Re: Why does SIMS 4 need to update 34.2 GB every time I want to play??

Hi Puzzlezaddict! Thanks so much. SO, I deleted my account on the computer. There wasn't a huge need for it and I wanted to see if it would help. I got into Steam, looked up SIMS 4 in the library, and it said "PLAY" seemingly good to go. But I realized I was still signed in under my husband's Steam account, so I switched to mine, Once I did that and went to SIMS 4 in the library it started to redownload all my DLC, I clicked play and just as I thought the DLC was gone. I did the search, and this is the path listed there "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe"

@SqueakyLemon36  That's the correct location, and I believe you've also found the issue: your husband is signing into a Steam account that doesn't own your Sims 4 content.  I don't know how many packs you own, but all of them together, minus the base game, should be about 40 GB in total; the base game is 20 GB.  So the overall size of the download would fit within those parameters.

There isn't a great way to get around this problem.  Does your husband have Sims 4 on his account, and does he play it?  Does this problem only happen when he uses his Steam account, or when he runs Sims 4 if he owns it; or does it happen if you're using your own Steam account and just restart your computer?  Does your husband actually want to play Sims 4, and does he own any content for it other than the base game?

If you don't want to test, there's a sort-of-hacky workaround that could help here, but it would require installing two copies of the game should your husband want to play himself.  If you rename the Sims 4 folder here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common

Steam and the EA App won't see it, and should therefore also not delete your packs.  You could rename it to something else when you're done for the day, and change its name back to "The Sims 4" when you want to play again.  But this would also mean your husband would need to install his own copy if he wanted to run Sims 4, and you'd need to rename that Sims 4 folder to something else before restoring your own folder's name.

This could be somewhat irritating, depending on how careful you are about it and how predictably the two of you play computer games.  So if your husband doesn't care to play Sims 4, at least currently, and doesn't own any content for it, I would suggest he try removing the base game from his account to see whether that stops Steam or the EA App from deleting your data.