Tutorial: Launcher Content Cleanup

Hello everyone.

This is a tutorial of how to make a fresh install of your sims3packs.

Sometimes you may have installed same content twice, or by accident installed content that you don't wish to install after all. This tutorial is about how to delete those duplicate/unwanted files.

Before you actually start to do anything to your game, read this tutorial through. By taking the actions mentioned you do it at your own risk, this is perfectly voluntary; no-one is forcing you to do it.

Very first step is to back up your saves, go to your MyDocs>Electronic Arts>Sims 3 and copy the Saves folder to desktop.

If that doesn't say anything to you, pic one here, depending on what system you run:

-For Windows Xp: C:/documents and settings/user name/my documents/electronic arts/the sims 3

- For Windows Vista/7: C:/users/user name/documents/electronic arts/the sims 3

- For Mac OS: /users/user name/documents/electronic arts/the sims 3

Then what you need to do is to download and install these two very helpful programs, Dashboard and CCleaner. They are perfectly safe, and I will show how to use them later on this tutorial.

Home page of Ccleaner

Direct download link for Ccleaner

Dashboard by Delphy from Mod the Sims

Ok, after you have installed/extracted those, I want you to go to your MyDocs>Electronic Arts>Sims 3 (see earlier) and locate these three folders:

- DCBackup

- DCCache

- Downloads

Take a look inside them, and don't get alarmed when you take a look at DCBackup, it is suppose to look to be full of these:

Those are the items, Sims, houses, all the things you have installed in The Sims 3 Launcher. To check out does this tutorial really do something or not, I suggest you open up DCBackup, press Ctrl+A to select all the files, and then look at the number down on the window, the amount of files. Memorize that number.

Then lets leave that folder for a second and start the actual process. Go find the Downloads folder, don't open it, just press it with right mouse button and select COPY (this is important, make sure to COPY, not cut) then right click on the DESKTOP and select PASTE, the computer should now make a copy of the folder to desktop.

After that is done, open up the LAUNCHER. In there, I want you to go to INSTALLED CONTENT, not downloads. Wait that it loads all, then select all, and uninstall them. (You have the copies at desktop, so it should be safe)

After un-installation is complete, go to Downloads section in LAUNCHER, select all files and delete them. (Again, you have the backups at desktop if you have done like told, So it should be safe)

Then go back to the folders we started with, open Downloads, and check that it is empty, if it's not, empty it by hand. (Delete the files)

Then, open up DCCache and delete all the files in there. Do this same to DCBackup. As a result, all three folders should be empty, check that they are.

Now we can start to learn how to use those programs I made you get. Let's start with Dashboard. Go to the folder you extracted it, and double click the "Sims3Dashboard" to run the program. It should look like this:

The part of the program we are mostly interested now is the one with number 1 (one). As an explanation to what those files are, I borrow the words on one tutorial at MTS:

"Cache files are temporary files that are saved by the game to make loading certain information faster. If these files have incorrect or corrupted data, it may prevent your game from loading. The game will regenerate fresh copies of these files each time it loads, so deleting them is perfectly safe, and it's normal for them to reappear."

Now, what you need to do, is to press the button marked as number 1. It will ask if you want to delete all the caches, just answer yes. The list above the button shouldn't have numbers anymore, just zeros.

Then we might as well take care of your package file lag all at the same, press number 2 to refresh the list, then scroll it down to see if there are any bad files. If there are, press number 3 to repair the selected files. (You can do this anyways, it doesn't break anything)

Now that part should be done, you can close Dashboard.

Then we open up CCleaner. It should look like this: (sorry mine is Finnish, but the buttons are all at the same places)

Open up the Register part of the program. The cleaner is very useful too, but irrelevant to this tutorial. Press button number 1 to Find register errors. It should make a list above the buttons. Once the search is done, press button number 2, it will ask you if you want to back up you registry. If you are a first time user, or just unsure, do it. After that should pop up a question whether you want to repair all the errors, select "yes to all" (Again I apologize if the words are not just the right ones, I translate them from Finnish). After repair is done, repeat the steps 1 and 2 as many times as it takes to get a fresh clean list, like mine above. Then you can close up the program.

(You can restart computer at this point if you want, but it's not necessary)

We are almost at the finish. All you need to do now, is to put the Downloads folder back to its place. Cut it from the desktop, paste back to electronic arts/Sims 3 (see earlier) and then open up the launcher.

Now it would be good time to delete all the stuff you have suspicions to be bad. Before you install the content back, go through the list and see if there are any Sims with funky clothes from Exchange. By funky I mean ones that have made your babies look like blocks, toddlers deformed and so on. You don't really want that stuff back to your game. If you do delete Sims you won't be able to play the saves they were played in, but it's better to have clean game, than pretty Sims that mess it up.

After you have done this, install the content back to game by selecting them all, and pressing install.

Then go to DCBackup, where we started, Ctrl+A to select all the files, check out the amount of them. If the number has changed, you have actually deleted some old copies/bad files, and made your game better.

In my game, taking these actions deleted about 20 files, so it's improvement. Besides I haven't downloaded anything from exchange, so for people who have, the change might be bigger.

Run the game.

It should load up normal speed, or maybe little faster. In game don't get alarmed if it first acts little funny, invisible Sims and such, it's just that the game needs to make new caches.

Notice, that I don't take any responsibility for the actions you have taken by this tutorial. If you have forgotten a step, or done something wrong at some point, it's not my fault.

Regards, armiel

Proofread for mistakes by tomvanroosmalen

Thanks Delphy and Piriform for amazing very useful programs, Tom for correcting the language.

Also, what I would like you to do, Is this:

If you have tried this method, make a comment here, so other people can see how it went. When commenting keep in mind that things like "this sucks" aren't very helpfull. Be more precise and mention why it sucks..