Migrating The Sims 3 to the Origin Client

At some point in time, players are going to be faced with the question, "do I keep this game on Steam or migrate to Origin?" If you choose to migrate, this guide will help you avoid several of the potholes on the road. This guide DOES NOT prefer one client over the other, but is only here to keep you from ripping out your suspension (and hair). The guide is for PC.

Why Must I Choose? Isn't Steam Good Enough?

The short answer to this question is "sure", depending on whether you like taking advantage of sales from other vendors or not. Personally, I prefer Steam to Origin. It really chaps my hide when I cannot fully enjoy a game that I purchased from the vendor where I purchased it. But kind of like the browser wars of the 90s, the game client wars are in full swing and gamers are caught smack dab in the middle. Valve, EA, Ubisoft, and the rest are working hard to tie games into their clients and there isn't anything we gamers can do about it other than either not buying their games or learning to live with the problems the vendors create.

In this instance, Valve and EA are not playing nicely in the sandbox together. You can purchase The Sims 3 (and all of the Stuff Packs and Expansion Packs) from Valve and play them through the Steam client, or you can purchase from Origin (and probably a few other vendors -- I haven't really checked), but what you purchase from Origin cannot be installed on Steam. In other words, the product key that you get from Origin will not work with Steam and the downloaded content from Origin will not go on top of your Steam installation.

The converse is not true, though. While Steam content will not install on top of your Origin installation, your Steam product keys will work. As long as you register your Steam-purchased content with EA (registration steps are in the next section), you can download and play it from Origin, at least as of summer 2014.

So, at some point, every player is probably going to have to choose which client they want to use. My advice is to use whichever one you like best, but keep in mind that the choice may lock you into a particular vendor for future purchases. Your game, your money, your choice.

Removing Your Steam Version

I suppose that it might be possible to have the game installed twice on the same machine, but that's a dodgy way of doing things, so you'll need to remove your Steam game before you can install from Origin.

Steam made it super easy to install and remove the games that they sell. This is one of the biggest reasons why I like Steam.

Step 1: go into your game library, right-click The Sims 3 and select "Delete Local Content"
Step 2: there is no step 2 - that's how easy it was

OK, I lied (a little). There is likely some cleanup that you still need to do.

1. Go into your Steam apps directory (\Steam\steamapps\common) and delete the Sims 3 folder if it's still there.
2. Go into your Documents folder and get rid of \Electronic Arts\The Sims 3

Note: if you have mods installed, you'll want to save the \Mods folder, and you might want to try saving the \Saves folder, but everything else can go. Just move the subfolders you want to save to someplace easy to find (like your Desktop) and you can drop them back in after reinstalling. I don't know for certain that the saves will migrate to a new installation, but they should in theory.

If you have a registry cleaner, you'll probably want to run it to clear out lingering entries, but if you're going to immediately download and install from Origin, it's not necessary since those entries will just get overwritten by the new install. (yeah, let's remove that and just go with "always run a registry cleaner after uninstalling").

3. Cold reboot (that's a complete power down and power up again)

Done deal. Gotta love Steam.

Installing From Origin (Make a pot of coffee - this will take a while)

What follows is based on a few assumptions:

1. You've decided to migrate your Sims 3 game to the Origin client. If not, then enjoy the read, but the info is going to be pretty much useless.
2. You've completely removed The Sims 3 from your computer using the steps in the previous section. If not, go do that.
3. You have an EA account and have installed the Origin client. If not, go do that. You can do both from www.origin.com (kind of like installing Steam, only not as pleasant).
4. You've registered your game and any Stuff Packs or Expansion Packs with EA. If not:

• go to thesims3.com
  
• log in using the email and password you used for Origin
  
• Go to My Page --> My Account --> Register a Game
  
• enter the CD Key(s) from your Steam purchase(s) - note that copy/paste won't work for this unless you remove the hyphens from the product keys first using something like Notepad

5. You have plenty of time and copious amounts of your prefered beverage(s) and snack(s). If not, you'll need a really high boredom threshold or strong masochistic leanings.

