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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Jan 2019 at 11:28 AM Last edited by Czarna07911 : 5th Jan 2019 at 1:30 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Problem with Downloads folder, vanishing sims3packs
Hello. I play in sims 3 since years, I had many issues in the past but fortunately, I usually managed to resolve them, but I never dealt with the problem I have today and I can't seem to find anyone with a similar situation. So recently I wanted to install a few new custom contents (sims3packs) and I noticed that my launcher doesn't show any of my downloads. I then want to investigate Downloads folder in My Documents and found it completely wiped out (only Downloads my Saves, Saved Sims, Caches, Mods (package files) and other stuff was on it's the usual place). Instead of many sims3packs I had there I found 2 bin files (nav.bin and [email protected]) and file FSIViewCountTracking . I have no idea what caused this as I didn't update my game recently, nor change language, and of course like a dumbo I am I forgot to backup my Downloads folder. Of course, I was mildly saying irritated and scanned folder with Recuva to retrieve my content, but it didn't find anything. I updated my computer, thinking that this might help, but it didn't. Finally, I launched the game thinking that all my CC will be gone also from there, only to find nothing missing, everything is still in my game, not in the folder though Anyway I deleted files I found in Downloads, but after launching the game they came back. So my question to you is what could cause it and more important, how can I retrieve my missing sims3packs (if it's even possible, an important note I regularly cleaned my DCBackup folder so unfortunately using it now is not an option), or if I can't, what can I do to secure content that already is in my game, because it few times happen to me that sims3pack files suddenly decided to uninstall themselves, and if this will happen now I'll have totally screwed. I will really appreciate your help and helpful advice.
EDIT: I forgot to say that I always play offline.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 5th Jan 2019 at 1:42 PM
The content in your Downloads folder (when it's not disappearing on you, that remains a mystery) is not accessed by the game. Only the Launcher reads that folder and displays what it pending to be installed, that which is already installed is also displayed but the files still being there would be redundant. The sims3pack content that is already installed lives in your DCCache Folder in automatically arranged bundles, dbc files for custom content and ebc files for EA Store content ("e" is for encrypted). This is what the game reads on startup and why your content is still in play.

Many of us manually clear out our Downloads folder on purpose once things are all installed to give the Launcher less to worry about on startup. The small files you see there are not content and will regenerate if removed.

Afraid I don't know of any way to extract already installed content from those DCCache files if the original sims3packs have not been safely stored elsewhere.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 15th Jan 2019 at 12:44 PM
Sorry for such late answer and thank you so much for your help, now I know that to not lose my content I have to make backup of my cache folder, and with rest I'll see, maybe I will slowly start to collect my content sim3packs again (this time backing it up properly) and then clear the cache and install it back, I'll see. Anyway, one more time thank you for the answer and explaining how those things work .
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