gloria from Yellow Llama Co.: Welcome to Sentimental Simmer, a podcast made for emotionally attached simmers and storytellers with wild imaginations. I’m your host, Gloria, and I run Yellow Llama Co., a planner shop made to help simmers play with purpose. Every week, I talk all about things, sim life planning, storytelling, and memory keeping. I’ll also brainstorm new ways to obsess over our pixel people, whether they’d be in the Sims or another live sim game. And now let’s get into it. Today, we’re going to talk about the most scary thing that can happen to a Simmer. Really the worst thing. I mean, apart from maybe The game crashing when you haven’t clicked on save.

Gloria [00:00:47]:

But it’s it’s really up there. Like, it’s a strong contender. It’s basically the corrupted save file. This is something we I mean, I don’t know if it’s happened to everyone in Sims 1, but Since Sims 2, for sure, it’s been a big issue. Something us simmers have tried to get ahead of and tried to avoid and keep from happening and to prevent. And that’s what this episode is all about because we aren’t talking about any type of save file. We’re talking about our Sims Legacy family save files. They are full of history and importance, and we do not want to lose them by any means.

Gloria [00:01:24]:

We don’t wanna lose all that history, all that story, all that goodness that we’ve built and taken so long to to create. Right? I mean, it could take years. I have this Five gen legacy in the Sims 3 that I’m holding on to and will never let go. And I’m hoping, like, eventually, I’ll get to gen gen 10. But I worked hard to get there, and I’m actually scared to play that safe file because I’m scared that, you know, Sims 3 will get buggy on me as it, you know, Usually does eventually, and yeah. So let’s take a breather. Let’s center ourselves. Let’s you know? I know it’s hard.

Gloria [00:02:02]:

It’s not an easy topic, but we have to confront it head first. It’s super important. We do like, it’s worse If we confront this when it happens and we we don’t know what to do, which I actually have a solution for as well. At the end of the episode, I will be getting into what to do if all has failed, and you just need a solution. So first and foremost, save file hygiene. Super important. I’m gonna talk about the general rule of thumbs that are relevant for any game, whether you’re playing on Sims 2, 3, or 4, or even, you know, Life by You maybe in the future. I think, so I’m recording this

Gloria [00:02:39]:

right now. It hasn’t been released yet, and I can’t wait till it is. But this is valid probably just as much for that game Or for Paralives or any game you’re playing that is full of history and and content you don’t don’t wanna lose. So 1st and foremost, this is really a a rule of life, always make backups. Back up your save files and your game files. I recommend using a dedicated software to do this so that, you know, you can just set it and forget it and really make sure that you have those regular saves and you don’t lose them. Also, back up your Sims, the families, and their homes as well. So depending on the game you’re playing, You can save these to the gallery or to the to the game library bin.

Gloria [00:03:23]:

You could also export tray files as well that you can save to another hard drive so that you’re not just backing up the the Sims and the families generally in your game, but also physically, kind of digitally, however you wanna call it, so that you can have them safe somewhere where the game can’t mess with them, can’t corrupt them. So So you have those backups, and they’re gonna be important later on in the episode when I touch on solutions for for Armageddon. And one thing you might also want to save are mementos of your Sims legacy families, such as paintings or any handmade items or photos of Sims. In the Sims 3, I love that you could create statues of your Sims. That was brilliant. And you won’t don’t wanna lose these things. So At least in The Sims 4, I think you can just simply upload these items to the gallery within a room. In that way, you can keep them together.

Gloria [00:04:18]:

And if anything ever happened, you won’t lose those items. So for example, if a lot gets corrupted, which can happen. Right? It’s In these games, it’s not as simple as a corrupted save file. It can be a corrupted lot. With this For Rent Pack, which at the time of this recording was released If I think about about 2 months ago, and I haven’t really been able to play with a good conscience I mean, I still am because I just can’t let go of this family I’m playing. Also a potential legacy. We’re only a generation 2, but I have high hopes for them. But you’re going to want to safe keep items as well and rooms and or even family homes because before the For Rent Pack, just to take as an example, has been messing up lots and, well, save files in general.

