Hello! First time posting here, sad it's under these circumstances. Okay, here's the story: I was trying to clean up my cache files as per usual, accidentally deleted the files in my DCCache folder, then permanently deleted everything from my trash bin. Freaked out, tried to recover them, I couldn't. I don't usually back things up because I'm dumb (this will be changing going forward, dw), BUT I remembered that I would have a copy of my entire "The Sims 3" folder on my USB when I got a new laptop and had to transfer everything. I found my old DCCache files dated from 2020-2021 and tried to paste them into my current Cache folder. All of my cc reappeared in the launcher under "Installed", but now when I load the game it brings up "New Game" and my current game is gone. So I removed the old Cache files, loaded it again, and then my current game comes back! I'm assuming the issue has something to do with how old my cache files are? Is there anyway I can integrate them into my current game smoothly? I tried copying and pasting my current save file into the "CurrentGame.sims3" folder but when I load the game, it's still showing up as "New Game" and then when I checked the folder the save file was gone. I've done this twice so I guess that's not the answer. Any help would be super appreciated, thanks!

save files go to Documents - Electronic Arts - The Sims 3 - Saves folder. the game only needs CurrentGame.sims3 folder when you are actually loading and playing your save, and deletes when you quit the game, so it's practically useless to put your backup save there.