For sake of convenience I'm abbreviating Ultimate collection to UC and Super Collection to SC.

I installed a PC virtual machine on my MacBook Air so I could run the UC on my Mac, however over the long run it just didn't work out due to too many bugs. I'm planning on deleting the Sims 2 UC on the virtual machine and just buying the SC to play, however is it possible for me to transfer files from UC to SC?

I'm not planning on transporting whole neighborhoods or game saves, I want to transfer my sims families over to the new game. I just wasn't sure if I could since UC has more packs/different coding than SC. Is it possible to just transfer sims families files as they were made back in CAS without game saves/memories attached to them? I apologize if this sounds confusing at all. Basically all I'm asking is how do I (or can I) transfer files for sims families I made in CAS over to the new game? I assume this might involve SimPE.

You might be able to move the occupied lots into the lot bin, package them, and then install them into your Super Collection game, but I've heard that lots created with M&G can't be installed without M&G. Probably try packaging a completely empty and uninhabited lot first and see if you can install it on your Mac at all, if it works, you can probably put your families into empty lots and package those. If your sims knew a lot of other sims in the neighborhood, it will create a lot of stub files of those other sims, which might cause issues with the Mac file limit, though, but you might be able to limit that if you remove all of the family's external relationships and memories of other sims with a mod or with SimPE. If that doesn't work, you can also just extract their looks with SimPE and package them individually from CAS or Bodyshop. You can't package multiple sims into one file that way.

Thank you for your reply... even though I don't know what some of it means but I think I got the gist of it. What does M&G mean? And how do you "package" a lot? The majority of sim families are still in the family bin bc I never placed them on a lot, so is it possible to just take the sim family files (wherever they are), move them to a file hosting service, and then transport them into a new game? Idk if they'll stay together as one family if I do this, so should I do the empty lot thing like you suggested? Also, how do I "package" and transport the ones already on a lot? If I extract their looks with SimPE, will they still stay in families?

I'm flooding you with questions, my apologies. I'm not very knowledgable on this stuff

M&G is Mansion and Garden Stuff, the last stuff pack, which is included in the UC but not the SC.

You package lots by clicking on them in the neighborhood, and then clicking the button to package the lot. It creates a .Sims2Pak file, which can be installed using the package installer that came with the game.

There are no "family files" - there are only sim character files, which you can't just copy over to your other game. The only way to move them is to create .Sims2Pak files.

If the sims are already in a lot, you can just package the lot, however, it would be better to move them to an empty lot first, in case the original lot has objects on it that can't be loaded in SC. And make sure you can transfer any packaged lot at all, first.

If you extract their looks with SimPE, you'll just have a bunch of .Sims2Pak files that each contain the appearance of one sim, and you'll have to recreate the families using those appearances in CAS on your Mac. Installing Sims2Paks that contain sims doesn't actually create sims in your neighborhood, it just adds those appearances as presets in CAS so that you can create them with one click.

I would recommend using the Sim Surgery feature of SimPE to export the appearance of the Sims you want to transfer. Here is a tutorial on how to do that.

Next, open BodyShop and package those Sims. This will export them as .sims2pack files. You can then transfer these files to your main computer however you see fit.

Now install these .sims2pack to your Mac files (you should be able to just double click them and they will be installed to BodyShop).

Open the Super Collection and load up the Neighborhood you'll be moving the Sims into. Go into CAS and use the Sim Catalog (or whatever the term is) to create new Sims with the appearance of the ones you just installed. (Sorry I can't remember how it's labeled, but you know, it's the icon that looks like a bunch of little Sim silhouettes above where you enter your Sim's first name.) Keep in mind the Sim you're creating has to have the same age and gender as the one you want to find in the catalog.

After you've recreated each member of a family, set the family ties in CAS and complete the family creation. Repeat for each household you're recreating.

