Help! Sims 3 Store Download Failed

[J0ttyD0tty]

I have just bought and installed The Sims 3 Starter Pack (basic game, Late Night Expansion and High-End Loft Stuff). I then went to the Sims 3 store and bought a couple of items in the sale as well as some free stuff. Most has downloaded OK but two (Grandpa's Grove and the bonus Date Night Clothing) won't download. I get a message 'There was an error while downloading content. Please see the Log for more details.' I eventually managed to find a log, but it doesn't make any sense to me - I only understand basic computer usage.

I have searched for answers and tried various things but nothing is working.

I tried downloading some free items to see and they downloaded without a problem it is just the two sets mentioned above. I am at a total loss of what else to do. I tried to find a way to contact support but couldn't find any way to get in touch (that worked - one link that looked like it might be it just took me to a Yahoo search page). I am in the UK (don't know if that makes a difference for support).

I have everything crossed someone on here can help me sort this out - in simple, easy for me to understand terms

[Perturbee]

I've had this only once, so this might not work for you.

Open the Sims 3 launcher, check if there is an item listed that you bought and failed.
If so, remove it (and also .../My Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims3/Downloads/NameOfPackage.Sims3Pack), then return to the Sims 3 site, go to the store, account, your purchases and initiate the download again, but one by one.

I hope this helps.

Official help is given through EA's main support site. https://help.ea.com/article/troubleshoo ... oads-on-pc

[J0ttyD0tty]

Thanks for answering.

Unfortunately it doesn't work for me as it hasn't got as far as starting to download and I couldn't see anything that had failed.

I have tried all the info on the page you gave me the link to but that hasn't helped either.

I will have to hope that I can get somewhere with EA support.

If you think of anything else I can try I would appreciate it if you let me know. Thanks

[Perturbee]

(...)
I have tried all the info on the page you gave me the link to but that hasn't helped either.

I will have to hope that I can get somewhere with EA support.

If you think of anything else I can try I would appreciate it if you let me know. Thanks

There is a support contact link on the right side of that page. This leads to https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/ask then you'll have to work through a few steps before you can send an email to them.

I hope this helps.

[J0ttyD0tty]

Thanks for the link.

I couldn't see an email address but have been in touch with them. Unfortunately they weren't able to help, they had me try loads of things, the last thing actually caused me problems with my PC (being novice and not having a clue), got it sorted now hopefully. I am doing more searching online to see if I can figure out the problem myself. If not I will have to get in touch with them again.

I wonder if the origin thingy (technical term lol) and the Sim Launcher might need updating. I installed from disc and from what I have read it seems like the problem might be something do with these not updating the game as it should. Whenever I open the Sim Launcher I get an error message 'Unable to connect to the EA Download Manager'. When I close the message it all seemed to work OK, but when I clicked on 'refresh' for the game updater I get the same message. It says the game is up to date, but I thought there should have been an update after installing from the disc. I am thinking of deleting the Origin thingy and reinstalling, once I find a link to it and fingers crossed that solves the problem.

It would help if I were more knowledgeable about PC's and not going through a stress patch that is making it hard for me to think.

[Hufflepuff Karen]

If you are downloading off of discs, there are usually some patches and things that came out after the discs were made. Did you register your game? Usually, once you register, it will check to see if you need a patch or update. That being said, my last one was a little glitchy, I just waited a few days and tried again and it worked the second time. I found that it's better to install the base game, get patches and updates, then install your next expansion pack, get those updates, then move on to the next one. It seems to get confused if you install them all at once.

[J0ttyD0tty]

I did register the game, but didn't get any patches. I did install the three discs (base, Late Night expansion and High End stuff), one after the other so I wonder if that screwed something up. It did take ages to get them installed, I kept thinking it had jammed but eventually they all finished. I have never had an update/patch message and I have opened the launcher a number of times trying to get my two packs downloaded.

The couple of times I have started the game it asks for the Late Night expansion disc to be put in first, even though I haven't played with that bit yet (just installed it). Is that normal or does it indicate a problem?

[Hufflepuff Karen]

When you play the Sims 3 and it was installed from a disc, it makes you put the latest disc in. If you only have the base game, you would have to put that disc in. If you have the base game and 3 expansion packs, you put in the latest expansion pack (the newest release pack, not necessarily the one you bought last). It used to be you could not install them out of order, so if you bought Sims3 and the first and third packs, if you went back and bought the second one, you had to uninstall the third one, install the second one and then reinstall the third one. But they supposedly fixed that and you can install them in any order after the base game is installed. But the newest, most recent released pack that you own is the one you need to have in the slot. I don't know what happens with the downloaded versions, because I only get them on disc. Hopefully somebody here has experience with the downloaded versions.

[J0ttyD0tty]

Thanks, I am glad to know that it is normal. I was wondering what was going to happen when I installed the next expansion.

I decided to wait until tomorrow to delete and re-install Origin, couldn't face sorting it out tonight.

[J0ttyD0tty]

All sorted, yeah!

In case anyone else has the same problem, it was as simple as the game needing an update/patch. For some reason the Sims 3 launcher was saying my game was up to date and an error not refreshing it. I found and manually installed super patch 1.63 (which took hours) and then my two packs downloaded. Of course I had to buy something else just to make sure it was still working

I am very surprised that during the 45 minutes live chat with customer services trying to sort out the problem they didn't think to check the version of my game or suggest I needed an update. When I was calm and thought about it logically it seemed the most obvious thing to check.

Now to figure out how I actually play the game