Installing the Base Game

The first hurdle is installing the base game. Unlike Steam (which kind of bundles all of your stuff into one download), Origin makes you do everything individually. If you've registered your game with EA, then The Sims 3 and all of your Expansion and Stuff Packs should be under "My Games" in your Origin client. If it isn't you'll need to contact EA directly because there's a problem somewhere. Start the base game download and find something constructive to do while it finishes.

Once the download of the base game is finished, Origin will install it for you. Kind of like Steam, it goes into Origin's directory on your hard drive. Unlike Steam, however, EA distributes unpatched games, so you'll need to launch the game and let it grab the latest patch (current version is 1.67.2 and the patch weighs in at 1.6GB, so it, too will take a while). Then relaunch the game after the patch installs.

Installing Bonus Stuff

If you previously registered your game with EA, then you've likely got bonus stuff that needs to be installed, Do that first using the "Open Downloads Dashboard" option from the game's main menu. Your stuff should be ready to use once you have the "Installed" message and a thumbnail of the content in the download manager. Note that you'll find lots of little status messages BEHIND the download manager when you close it. Depending the amount of stuff, plan on giving your mousing finger a workout as you close those messages.

Installing Expansion Packs and Stuff Packs

I'm a fan of installing Expansion Packs first since they make changes to the base game. Stuff Packs just add, well, STUFF to the in-game Buy and Build modes, but don't really change the game itself.

As far as I can tell, the order in which you install Expansion Packs doesn't really matter. You might get a message about one or more of the Expansion Packs being older than the installed game version, but that's not an issue. Since you just patched the game (you did patch it, right?), you should be good to go.

You can either queue everything up and let it run or deal with one pack at a time. I tend toward one-at-a-time, but that's only because I like to kick the tires and test drive before adding the next chunk. If you're not that kind of player, just queue it all up and let it go.

Island Paradise (and maybe some other packs that I don't have) will ask you for your product key when you install it. Mouse over it in the Origin client and click the little " i " button. The product key will be on that page and it can just be copied and pasted into the installer dialogue box (no hyphens - how thoughtful). Except for that one, the rest of my Expansion Packs did not ask for anything from me during installation.

Launch the game, create a randomly generated Sim in a new game and make sure everything is working correctly. Unless it turns out that you like this particular Sim, there's no need to save; you're just making sure everything is where it is supposed to be and working the way it is supposed to work. 99% of the time, it will. It's that 1% that's killer and why I like to test drive after installing each pack.

If you can identify which pack went hinky on you, go into your Control Panel and uninstall that pack. Run a registry cleaner to get rid of lingering entries and reboot. Then redownload it, reinstall it and test it again. If it's still hinky, it's time to get with EA technical support. Since you've already redownloaded and reinstalled, don't let them make you do it again.

Reinstalling Mods and Saved Games

Once you're sure that everything is running correctly, drop the \Mods folder and your \Saves folder back into the \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 folder and you should be golden.

You're Ready to Play

You are now ready to play your game. Hopefully you've followed the steps I've set out in this guide and still have both your hair and your sanity. Whether you still have your sobriety depends on the favorite beverage you've been imbibing during the process, but even on an exceptionally speedy Internet connection, you've probably been at it for several hours so it's time for some playing.

Again, the root cause of the problem is that Valve and EA simply have not got their collective acts together when it comes to what can be purchased and installed from who. I have hopes that one day everyone will play nicely with each other and the customers (we gamers) won't be caught in the middle of these feuds. We'll probably see it about the time the Titanic reaches New York and Harold Stassen finally wins the Republican nomination, but all things are possible in an infinite universe. In the meantime we roll with the punches, learn to work around these little issues, and love our games.

Update for the 1.69 Patch (12/31/15)

Somewhat out of the blue, EA decided to issue a patch for The Sims 3 in late 2015, almost two years after the 1.67 patch. Not being privy to the internal goings-on at EA, my best guess is that the patch is intended largely to combat piracy since it makes it virtually impossible to bypass the game's launcher, kind of forcing Origin validation in order to play. It did a couple of constructive things, though:

• a lot of the launcher issues seem to have been addressed and fixed. This was one of the major reasons for trying to bypass it in the first place. You will need to log in using your Origin ID once for validation, but it does not appear to require being logged in after that, at least I have not needed to do so.
  
