What happens to the content I already downloaded?

The creations you’ve downloaded and saved to your console will still be in your game. But if you uninstall or delete them, you won’t be able to download them again.

What if I uninstall a The Sims 3 DLC, will I be able to reinstall?

Yes! If you need to reinstall your content, The Sims 3 and the DLC including the Hairstyles Pack and Ultra Lounge Pack will be available to download from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Marketplace.

What happens to my online pass?

If you have The Sims 3 Online Pass downloaded onto your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, you can keep playing The Sims 3 offline. If you need to re-download The Sims 3, you don’t need to add the Online Pass to your Download Queue.

Give your friend a gift through their Wishlist

1. Visit your friend's profile page on TheSims3.com.
2. Click on their Wishlist.
   • You can also search for your friend’s Wishlist by their name under Find a Wishlist in the Store.  
3. Choose the item you would like to buy for them.
4. Select Gift this Item.
5. Follow the steps on-screen to complete your gift purchase.

Give your friend a gift through TheSims3.com store:

1. Go to http://store.thesims3.com/.
2. Find the item you want to buy for your friend. 
3. On the right of the page, select Gift this Item.
4. Follow the steps on-screen to complete your gift purchase.
   • You can also do this in-game while you’re playing The Sims 3.

1. Log in to The Sims 3 website.
2. Click My Page, and choose My Account.
3. Click Store Account Information.
4. Find Purchase History in the lower left-hand window and click it.
5. You should now see all items you have bought on your account.
6. You can re-download these items anytime.

Downloading and installing your new items

Anything you buy from The Sims 3 Store or click Add to Game from the Exchange is automatically sent to your Launcher.

Items are not ready to install until you see a proper icon for the item you want to download.

A box icon like in this picture means the item is still downloading.

To get your new stuff to show up in your game, you need to download it from the Launcher first.

Here’s how:

1. On the Launcher, click Downloads.
2. Find your new items in the list, and check the box beside each one you want to install.
3. Click on Install. Once installed, these items will show up under Installed Content.

Finding your new items in-game

New items usually show the end of each list they appear in. Items you got from The Sims 3 Store have a small Plumbob icon on the lower corner of the image to help you spot them.

You can also choose only to show items you got from The Sims 3 Store or The Sims 3 Exchange by clicking on the Custom Content button on the upper right of most windows.

• If you’re on Windows, make sure you’re running the Launcher as an administrator.
• Try exiting and restarting the Launcher.
• Clear your browser’s cache.
• Try a different Internet browser.

If you’re on PC and your downloaded items are saving to your Desktop (or anywhere on your computer other than the Launcher), follow these steps:

1. Right-click on your downloaded item.
2. Click Properties.
3. Find the Opens With option, and click the Change button beside it.
4. Select Sims 3 Launcher from the list of applications.
5. Make sure the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file box is checked, then click OK.
6. Double-click your items to add them to the Launcher.

Sometimes you can miss a permission request from your browser when you try downloading something. In case that’s what’s happening, try this:

1. Open the Sims 3 Launcher and log into your account.
2. Select Go to Store (this should open The Sims 3 website).
3. Select an item to download, and click Download.
   1. If you get a pop-up asking Do you want to allow this website to open a program on your computer? click Allow.
4. The launcher should open and download your item.

If you’re only having trouble with downloading one item from the Exchange, it may be a problem with the item itself. Find it on the Exchange and click Report Item to let us know about it.

If you can’t see an item you downloaded in-game, try this:

1. Open The Sims 3 Launcher and select Run without Custom content.
2. Start the game, then exit it again.
3. Go back to the Launcher and deselect Run without Custom content.
4. Start the game again and you may now be able to see your missing content in-game.

If you still can’t find your customer content in-game, you may want to try moving your .ebc files (your custom content) from the DCCache folder and redownloading your items:

1. Find your DCCache folder. This should be located at: C:\Users\yourcomputerusername\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCCache on PC or /users/<username>/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ on Mac
2. Move all of the files with names ending with .ebc  from the DCCache folder to your desktop.
   1. If you’re on Mac, you can also choose to delete these files rather than moving them.
3. Download/Install the items again and check that a new file is created in the DCCache folder.
   1. If you’re on PC, move the *.ebc files back into the DCCache folder, overwriting the new ones.
   2. If you’re on Mac, and you’ve deleted the originals, you can skip this step.
4. Restart your computer, start The Sims 3 and you should now be able to see your items in-game.