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Majrolein's avatar
Majrolein
6 years ago
Solved

[Solution] Can't find External Hard Drive in Origin MAC

Hi guys!

Normally I would look within existing topics to find an answer to my question, but it seems that I am the only one having this problem.
So, I would like to install TS4 on my external hard drive (Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 1 TB). I uninstalled the game in Origin and wanted to download it again, but now onto the external hard drive. However, when I try to select the external hard drive as install location, I can't find it. The external hard drive is connected, and I can find it through the macOS finder, but not within Origin. I added two screenshots to show what I mean.


Is there someone who could help me with my problem?

Thanks in advance 😄

(Edit - edited title slightly, Bluebellflora)

technical issues
  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    6 years ago

    Edit July 2023 - this issue seems to have been fixed now and once again we can easily choose an external drive in Installs & Saves > Game library location

    @Majrolein 

    Ok, we can work round that:

    1. In Origin > Installs & Saves > Game Library Location click on Change Folder 
    2. In the left side click on Computer then double click on the '/' that appears next to a picture of your hard drive in the right side. You should see four folders in the right now - Applications, Library, System, Users.
    3. In the field at the bottom, where it says Directory, type in /Volumes/[the name of your external] then hit Enter. For example, my external is called Backup and shows Backup when plugged in in Finder, so the file path is /Volumes/Backup.
    4. The window will disappear and reappear again but you may not see your external. That's ok, quit Origin then reopen it. You should get a Gatekeeper message popping up asking for Origin to have permission to access files on a removable volume. Just click Ok.
    5. The external should now be showing. If not, repeat steps 1 to 3 and you should see the contents of your external in the window.

    Let me know how you get on 🙂

    (Thanks to @MaxisJoe for these instructions in a thread in the Origin forum)

    If you are still having issues with the drive not being recognised in Origin, check the permissions for the external drive - Click on the mounted drive and press CMD and i to bring up the info window. At the bottom is the Sharing & Permissions window. Make sure your user account has Read & Write access. Some people are reporting that changing the Everyone setting to Read & Write is also necessary for Origin to successfully access the external drive.

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  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago

    I have been playing Sims for a long time, and I have recently run out of space to play on my MacBook Pro. I bought a 2 TB WD Hard Drive today, but in the Origin settings, it won't let me change the "Game Library Location" to the Hard Drive. I am in serious need of some computer help. Can anyone help me? I'd really love space to buy the new Pet Items! LOL

    x Thank you kindly - H.

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    8 years ago
    @HLefty

    I'm pretty sure you must move your games from the Applications folder on your Mac to the external drive first and then change the Games Library location in Origin. Create a folder on the external and call it whatever you like, Origin Games for example, then drag the Sims 4 from your Applications folder to the Origin Games folder. Then open Origin > Installs & Saves and change the location to the Origin Games folder.

    You will not be able to move the Sims 4 folder from Documents > Electronic Arts to the external drive though as the game will always look there for data to load. If there is no Sims 4 folder there it will create a new one.

    Hope this helps, please do let me know whether it works or not 🙂
  • GillR's avatar
    GillR
    6 years ago

    @Bluebellflora I just wanted to let you know that I tried this today, with some trepidation that I would lose my old game--and it worked perfectly!! Thank you!❤️

  • Majrolein's avatar
    Majrolein
    6 years ago

    @Bluebellflora 

    Thank you for your quick reply! I only see the following formats:

    APFS

    APFS (Encrypted)

    APFS (Case-sensitive)

    APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted)
    Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

    Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)

    Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

    Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)

    MS-DOS (FAT)
    ExFAT

    There is no FAT32..

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    6 years ago
    @Majrolein

    MS-DOS (FAT). Be aware that it will wipe the drive so move anything you have saved on it to another drive or onto your Mac.
  • Majrolein's avatar
    Majrolein
    6 years ago

    @Bluebellflora 

    I formatted it to MS-DOS (FAT32). But I still can't find it within Origin. It just doesn't show up on the list.

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    6 years ago

    Edit July 2023 - this issue seems to have been fixed now and once again we can easily choose an external drive in Installs & Saves > Game library location

    @Majrolein 

    Ok, we can work round that:

    1. In Origin > Installs & Saves > Game Library Location click on Change Folder 
    2. In the left side click on Computer then double click on the '/' that appears next to a picture of your hard drive in the right side. You should see four folders in the right now - Applications, Library, System, Users.
    3. In the field at the bottom, where it says Directory, type in /Volumes/[the name of your external] then hit Enter. For example, my external is called Backup and shows Backup when plugged in in Finder, so the file path is /Volumes/Backup.
    4. The window will disappear and reappear again but you may not see your external. That's ok, quit Origin then reopen it. You should get a Gatekeeper message popping up asking for Origin to have permission to access files on a removable volume. Just click Ok.
    5. The external should now be showing. If not, repeat steps 1 to 3 and you should see the contents of your external in the window.

    Let me know how you get on 🙂

    (Thanks to @MaxisJoe for these instructions in a thread in the Origin forum)

    If you are still having issues with the drive not being recognised in Origin, check the permissions for the external drive - Click on the mounted drive and press CMD and i to bring up the info window. At the bottom is the Sharing & Permissions window. Make sure your user account has Read & Write access. Some people are reporting that changing the Everyone setting to Read & Write is also necessary for Origin to successfully access the external drive.

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