TUTORIAL: How to find a certain download in your Launcher

Problem
When you download houses or Sims from the Exchange and other sites, a lot of stuff is coming with those. The bigger the file, the more extra CC is included with the download. Those can be faulty or you just don't like them and just want to get rid of them.

Most of them will be in your launcher and you will need to uninstall them. Unfortunately they are not always easy to find.

Solution
The best method is to check everything first. Check them with Custard and get rid of everything you don't want. You can also do this without any external tools but you will need to consequently look through your launcher after every file installed and get rid of new ones you don't like. The newest once will either show on top or at the bottom of your launcher but when you close your launcher this order will become random. So check the stuff before closing the launcher.

If you already have a DL in your game and you can't find it, make sure to read through this post: TUTORIAL: How to get rid of unwanted Custom Content. If it's not listed there and you have no clue what the launcher picture or name of the file might be, there is a way to find those. It involves using several external programs though AND the files in the DCBackup folder still need to be present.

What tools do you need ?

• Custard / Sims 3 CleanInstaller (not mandatory for this method, but useful) 
• s3pe Package Editor
• Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor 

Steps

• Go into your game and load up CAS
• Check if your file is a Sims3Pack or a Package file (Check Icon). If it's a package file, delete the file from your Mods-folder and delete your cache files (Exception: CUSTARD: Downloads that are attached to Sims directly) 

 Package File

Sims3Pack File

• For the Sims3Packs create a Sim and make him wear the offending cc.
• Share the Sim
• Change to your Desktop and find the Export folder in user directory.
• Copy the Sims3Pack file that you just exported to place of your liking (make a folder there and name it whatever you like)
• Use Delphy Multi-Extractor to unpack the package files inside as described in the above linked post.
• Use Custard to look at the sims3pack to get some clues on which package file you will need to look at. Memorize (or write down) the first few number of the name of the package file (this step is not mandatory, just helpful if the sims3pack contains a lot of files).
• Go to the folder you extracted the package files to. If you have installed s3pe, package files should be associated with his tool and you can double click on the file (if not, choose open with and choose s3pe as the program to do that).

• Make sure that that the option preview is set to value and that Display-Names and Display-Tags are checked.

• You will see a column tag. Look for an entry ICON or THUM. Now click on that line to make the picture appear in the preview window. If you have ICON and THUM look at them all (there may be more then one THUM). That's the launcher pic your looking for.

• You will also see a tag _XML (there can be more than one). When you click on the right one, you will see the number (name of the file) and the name that shows in the launcher on the right hand side

• Now look for this picture in your launcher and that number in your DCBackup folder.

TUTORIAL: Remove Sims3Packs

Removing Sims3Pack files from your computer is a simple task but it can become quite time consuming. If you want to remove a lot of downloads it can happen that the launcher acts up and you have to start over checking items and to find one specific download can become quite difficult.

Because of this, it pays to pay attention on WHAT you are installing in the first place. Especially houses and sims can contain a lot of other downloads.

The launcher has multiple tabs on the side. The two important ones here are Downloads and Installed Content. If you download something from the exchange or the Store it only shows in Downlaods.

To check if something is already installed or not, notice the Plumbob/Arrow symbol under Status. Installed downloads also show grayed out. Downloads that are not installed, don't appear in your game and don't have to be uninstalled. If you downloaded a lot/household or a Sim there are bound to be other downloads to come with that. In this example, I downloaded the house Pension "Rose" und ihre Inhaberin Rose van der Falk and installed it. As you can see only the house shows in Downloads.

In  Installed Content  you can see all files that came with the house. The house also contains a Sim but that one is missing from the Launcher because he belongs to the house. All cc that was used on the Sim (here the hair) is now installed as well. Installed content shows in the order you have installed them. The newest ones are at the bottom (sometimes on top). If you close and reopen the Launcher, this order is messed up and completely random and you can't sort.

To uninstall a certain download, you can now check the box nest to it and click on uninstall. The download should now be gone from your game. To also get rid of the download itself go back to the downloads tab and click delete. If you only delete the download, it will still show in your game.

If the stuff still shows up after uninstalling it correctly, delete the Cache-Files as well. You might also be running in this problem: CUSTARD: Downloads that are attached to Sims directly.

Unfortunatly the launcher is not very reliable and it can happen that a certain download does not show up. Especially if you have tons of downloads the launcher seems to be overstrained and not all installed stuff shows up. The only way to get rid of it then, is to remove (move them to the desktop, not delete) all files *.dbc from your DCCache folder in your user directory. This way ALL downloads except lots/households, Sims, Worlds and Store stuff will be gone from your game. Stuff that's still in your downloads folder can be reinstalled, but you should make sure to check them first with Custard.

DCBackup & Downloads folder
Those two folders contain backups of your files. Deleting them will do nothing in terms of showing up in the game. Downloads contains the Sims3Packs, DCBackup the Package-Files that were inside the Sims3Packs. If you delete a download in the tab Downloads, it will be removed from the downloads folder. The files in DCBackup are never deleted. This can lead to problems and can take up a lot of disk space.

I would suggest, to move the files in downloads to external drive so that you have them handy if you need to reinstall. Think up some sort of sorting system that fits you. I would clean out the DCBackup folder entirely. Only disadvantage you have is that they won't get pack with any lots/households/Sims that you upload. Another method would be to make a list of all numbers that belong to the downlaods (they show in Custard). If you remove a download you can then manually delete the corresponding file from the DCBackup. This will be very time consuming though.

Further Reading

• TUTORIAL: Sims3Packs to Packages 
• FAQ: How do I install Custom Content/ Mods ? 
• TUTORIAL: How to get rid of unwanted Custom Content 
• TUTORIAL: How to keep a Sim but get rid of the CC it came with 

TUTORIAL: Sims3Packs to Packages

To convert Sims3Packs to Packages you will need Delphy's Multi Sims3Pack Extractor.

Installation
Installation instructions can be found in the Overview page of the tool

Usage
Copy all sims3pack files that you want to convert in a folder of your choice (in the picture X:\Sims). All files that the tool finds in this folder are being converted automatically. To set this folder in the tool choose browse in Step 1.

In Step 2 you can choose where you want to extract your files to. I recommend to choose another folder than the mods folder to extract the files to (in the picture X:\Sims, too)

Now you have to decide what you want to name the package files. You can name they way they are inside the sims3pack file. These are cryptic names. To do so, check the option rename file on save. If you do not check the option, the package files are named the same as the sims3pack. This is only true if there is only one package file inside the sims3packs. Houses and Sims have more then one most of the time.

Now click on Extract and you're done.

Now copy/move all files you want to keep to the Mods-Folder.

To convert package files to Sim3Packs you will need TSR Workshop but I have no clue about that.