Gloria [00:05:08]:

But if it’s maybe just a lot, that could have been a really important lot that you just now lost because of a patch update or whatever. And so you might wanna have a backup of that explicit thing, so not just save files or sims, but, you know, items, lots, and whatnot as well. Anything that you are attached to, make a backup. Also, as a good, you know, save file hygiene is to actually save the game under the option save as instead of overriding your current save file. So, of course, you’re gonna override it maybe 4 times or I don’t know. But then, like, let’s say the 5th time, you save as. I actually just always save as, and I have, like, this one save file. It’s called saved file c because I’m creative.

Gloria [00:05:07]:

Not c for creative, but because I’m I’m at it’s sarcasm. Okay? And I always just call it save file c 1, save file c 2. And then when it’s, like, 10 or whatever, I just Start all over again, and I delete the old ones. In that way, you have a fresh save in increments if you save, like, I say every, like, Maybe 30 minutes, and you can get a mod that reminds you to do this as well. Then you know for sure. Like, maybe if the issue happened 2 hours into playing, The you know, save file I don’t know. See, 3 is probably still gonna be good because you see the date when it was saved and all that. So that’s a tip as well.

Gloria [00:06:23]:

And, of course, nothing’s stopping you from documenting all that history you’ve created, all those stories outside of the game. So you can do this in a journal and a family tree app. That’s It’s what I recommend. And while, of course, I love my templates that I’ve created and the Sims planner, I, you You know, recommend those, of course, if you wanna, you know, jazz things up. You can also just use a plain notebook or a Google Doc or OneNote for free. You don’t need my templates To to use that to save all that history and to organize screenshots and give them a place, a home basically. Together with a family tree app, which there are also many options, I recommend the My Family Tree app by Chronoplex. Together, these are strong options to really save what you’ve done in the game, what your families have experienced, all that rich history, all that lore that you’ve created, it survives even the worst corrupted file.

Gloria [00:07:17]:

That way, if you ever do have to start over, let’s hope not, you at least know what happened, and you have screenshots, and there’s proof that those lives were lived, that the history was made even if the save file and the actual family Home doesn’t exist anymore or that family tree that, you know, is lost also with the save file. If it’s corrupted, you can’t access the in game family tree anymore. But if you have kept a log of that family tree externally with an app, for example, then it’s only half as bad. Right? We’re trying to minimize The the trauma here. And another big important point about safe out hygiene, I know it’s not easy and We can get a bit lax on this, but it is keeping mods in cc to a minimum, and most importantly, keeping them up to date. Now just as much as we love to go on a shopping spree and downloading a crap ton of cc, it’s equally important to invest Time in organizing that CC and, you know, having good habits. For example, if you download I download CC in bulk, for example, And then I make sure to organize it in my folders how I personally categorize them, so I categorize them by type. So if it’s just normal CC then it’s, you know, built by or clothing, accessories, whatnot. And I do this in bulk right after I went on my 2 hour shopping spree.

Gloria [00:08:37]:

And so I just get it done before I even open the game and use anything. And it’s annoying. It takes like a good depending on how much I downloaded, a good 20 minutes to to do, but, yeah, it’s it’s just important. It’s good for peace of mind, and it keeps you organized because, you know, a corrupt file might be based off of bad cc. You You might be noticing things are wonky. For example, I don’t know why, but a lot of my Sims are, like, walking around without tops and bottoms, and I don’t know if what what’s going on there. I have to figure that out, but, Nah. There’s a lot I have to update somewhere.

Gloria [00:09:10]:

That’s, you know, wreaking havoc. Always keep them up to date and keep them organized. And so in regards to organization, I wrote a blog post about this, how I organize my mods. I can recommend looking to that. I’ll leave a link in the show notes. And also the Sims 4 mod manager is great for the Sims 4, and CC Magic is a great app if you’re working with the Sims 3. CC Magic Even improves the performance and loading time of your game by consolidating the cc into 1 package file before the game loads. So I really recommend that.

Gloria [00:09:09]:

It also organizes the cc. It’s brilliant. So that’s those are my tips on keeping organized. To keep up To date, for the Sims 4, I recommend the mod list by Scarlett to really quickly reference your mods and update them and see the compatibility status because it can Be a lot maybe if you have, like me, 100 plus mods actively in your game and you don’t wanna click on every creator’s individual link. Her list is great just to have a general overview of what actually has been updated, what do I actually need to change, and then I then I move forward with going to the creator’s website. I also recommend using Airtable to organize and keep track of your mods. I also mentioned in my blog post how I use Airtable together with my folder organization system to stay on top of things and stay on top of the update status on my end. So you have the creator update status, of course, when they last updated the mod if it’s up to date and compatible with the patch.

