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yauyau63's avatar
12 months ago

Can't even find the correct Sims 3 folder

Hello fellow Simmers,

I recently install the EA app since I can not use Origin anymore.

I tried downloading different mods, just like before. But after I organized them, I noticed that the folder placement had changed.

Previously, I could put them in the correct location (Documents -> Electronic Arts -> The Sims 3 -> Mods).

However, since I switched to the EA app, the location of the files on my computer has changed. Now, two separate folders, EA Games and Electronic Arts, have appeared.

I was able to find The Sims 3 within the EA Games folder, but it’s not in the Electronic Arts folder. However, no matter which folder I search in, I can't find the appropriate files to place the mods, such as savedsims, mods, etc.

As a loyal Sims player, I feel very upset about this. It took me two days to research and resolve the errors that appeared when I switched to EA Games, and now there's a new issue.

I really hope to find a solution. Thank you all for your help.

3 Replies

  • @yauyau63  The EA Games folder holds the game's program files, as in, what the EA App installs.  The Electronic Arts folder inside Program Files holds the program files for the EA App itself and has nothing to do with installed games.

    The Sims 3 user folder is still always going to be in Documents > Electronic Arts.  You will need to start the game once in order for the folder to appear.  If you don't see it, check the Documents folder inside OneDrive, or the one that isn't in OneDrive if that's where you looked first.

  • yauyau63's avatar
    yauyau63
    12 months ago

    Thank you for your response. There are no files in my OneDrive, probably because this is a new computer that I specifically bought to play Sims 3.

    I have already launched Sims 3 and played for about five hours. However, in my Electronic Arts folder, there are only EA Desktop and VC, and neither contains any Sims 3 files.

  • @yauyau63  Again, the Electronic Arts folder inside Program Files is completely irrelevant here.  It's only purpose is to hold EA App data.

    When the game launches for the first time, it will create a Sims 3 user folder.  It has to in order to load; if it can't write to this folder, the launcher won't even open.  The folder could be deleted after the fact, but if you can load the game and see a previous save, that's not happening either—the folder needs to be present somewhere, containing your save data and a bunch of other files and folders.  There's nowhere else the save could be.

    Please open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter DeviceConfig in the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.  When the seach is finished, click on the result, select "Open file location," and you'll jump to where that file is, which will be inside the Sims 3 user folder.  You'll see the full path in the address bar.

    If the game is reading a different location than what you want, for example if it's reading C:\Users\Public\Documents, the next question is what the Documents directory is, as Windows sees it.  For that, search in Windows for Command Prompt, open it, and enter this command:

    reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

    Then post the result here.  This location can be changed if necessary; the important point is that Sims 3 will always use this location if it can.

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