I think I saw this mentioned on Reddit a couple of years ago but wondered if anybody else has experience of it before I go to the effort of buying missing DVDs. So:

Is it possible to reinstall The Sims 3 and all expansions/stuff packs from the DVDs and by refusing to connect to origin keep the game offline?

I did own all of the expansions on disc apart from University which I gave up and bought through Origin years ago - so I would have to aquire University.

Every time that I go to play this game I get asked for a password which I can never remember and then have to go through the whole account reset process, by the time its done I give up on the game. It's driving me mad!

As far as I know, you MUST have a pre-Origin base game disk. After that, all other disks should load to that pre-Origin base game/ EA folder. Never click to open Origin or EA App wwhen prompted. I don't have the link handy, but you will then need "Super Patch", which patches your game up to 1.67. Honestly, the only thing I noticed is that 1.69 has pidgeons walking around the City Hall in Bridgeport!

That said, I am currently having issues getting my disks to load on a Win11 laptop. I know there are many threads on various sites, including MTS, concerning Win11/ Sims 3 problems, but haven't checked, since the new laptop is only going to be my create laptop, and my old Win10 is still working well enough... for now.

Ok, that sounds very promising, thanks for the feedback. I do have the original game disk somewhere and I'm sure it's pre-origin as it was the special edition that came with the USB plumbob.

I've had a quick look and it looks like most of the Nraas mods would still work with 1.67, might need to check a couple

I'm still on Windows 10... for as long as I can hold out.

Another option that does not involve disks is to jump ship by repurchasing the TS3 Collection from Steam. That sounds really expensive, but I was able to make that shift for less than $90 USD several years ago during one of their (at the time) twice per year deep discount sales, after putting up with too many Origin-related annoyances on my end and becoming firmly convinced that I would never have any real interest in TS4. It takes some initial fiddling around as store content all needs to be reinstalled as well this way, but the player should still have access to anything they have ever purchased from the EA TS3 Store in the past.

Steam is pretty much frozen at Patch 1.67, there's no Super Patching to worry about, and you can run the game independently of the Steam client after the initial setup by using a bypass shortcut to TS3w.exe just like with other 1.67 installs, thus no need to even see the Steam client or even the Launcher until or unless one wants to.

Not sure an annoying difficult to remember EA App password is reason enough to make the switch, but there are certainly many other annoyances to be had when leaving things up to EA's systems as to whether your game will actually launch or not each day you would want to play it.

Downside: You can't get Katy Perry (the Stuff Pack) this way, but at the risk of starting that debate all over again some might actually see that as an additional bonus.

And yes, all NRaas mods are fully supported on 1.67. There isn't any reason for a mod to not work on 1.67 vs. 1.69 as the actual game files for the two patch levels are identical other than their internal build numbers.

I have a disc install, do not have the EA app at all and have no issue playing. I patched to 1.67 with the super patch and had found my 3 missing Stuff Packs on eBay still sealed about 9 months ago. Steam is another great option unless you want the KP Sweet Treats (which I needed....because I have a weird need to complete collections).

I'm playing the game on Mac 64bit so I had to use EA App to update the game to 1.70