Gloria [00:10:34]:

But then there’s my update status, like, when did I actually install that into my game. So they updated it on, let’s say, the 2nd February, and I last Updated mine in my Airtable I see on the 22nd January. Well, that means I don’t have the or the most up to date version anymore because I can see based off of my Airtable when I last installed it, and then I know, okay, I have to, you know, check this out and and install it. Also, sometimes patch updates break any, like, in game cc you can have, like remember there was a bug in the Sims 4 where, it broke beds when a patchg update kind of messed them up, the Sims four Studio app is actually great to use to fix everything in bulk. It has batch fixes that you can use to repair those items. Next, for save file hygiene, population control. So This is especially true, I think, in the Sims 3. It got real heavy and in the Sims 4 now as well.

Gloria [00:11:32]:

The longer you play, you can tend to overpopulate a world quickly. If you have story progression on, then The files can bloat quite quickly if you have more and more Sims joining the world, more and more history that is being made, more metadata that’s being saved about these Sims, more inventories that are filling up with objects. It really tanks the performance of your game and ultimately can lead to errors later down the line and a corrupted save file. So I think one point here to make is to try to keep the population to a minimum in your save files. Like, this is easier, I think, in Sims 4 than Sims 3, because in Sims 4, you can actually regulate this in the manage households window where you can limit the maximum Sims count and all that good stuff. I’ll actually go into detail about how to manage these things for each game in specific, so the the best practices for each specific game in more detail on my blog post, so definitely check that out on the show notes about how, for example, calling works and How to, you know, minimize all that bloat in regards to population. It’s because it’s also different whether you’re playing Sims 3 or the Sims 4. In general, Whether it’s gonna probably be relevant for life by you as Yellow, keeping the population down or, let’s say, just to a reasonable amount will definitely be nicer for your PC, but also probably keep the save file from becoming corrupted.

Gloria [00:12:53]:

Also, use tools where possible. Like I said in the blog post, I’ll go into detail which ones for which Sims game. Core maintenance mods are great that From the get go, clean your file regularly or mods that analyze your game and report when you have errors so that you know, oop, I have duplicate CC or I have some mods that aren’t compatible with the latest patch. Let me go look into that. Or mods that give you more control over your worlds, For example, population that help you then ultimately prevent them from bloating. To summarize, for save file hygiene’s general rule of thumbs, Always make backups, keep your mods and cc to a minimum and always up to date, control your population, make sure those Sims don’t, You know, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow exponentially so that you have a world that’s just bursting from the seams, and use tools where possible. So I’ll go into detail in the blog post about, you know, exactly which mods for which game, which, you know, more maybe tips and links and stuff like that for these areas that you can reference. So those are the game specific best practices.

Gloria [00:14:00]:

I’ll list these as well as, you know, helpful Tips for population control, core maintenance mods, and whatnot on my blog. But even with the best intentions, worlds can still get big and laggy. You know, you have an old save, Inventory accumulates as lots of Sims data. What can you do? Start fresh wherever you can. So for example, as I mentioned before, you know, when saving your progress, use the save as to create a fresh file instead of overriding the current save file. So that is not only good in terms of making the backup, but it also creates an entirely new file. So if the file beforehand was buggy for some reason, then that might help. Also for the Sims 3, you can use the, Regul Save Cleaner by OneBuild.

Gloria [00:14:40]:

I think it cleans out metadata of some sort. I don’t really understand how it works in But it’s great. It really feels like it freshens up your save file. I’ve done it a couple Sims, and I do feel as if my safe falls were quicker and and, like, speedier after doing that. And so it’s doing some sort of magic, and so I can definitely recommend. And what can also help is starting in a new world. So starting fresh could mean, you know, quick clean with, that cleaner app or moving your Sims to an entirely new world. So in The Sims 3, you can do this quite easily with the NRAAS Porter mod, it is a mod that you can use to package entire legacy families and move them to a new world.

