Hi there. I got a new laptop a couple months ago that came with Catalina. My previous Mac ran on High Sierra and TS2 worked fine. I booted up TS2 today for the first time on this computer and it also worked fine, then I exited to the neighborhood (without saving, if that matters). Except it didn't exit the neighborhood, it crashed. So I tried opening the app again, and this time — and the many subsequent times I've tried — it crashes on the neighborhood loading screen. Of note, it only does this for the Veronaville neighborhood, the other two load fine.

I've tried restarting my computer and booting up without CC, and it still crashes. I read something about file limits, but I don't think that's the case, because in Terminal it says my maxfiles is 49,152 and maxfilesper proc is 24,576; my TS2 folder + contents folder items only add up to 9,449, so from my understanding there shouldn't be a problem. I do have a lot of character files in Veronaville because the family tree is extensive (1,065 items it says in Get Info for the Characters folder), but as I mentioned, it worked perfectly fine both prior to getting the new computer with Catalina and on the first gameplay I did. It loaded OK from a previous backup, but a) that's a few generations back and I'd rather not have to start over from there, and b) for all I know, the issue would pop up again.

Can anyone help me out?

If you need them, here are my specs:
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,2
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 512 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 16 GB
Boot ROM Version: 1037.147.4.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.16610.0.0,0)
Serial Number (system): C02DG00PML85
Hardware UUID: 44AB5B87-312D-5939-962F-AC7E98C35793
Activation Lock Status: Enabled

Intel Iris Plus Graphics:

Chipset Model: Intel Iris Plus Graphics
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB
Vendor: Intel
Device ID: 0x8a53
Revision ID: 0x0007
Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: Built-In Retina LCD
Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Retina
Framebuffer Depth: 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Automatically Adjust Brightness: No
Connection Type: Internal

The most usual symptom of hitting the max file limit is that files go missing. So it may be worth comparing the lot and character folders of your crashing Veronaville to see whether they match (or at least, if they’re different, it’s because you either created new characters or had new NPCs generated during that first playing session). Though your numbers don’t sound too high, given the higher limits in more recent versions of MacOS anyway.

(Currently I haven’t gone beyond Mojave, since I’m still trying to hang on to Castaway Stories and other 32-bit software, so I’ve no personal experience of playing on Big Sur.)

From what you’ve said, it does sound like a problem with just Veronaville at present, so might be something you’re using there but not in the other hoods. It’s interesting that you say it works with an older backup. You might have to go down memory lane to try to figure out what you’ve added since. And I presume that the newer backup played okay on your old machine, and wasn’t already corrupted there?

Did you delete the original Nxxx folders before copying your backup into place? If not, do that and re-copy.
Do you have CEP, or lighting mods, or modular stair scripts installed? And if so, have you checked that you’ve re-added the file edits and required files inside the Sims 2 Super Collection app package, as well as the bits that live in Downloads?

I know this may sound dumb, but is your game file an updated version from the App Store? Like updated for 64-bit. If it is, it may be a shot in the dark but you could always consider contacting Aspyr as they still offer support for the game.

I'm starting to think terminal just displays those numbers even though the game max is 19k files regardless (my game crashed at that point for me and I had the exact same values for maxfiles). Have you tried removing any custom content to see if the game runs better? If it works after removing some content, then it's for sure a file limit issue. Just make sure you remove a substantial amount (100+ files) because you don't want the game to start corrupting itself while loading.

@muridae: I haven't upgraded to Big Sur yet actually, I'm still on Catalina. I presume there's not much of a difference between the two but I don't want to deal with any bugs that Big Sur might have to work out. I'd rather just downgrade, tbh, but I'm not sure if that's possible without wiping the hard drive or something.

On my previous machine I didn't try loading from the most recent backup because I hadn't needed it, but I presume it would've worked fine there as well. I had no problems with loading from backups in the past. I suppose it might've had corruption but if there were, I never noticed it. I don't think I've added any custom content since then...maybe a couple anti-corruption mods like no unlink on delete and stuff. I don't have much CC to begin with, though. A few hairstyles and clothes, and some basic mods like no autonomous jumping on bed, permafridge, etc. The only major one I have is Sim Blender. I did delete the original neighborhood folders — in fact, I deleted the entire TS2 folder, emptied the trash, then placed my backup in place of it.

Just for kicks, I tried playing from my most recent backup, which worked fine for a while but then one new sim and a baby later, it's doing the same thing as it did before, where it crashes at the neighborhood loading screen. I know there's a neighborhood checker application for Windows; do you know if there's one for Mac as well?



Yeah, it's the updated version. The app, that is. Is it possible for files to be 32-bit but the app 64 and so there's some mismatch or something?

I only have 114 files of CC, so removing 100 of those would leave me with almost none


EDIT: It also takes forever to load Veronaville on startup (when it even gets that far, which in this trial-and-error period has been booting up from a backup). It mostly-sometimes doesn't take as long once I've already been in a house there, but the first time takes up to 10 minutes. On my previous laptop, it took less than 30 seconds, if that. Obviously not the end of the world, but yet another peculiar irritation.

EDIT 2: Additionally, in this one family the three teens have lost all their memories for some reason, and in another family all four kids did (2 teens, two children). I believe they had all their memories the last time I played them — which of course was several backups ago — so it happened sometime when I was on another family entirely, apparently. I've definitely never had that happen before. I mean, they're teens, so it's not like they have THAT many memories to begin with, and the family tree, relationships, etc. are all intact, and the parents have all their memories, but I'm guessing having amnesiac sims is not a good thing!