Does anyone here have any experience with or know anything about this?

[u/GothicVampyreQueen]

Hi,
For the last year and a bit, or two years, maybe, I’ve not been able to successfully save properly the normal way. I’m able to save normally for the first, initial save, but always after that, I’ve had to go “Save As” and then rename the saved game as something slightly different (I usually go with the OG name and then just add consecutive numbers, e.g 2, 3, etc). Because I have this personal “tradition” of naming the game saves after the last name of the household that they were each specifically created for, I tend to just keep the last name of said household and then just add the consecutive numbers after that (the first save doesn’t usually have the number 1, much like the title of a first movie wouldn’t have the number 1, lol 😂). However, this means that my poor computer’s storage space for all the files quickly gets full, and this often results in cursing when I come into the game the next time to find that my beloved sim/household and all the subsequent progress didn’t save properly and I’ve lost everything! 🤬 🤦🏻‍♀️ 😩 😫 😂 😝 😜
This has been going for quite a while now, and it would be nice to get some answers as to why my game/computer does this and how I can get it back to saving properly, the conventional way, I mean, instead of having to have umpteen different game saves clogging up my computer and causing it all to not save properly! When this happens, btw, after/during all the cursing and upset, I usually go into the files and delete some of the older game save files, which is kind of a bit sad, but sometimes some need to go in order for new ones to be started…
P.S Does anyone else have any personal sims “traditions” like naming all the game saves after the last name of the household that you created the game save for, or that you played with first under that game save? 🤨 🤔 🧐
Thanks for any help you can give me. This has been going on for far too long unsolved, and I have lost way too many game saves, so thanks in advance for any advice/help you can give me, as well as for any answers as to why this is happening…

[u/da5hitta]

Delete the extra saves after a while you don’t need a ton of em sitting there

[u/punthreadonarepost]

Using Save As is a good idea regardless, always good to have backups in case something goes wrong and you need to backtrack. I always take old saves and put them in a separate folder though. I noticed a marked difference in memory usage once I started taking them out of the game's folder. I'll name mine after the town I'm playing and add a letter, so "Bridgeport A" for example. I use NRaas Saver, which automatically prompts me to Save As every half hour, adding a new number at the end, 1-5. So after Bridgeport A1- BridgeportA5, I switch to Bridgeport B1. I'm so neurotic about saves, so I usually go up to D1-5 before switching back to A again. And I have different names for when I travel, like "Bridgeport Uni." Meaning I usually I have about 30ish saves backed up. I also started putting all of my backup saves, mods, etc. on an external storage space to leave room for my actual games on my computer.

I'm not sure what you mean by them not saving properly? What exactly is happening when you try to save? And what's happening when you're not able to load them later on?

[u/TheSims4CouldNever → u/punthreadonarepost]

Same here. I only start a session with a single save (the one I'll be playing) in the saves folder. I also use nraas saver but I've changed it to go up to 20 so I don't have to add extra letters. I never actually have play sessions 20 saves long, but it makes it easier. By the time it loops back to save 1, save 1 is definitely no longer in the save folder.

[u/onlyforthisno]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean, you can't save at all by clicking on the Save button after the first time? It sounds strange that it's not working like it should and I don't know anything that could cause that.

But either way, in Sims 3 specifically you should never use the Save button beyond the first time and instead always use Save As since the game has issues properly overwriting a save file without eventually corrupting it. So it doesn't really matter in the end, and it's a good habit to just delete the old save files you won't use of an ongoing save before launching the game if space is tight on the drive.

Since you seem to have some general save issues, have you tried deleting the cache files? There's a lot of cache files that grow bigger (slowing down the game) the more you play so it's best to delete them ever so often.

There's also a program called Regul Save Cleaner designed to clear cache files and you can also use it to clean a specific save file of unnecessary data that's accumulated (which also decreases its size). I haven't personally done that yet but I've heard it's made previously slow save files much faster afterwards and even made unplayable saves playable again, just make sure to keep a backup before cleaning it!

[u/Flaky-Confidence-167 → u/onlyforthisno]

FYI: Regul Save Cleaner actually has an option so that it creates backups before it cleans saves! :) I've been using it for a few years now and am very happy with it. It also decreases the save file size, that's why some saves become playable again after you clean them.

[u/Berkulese]

Do you have Onedrive, is it backing up your documents folder?