Gloria [00:15:21]:

Of course, in Sims 3 new world is actually a new save file, whereas, you know, in the Sims 4, it’s literally a new world within the same save file. But in this case, in the Sims 3, You’re moving your your Sims to a new world, or even it could be the same world, but just a fresh version of it. Right? And the beauty of the NRAAS Porter is that it’s Even if you port multiple households, you know, because you wanna keep the entire family and all family members together, the relationship ties remain. And that’s really the best part about it. I had this old save file with, in the Island Paradiso world, which we all know is the most buggy thing. I think that The Sims has ever come and ever built, at least in the in terms of worlds. So, of course, after playing hours and hours on ending that world. I had to get my family out of there stat.

Gloria [00:16:07]:

So I moved Pamira. I moved her daughter. Oh, no. Yeah. Pamira was the daughter, and I moved Florita, which was the mom. I moved them all, kit and caboodle, into a new world, and there they can be Safe and continue to live on without the, you know, burden of that was Island Paradiso. I love that mod, and it’s great if you want a new start, But you wanna keep your Sims. But last but not least, sometimes we have to face the truth.

Gloria [00:16:35]:

What if your save file is corrupted beyond rescue? You’ve done everything you could. Save file hygiene was on point. You started fresh a couple Sims, but for some reason, your save isn’t opening anymore, Or your sims are being weird and aren’t stopping being weird after you update all your mods. Things are just not working. Game is crashing. And so what can you do if your save file’s corrupted, but you don’t have a backup? Oh my god. Co safe while hygiene was on point, but maybe some backups are lost or maybe you weren’t so good with backups. Maybe, you know, You missed a couple, and you don’t you can’t rely on a backup.

Gloria [00:17:16]:

Well, let’s make lemonade out of lemons. There are creative ways to work with what you got Even if what you got is zilch. It’s just, like, your heart you get you have the memory of of your Sims. They’re in your heart. You know, you’ve you’ve you’ve got love for them. That’s all that’s left, and everything else is gone. And you got a record of them in your OneNote. And so you know who they are, you know who’s missing, but You don’t actually have the Sims anymore.

Gloria [00:17:14]:

You don’t have the save file. What do you do? If all else fails and you’re forced to abort your current save file, Pretend it was fate. Make something up. Take this as an opportunity to turn tragedy into a story line. So there’s this simmer I like to follow on Twitter. Her name Sims Anneisha, and she had a legacy family home, and I swear she has Such a huge generation, a legacy family. It’s like so many generations. It’s really goals.

Gloria [00:18:03]:

And, unfortunately, their family home became corrupt in some way or form. I don’t remember the details, but I know, you know, she had an issue there. She had to figure things out. And so she ended up just rolling with the punches and created a story about a storm that destroyed everything and weaved that basically into the family’s new reality, into her gameplay. And so she just rebuilt basically the lot, I think, to what she could remember and, you know, of course, things weren’t exactly as it was before, and she explained it away saying that a storm had came. So I think that is fun. Like, you could turn something that is initially who, like, oh my God, devastating, right, into something that actually can further enrich your story. Right? So that’s super fun and super cool and can turn trauma into something good, I guess.

Gloria [00:18:50]:

Right? So here are some storyline ideas or scenarios you could use to continue your legacy despite having a corrupted file. So we have the time warp. Here, the story is that the corruption caused a time warp sending your legacy family back several generations. They must now navigate life in a different era while trying to find a way back to their own time. And so here, great opportunities to start some historical gameplay, right, And download some cool worlds to fit the bill. And so I found already some worlds for the Sims 3. For the blog, I’ll See if I can find some for Sims 2 and Sims 4. But for Sims 3, there’s such beautiful worlds out there that you can use.

Gloria [00:19:37]:

Northerney by Norn, for example. It’s so nice. It doesn’t even have any roads, So it’s so true to the time. Praaven Reworked by Potato Ballad Sims and edited by Sims Midgeon and Norn are also beautiful is also a beautiful world, and there are many more. And so I’ll leave that in the blog so you can check that out. Another storyline you could roll with is rebuilding from ashes. The family discovers they are the last survivors of a mysterious event that wiped out their neighborhood. They must rebuild their lives from scratch, facing challenges and uncovering the truth behind the catastrophe.