The default installer (the one that comes with the PC version of the game, not sure about the Mac version?) usually throws an error for lots made with higher EPs or SPs than the highest you have. They're also known to be more likely to crash, even if they don't contain any items or CC that require those packs, so lots could end up being difficult. Lots made with AL and/or M&G installed in particular. If you have the Ultimate Collection (this one has all the packs), it's very likely you'll have this problem with your lots if you try moving those over to the Super Collection (up to BV). The Clean Installer (Only PC, I think) does bypass this error, but the lots can still cause crashes.

Lots can be extracted (and preferably also cleaned with SimPE and/or Chris Hatch's lot cleaner) via the Neighborhood folder to the LotCatalog bin. It's safer than packing the full family (if you install or place inhabited lots, those can come with a bunch of stuff you'd rather your new neighborhood be without - redundant and/or double sets of memories, relationships, etc.)
--> Tutorial for extracting lot without getting the sims living on them: https://thesims2.livejournal.com/6049797.html (does not extract CC, make sure you keep all the CC. You can package a lot with CC ingame after cleaning it)
--> Tutorial for cleaning lots: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=609188 (lot cleaner is linked at bottom)


The safest way to transfer sims is to extract them with SimPE (SimSurgery), clone in Bodyshop, and remake the families in CAS.

What bugs were you getting? Someone might be able to help.

I doubt anyone here could help, I've already had to go through this whole process months ago lol. I didn't want to pay for a VM, so I installed this demo-only model of an untested virtual machine in development by VMware that was meant for business file sharing that I had to apply and get a license for. I had to wrap my foot around my head to install it and it took almost a month, but I finally got it to work.

However, all the problems I had in the game that were caused by the VM were extremely difficult to troubleshoot bc no one else had this VM except for me, so they didn't know how the VM affected the game and I didn't know either bc I'm not tech savvy. Pretty much the only way I solved things was moving around and removing and installing random files and starting the game to see if it would work. I'm not even joking. I had someone on Reddit send me a bucket load of graphic file fixes and I had to go through and cherry-pick each one separately into the game to see which ones would work.

And also the main reason why I'm doing this is because the VM is taking up too much space on my laptop... its over 100GB. I need to get rid of it.

Thank you, this helped a lot! I just have one question, is it possible to see/reveal the Sim Bios that you created for sims in SimPE? I would write whole backstories and details about them in the sim bio, so even if I can't save the sim bio when I package them, I would like to be able to just copy and paste it out of SimPE.

OK, so I did everything in SimPE, sim surgery, etc. I packaged all the sims in Bodyshop, installed SC, installed Bodyshop for SC, tried to open the sims in bodyshop to add them to the game and got this error message . Even though they didn't have any clothing, accessories, hair, etc from any of the Windows-only packs, this error would still pop up. Does anyone know how I can fix it?

Even empty lots from a UC game will crash on a Mac, tested this years ago with a friend who I was trying to make a lot for, and last test was a blank empty lot.

Instead of packaging the sim to a Sims2Pack in bodyshop, just save it to a file. Then copy those files from the SavedSims folder in your Windows game to the SavedSims folder in your Mac game.

^ Adding to this, if the sims come with CC and you need to extract the items, pack the sims in Bodyshop with your UC game (make sure to clone the sim), install them, collect all the files (best if you install to a folder, or don't have other files in the Downloads folder when doing so), and put those files into the SC game.

Some items aren't packed (accessory meshes, defaults/overrides, possibly others).

Installing to your Mac game via the default installer (sims) isn't necessary. There's no guarantee you won't have issues with the sims if they're made with EPs you don't have, but they tend to be less problematic than lots.

Ok, so I just imported the sims out of SimSurgery in SimPE on my VM without doing anything in BodyShop, brought the files over to my Mac, created a SavedSims folder in my Mac game files, opened up my game, and it worked! All my sims were there in CAS with no problems or bugs at all . Thank you to everyone that helped me!

It's best to clone the sims with Bodyshop first, as the files you get in SimSurgery and the files you get after cloning are different. The SimSurgery files are the actual sim, while the Bodyshop files are face templates (with references to CAS items/CC).

I tend to keep the extracted sim files outside the game, and put in the Bodyshop-generated ones.