Games are always downloaded to Windows drive (C:) rather than selected location
Product: EA Desktop
Platform:PC
Error Report ID (learn how to create an Error Report ID in the sticky post) ee709cce-83ab-4259-8870-973221e4544c
Which client functionality are you experiencing this bug with? Download Game
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm) 27.01.2022 4:57 pm
Summarize your bug When downloading a game from the EA App, you can choose where the game will be downloaded to, but the game will always be downloaded to C:\Program Files\EA Games regardless of the specified directory. Moving the downloaded game out of the EA Games folder causes the EA App to not detect the game.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? 1. Choose any game (free, owned or EA Play/Play Pro). 2. Click Download and click CHANGE under INSTALL LOCATION to change the install to a different location. For example, D:\Games\EA. 3. Click NEXT to download the game. 4. Open C:\Program Files\EA Games and the game will appear in this folder rather than the selected location. For example, Battlefield V will be in this folder.
What happens when the bug occurs? The game downloads from the EA App but it always installs to C:\Program Files\EA Games regardless of selected path. For example, choosing D:\Games\EA for Battlefield V should install in D:\Games\EA\Battlefield V but instead it downloads to C:\Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield V. If the Windows drive doesn't have enough space, the game may not completely download.
What do you expect to see? The game should be installed on the selected drive (like D:\Games\EA\The Sims 4) but gets installed to C:\Program Files\EA Games instead. The game doesn't appear on the other drive. Moving the game to the intended location changes the Play button to Download.
I was downloading Mass Effect Legendary Edition to put on my 4 TB hard drive since I have a small SDD (240 GB). However, I gotten a notification from Windows 10 warning about low disk space, so I decided to look in This PC and I saw the SSD was low on space. I went to D:\Games\EA and the game wasn't there, that's when I discovered that it actually downloaded it to the SSD.
I decided to reproduce the step with another computer (an AORUS 15G KB) that has a 2 TB Seagate USB hard drive attached. I downloaded The Sims 4 and selected F:\Games\EA\The Sims 4 (as seen in the screenshot) but rather than downloading to the hard drive, it instead downloaded to my SSD. I worked around the bug by using Windows' symbolic links to have the game install on the other drive.
Until EA fixes this, these steps may help you install on the other drive.
- Choose the game you want to download and continue with the installation.
- Close the EA App (click Menu, Exit or right click the EA icon on the taskbar and click Exit).
- Go to C:\Program Files\EA Games and move the game folder to the desired location such as D:\Games\EA.
- Open Command Prompt as an Administrator and type in the command in bold. For example, for Battlefield V you type mklink/j "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield V" "D:\Games\EA\Battlefield V" and press Enter. You should see a message saying the junction is created.
- Close Command Prompt and open the EA App. The game should now download on the other drive.