• you may now select which official content packs you want to use. If, for example, you have decided that the Showtime expansion was not quite what you were hoping for or that having your furniture shredded by Pets has stopped being cute, then you may now deselect them and their content will not load with the rest of the game. They are still installed, though, so you can change your mind and reselect them later for use in a different game without needing to redownload it.

But along with the good comes the bad and one of the major bads affects people who use the Create a World (CAW) tool. It no longer works once the game is updated to 1.69. EA says they are working on a fix for this, but the chatter seems to point to a situation where CAW will work with either 1.67 or 1.69, but not both.

This patch does not seem to have any effect on a Steam installation, so your Steam game will continue to be at 1.67 for the foreseeable future. Again, this might present problems with CAW if they update the tool to work with 1.69.

[PhoenixFire]

@marstinson thanks for your help! Turns out I actually have 2 different EA accounts and each game is in a different account, I didn't even remember, i just tried to login with an old email and tried one of my passwords and turns out sims 3 is registered in that old account!

[marstinson]

@PhoenixFire : get your product keys from Steam and redeem them in the EA app. You'll find a "Redeem Code" button on the library screen in the EA app.

[PhoenixFire]

My boyfriend gifted me the Sims 3 on steam in 2016 played for about 2 years and then I bought myself the Sims 4 in origin and never touched sims 3 again.
Now, in 2023, how do I transfer sims 3 in EA App? Any help, please?

[slowrisk]

@wanderbear22 since OP did not specify in their post, you must have the game installed through steam in order to get the keys, do NOT uninstall before proceeding over to origin. obviously due to the fact that EA removed viewing CD key features for base game, prob for this reason. i recommend the link below to obtain the keys for base + EPs. Once everything is carried over to Origin, you should be ok to uninstall now.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-pets-i-can-t-find-my-registration-code-in-steam/td-p/10242523

[iluvbearsdls]

i just started using steam a few days ago. Re-bought all my sims games for steam. Have played on origin off and on since 2010. but over the last two years have had constant crashes, lockups, weird stuff that i can never play one game for to long before it kicks out or freaks out and i have to start all over. At first steam tried to pick up my origin sims. (even though I just bought all new games for here)it would play but no in game items or store content would come on here. so went in and made a new account with the sims 3 . So now iIhave my origin sims ,and iIhave the basic games on here, sad to say wish i hadnt spent the money.

[Aegon]

I purchased TS3 on Steam earlier, installed, but I'm getting an error every time I launch it. I also restarted my laptop 4 times. I met the minimum requirements. So I chatted with an EA advisor earlier to help me to change the game code so it would also be visible to Origin (I did that before with my TS4 purchase from Steam and it worked, the previous advisor was informed that I don't have the product key). But my goodness, he asked me to contact Steam for the CD key. I told him repeatedly that Steam no longer provides the CD keys but I don't know why he could not comprehend. So I don't know where to go now.

[marstinson]

@wanderbear22 : They used to be displayed in your game library when when the game was selected, and then Steam changed the library layout. Now you can find most of them by right-clicking the game in your library, selecting "Manage," and clicking "CD Keys." Steam no longer gives a key for the base game or for Pets. You'll need to contact EA's customer support to get those.

[wanderbear22]

Ok but it doesn't say where to get the activation codes on Steam? When I right click the Sims 3 DLC packs all it says is "View DLC in store" Where are the codes?

[marstinson]

@papajack_papajohn : yep. "EA Technical Support" is pretty much an oxymoron from start to finish. It's one of the reasons why I'm here on Steam in spite of having everything in my Origin library.

[papajack_papajohn]

Let me tell you a bit about Origin. I had Sims 3 and a few other games on Origin but when they stopped playing, I first tried figuring out what was wrong. When I couldn't figure it out, I asked Origin Support for help....Never heard from them and never got any help. So, I bought this copy from Steam and am playing it without any problems.