I have just updated my MacBook pro to mojave. sims 3 still runs but I am having a peculiar problem that I am not sure is related to mojave or what.

when I was running Yosemite, when I finished a session with the sims, I would save, then apple/tab to hide the sims. then close the MacBook or do whatever. then when I wanted to play again I would apple/tab back to the sims.
Now, sometimes when I apple/tab it works as before, but sometimes it goes right back to the login screen for the computer (not the game). and then when I want to start the sims again I have to run cocktail before it will start again.

has anyone had similar problems? does anyone have any ideas about why or what I can do?

thanks

This is apparently a not uncommon issue with Mojave, and it can have several causes. One of them happens to be overheating or overworking the computer, as might happen if you're playing Sims 3 for a while. The solution there is to give your Mac a break.

If that's not the issue, or you're not sure it is, you can try reseting NVRAM:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

You could also experiment with a new user account on your Mac, although that would only help if this issue were due to a bug with your current account. And you'd need to copy over your Sims 3 content (not the game itself, but your user data) to the new account in order to be able to play your current saves.

The simplest option though might be to not cmd-tab out of the game. The window manager in Mojave is probably markedly different than the one in Yosemite and might not respond well to switching like that. Instead, try using cmd-return (enter) to switch to windowed mode, then minimize the game by clicking the yellow dot in the upper left corner of the window.

Or just quit the game when you're done playing for a while. I'd never let it run unattended for more than half an hour or so on my Mac, especially given how demanding the game is, and I definitely used to notice a performance hit when I let it sleep or closed the lid with the game still running in the background.

thanks for your answer. I will try the cmd-return option as you suggested. And maybe quit more often.

thanks again

Just tried the cmd-return option, and it threw me back to the computer log in screen again. I will have to just quit in future. A bit of a pest, as it takes a while to restart the game. And I am a bit impatient.

but thanks

I'd recommend restarting the game as often as you can on either OS. This game keeps too much junk in memory to not flush it with a restart now and then.

I found out why puzzle addict's answer didn't work. When my husband installed mojave on my laptop, he installed the developer's version by mistake. he has installed the correct version now, and the cmd-return option is working. I am sure you are right, chain reaction. It is just that I am impatient, and don't want to wait for the time it takes to start the game every time I play. I will use a combination in the future - restarting the game regularly, but also when I am just leaving it for a short time, I will use cmd-return and hide it.

thanks both of you for your help and advice.

Have you tested out the 64-bit Mac version? I have been playing on a Windows partition for years, but I at least gave the 64-bit a try. It started very promising but crashed quickly on my full-mods trial run.

Echoweaver - I believe that sheridanhoughton's current hardware is not likely to meet the requirements for the 64-bit/metal version for the same reasons that (I think) they wouldn't be able to upgrade that Macbook Pro to any OS beyond Mojave.

My own limited experiences with the 64-bit version on newer hardware didn't involve any crashes, at least not yet, but there are so many bugs and things in-game that don't work properly with it that I've had to set it aside until such time as they get addressed properly by EA. Well, in reality I wouldn't have had more than five minutes to play Sims-anything in the past couple of weeks for other reasons but if I had it wouldn't have been that version.

I don't think I ever processed that you play on a Mac.

Buh. I'm used to thinking of this MacBook Pro as pretty studly, but I suppose it's not as young as it once was. Still, it's a 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7 with 16G. Graphics cards these days do have a lot more memory. I'm also running Mojave, but that's because I'm not ready to give up 32-bit compatibility.

I gave up playing on OSX many years ago because the Cider port couldn't use extended addressing. About halfway through the expansion releases, I started to have a miserable time and switched to Windows on Bootcamp, which I'm still using.

My limited testing of 64-bit Sims 3 was with fun store content, mods, and cc, since if it didn't work that way, I wasn't likely to use it anyway. It featured a lot of animation glitches before crashing.

igazor, Non-Metal Macs actually can't go past High Sierra, at least not without hacky interventions. (Funny thing, we've seen a couple of 2011 MBAs where people managed to install Catalina and then showed up complaining they can't run the Metal version of TS4, and they can't run the Legacy Edition because the ActivationUI is 32-bit. What a pickle they found themselves in. I might have giggled.) So if someone can install Mojave the normal way, they can run the 64-bit TS3.

Echoweaver, If you don't mind my asking, what are the other specs of your Mac? There are a number of reports of crashing on Macs with Intel graphics chips, and very few crashes on AMD or Nvidia cards. (I've only had two crashes so far, both definitely my fault, and the game seems quite stable overall, even if it's missing an alarming number of details.) As far as I know, the crashes on Intel chips are being investigated, and it's possible there might even be some kind of fix.

Regardless of what hardware you have, I'd be curious to hear what caused the crashes for you, if you know. More information is always better.