Load game error

Load game errors are errors which can occur in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval. It can also happen on other games of The Sims.

Cause
This occurs if The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval is unable to load the saved game or a town. This usually occurs if the file is corrupted. In fullscreen, there is a black background with the message. This background is gray in windowed mode. When this occurs, the message is displayed upon loading the game

''A serious error has occurred while loading. It is strongly recommended that you restart the application''

Note:  refers to the game The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval is trying to load such as   and



This can also occur when starting a new game in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval and if The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval is unable to load the town, the same message will also appear with the world file being corrupted such as.

Loading a game with a corrupted world file will also cause this message to appear. For example, loading a game that was saved in Sunset Valley when the Sunset Valley world file is corrupted.

Moving a file that has a town in the filename (Which is stored in  or  ) such as Sunset Valley will also cause a load game error.

In The Sims 3, if the saved game has too many characters in its name, a load game error will occur. If the game has a long name but manages to load, it can be played but an error code may occur if you try to save. This cannot be done in The Sims Medieval as the game will freeze at the Main Menu

Recovery
It is possible to recover from this. Windows and Mac OS X has a backup feature and if the current file is corrupted, the last save file (.sims3.backup & .tsm.backup) can be used.

Another way to recover this is to use a backup file that the user has copied and use that backup to load the game.

For .world files, it is suggested to reinstall The Sims 3 games or reinstall Riverview, Barnacle Bay or any town made in Create a world.

In other games
In The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, a load game error can also cause the game to crash.

In consoles, load game errors will occur if any of the following are true:
 * There is no save file.
 * The file is corrupted.
 * No memory card is inserted (PS2, GameCube and PSP).
 * Card is not recognized by game and/or system (PS2, GameCube and PSP).
 * File is stored on a Memory Stick but the system does not recognize it (Usually, this is caused by using a different file system such as NTFS).

Disabled games
Sometimes a game will be disabled and there will be an error but a message will not appear when the player tries to load it and the button will be grayed out. This is usually caused if the town does not exist in The Sims 3 as the game was saved in that EP such as Twinbrook and Bridgeport. For example, Twinbrook does not exist in High-End Loft/Design &amp; High-Tech, so trying to load a game that was saved in said world will cause it to be disabled while playing that Stuff Pack as well as later games without Ambitions installed. This is also a similar case if the player tries to load a game saved in Bridgeport without Late Night or China, France or Egypt without World Adventures.

Sometimes if a game is corrupted, this will also occur. The save is abnormal as the date reads 12:45AM instead of the date and the time as 12:00 AM regardless of the time the game was saved at. The household name would be Ramirez (The name "Ramirez" is unknown) instead of the original family name (i.e. if the Goth family was the player's household, it would display Ramirez instead of Goth) and the household description as "Lot description" instead of the family description. It would display that it cannot load the game and content does not exist even if that game was saved in the same version such as Generations.