Gloria [00:20:11]:

So apocalypse world. Right? Something like survival, you know, maybe some zombie stuff you can work with here. And so I already found a ton of worlds for the Sims 3 and 2 that would work well here. Beautiful worlds. Please check them all out. Just some like, I can throw a few names here. We have Roseward by Nighyulkins. We have Miner’s Cove by LilyJosephine.

Gloria [00:20:35]:

So those Sims 3 worlds and then the Sims 4, we have Dead End 1.0 by Florwalsims. Brilliant World maker for the Sims 4. Always very realistic, very gritty, and real. And so who best to make an apocalypse world than floralwalsims, so definitely check that out. The next scenario, parallel universe. The family finds themselves in a parallel universe where everything is slightly off. They must adapt to the new world’s quirks and find a way back to their original universe. So here, for example, basically, 1 or more of your Sims Family members, depending on if you had backup tray files or not, They find themselves in a new in a brand new save file, but it’s the same world where they were before.

Gloria [00:21:26]:

So this, For example, it would work super well in the Sims well, out Sims 3 and the Sims 4. I mean, any one in Sims 2 as well. But, basically, we have, In Sims 3, you know, your classic worlds we played in was Sunset Valley or Appaloosa Plains was my personal favorite. Well these have been reimagined by simmers, So we have, for example, Riverview Reimagined by Vic Sims 3. We have Sunset Valley renovated as well as Appaloosa Plains renovated by Plumbob 95. So you can actually legit not only use the same world, but you can use a world that is truly Parallel universe because they’re like different builds, different Sims maybe exist in that world, maybe time has moved on in that world. And so Everything’s the same, but kinda not. And so you can have fun with that parallel universe kind of story line.

Gloria [00:22:16]:

In the Sims four, it’s pretty Natural as well. I I know there are plenty of, you know, save file versions that either play on, oh, yes. There was There’s this one save file by Charlie Pancakes 10 years later, and it’s basically all the worlds we know, the base game ones. So we have Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, and Newcrest, if I’m not mistaken. And so it’s base game, no cc, and by Charlie Pancakes, and it’s basically Everything 10 years later. So the families have progressed, new, you know, back stories and relationships, super fun, And perfect for this story line. And last but not least, another scenario and probably the most true to the game, Alien encounter. The family or maybe just 1, you know, family member has been abducted by aliens.

Gloria [00:23:04]:

They wake up and find themselves in a new world, on a new planet where nothing will ever be the same. And so I already found some Sims 3 worlds that could work great great with this, by Kronor, Satornorn by Satorreja 13, Simmer and Norn. So these are 2, like, sci fi esque Worlds, I think one’s a bit dark. The other one’s very sparkly and purply, but definitely both are very alien. So perfect for this type of legacy family new destiny, alien encounter. Obviously, these scenarios work best if you also have your Sims to fall back on. So if you playing the Sims 4, for example, you have your legacy family members maybe saved, uploaded to the gallery, you know, for each life stage or maybe just generally, And then you can change the life stage when you reimport them into your game. In the Sims 3, you can, I think, export tray files of your Sims, so that’s a way to to keep them safe if ever anything were to happen that you have that particular sim that you can start fresh with in a completely new scenario? So I hope these tips help you, for 1, uphold and maintain good save file hygiene and how Important it is because we do not want the trauma of a corrupted save file.

Gloria [00:24:25]:

Unfortunately, I think no matter how much you do, there will always be that chance of a corrupted save file, but hopefully, you can refer back to a backup or perhaps just overriding the file helps, you know, or some sort of, let’s say, stay fresh option that I listed, whether it’s cleaning the save file or, just With the maybe barely still working world, import your family real quick to a new one, and then all is good because you can still save the actual legacy. But if all else fails, I hope those scenario ideas give you something to play with so that maybe not even a big, you know, thing. Big It’s so bad if you do lose a save out because it gives you a fun opportunity to really switch things up literally in a new world, in a totally new atmosphere, and in storyline. In the next episode, we’re going to be talking about how we can share our stories with each other. And I think this is a great way to to stick with a save file because it it’s kind of like holding each other accountable, but in a fun way. Until then, Happy Simming!