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RandomBuzziness's avatar
RandomBuzziness
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago

Re: Re: After game update6/10, i cant find my saved files

@Abbie173 Does three game saves sound about right or do you think you had more saves than that? (Lol I have 22... I really need to go through some of those!) Also, do those files look like this:

Slot_0000000a.save

or this?

Slot_0000000a.save.ver0

Like do they have a ".ver0", ".ver1", etc., at the end of the filename?

We can also check to see where your game is looking when it checks for game saves. Sometimes after a patch update the game will decide to create a new user folder in a different location like the Cloud (i.e. OneDrive). It won't find your old saves if it is looking in the wrong place. There are a couple of ways we can check:

While in the main menu of your game, check your Game Options screen and the Screen Capture tab. Check the file path window where is says Location Path. It should look like this:

You can see from this screen that the Location Path my game is using for my Video Captures is:

C:\Users\Registered User\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Recorded Videos\ 

This is the location of my User folder & this is where we want it. Can you check this screen in your game and either write down the entire path and post it on here, or attach a screen shot of your Game Options like I have. Either way is fine.

6 Replies

  • Abbie173's avatar
    Abbie173
    5 years ago

    @RandomBuzziness 3 is about right, i was the same but went on a deleting rampage lol 

    I was actually sorting out some of my documents so maybe i accidentally moved the EA folder? 

    So I have three files in my This PC EA folder:

    Slot_00000002.save

    Slot_00000002.save.ver0

    Slot_00000002.save.ver1

    And then in my OneDrive EA folder I have:

    Slot_00000001.save

    Slot_00000001.save.ver0

    Slot_00000001.save.ver1

    Slot_00000001.save.ver2

    Slot_00000001.save.ver3

    Slot_00000001.save.ver4

    And those same files repeat a bunch of times but the 'date modified' changes

    This is the location path for the video capture:

    C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Recorded Videos\

    Thank you 🙂 

  • RandomBuzziness's avatar
    RandomBuzziness
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    @Abbie173 Just to confirm, you think it's possible that you accidentally moved or deleted your Electronics Arts\The Sims 4 folder at some point? When something like this happens the game will auto-generate all new User folders the next time you launch it. Since the folders are new there will not be any of your old saves in there.

    Do you remember where you moved your old EA folder to? Can you try to find it? Even if it was deleted you might be able to find it in your Recycle Bin. If it's still around somewhere, all of your old saves might still be somewhere on your PC & we might be able to get them back in your game.

    (EDIT: If you can't remember where it got moved to then there are a few things we can try to find it.)

    There appears to only be one regular save file in your Saves folder, the Slot_00000002.save. I think the files with the same number but with the .ver0 and .ver1 at the end are just older versions of the same save. Do you see just one saved game in the Main Menu screen? If you want to see specifically where the game is looking for save files you can look here:

    In your Load Game screen, hover over the little folder icon next to the household thumbnail. There will be a pop-up window with the file path of that save file and it will also tell you the specific filename. Like in this screen shot I am looking at the Slot_0000001e.save in my Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 Saves folder. That's the file that will load if I select it and play.

    The save file in your OneDrive folder appears to be a different game. At the very least I think you might be able to recover that one (I'm still checking on this). 

  • Abbie173's avatar
    Abbie173
    5 years ago

    Hi @RandomBuzziness, yes it's possible that i moved the files ☹️ but i checked and they definitely aren't in the Recycle Bin. I think maybe i moved it from the 'This PC' EA folder to the 'One Drive' EA folder. Would i work if i just moved those files back to the 'This PC' EA folder?

    In my 'This PC' EA folder it does seem to be older versions of the same save like you say, but in my 'One Drive' EA folder there seems to be different saves as they have different numbers after the 'Slot_0000000' part 

    There is just one saved game in my Main Menu screen but that's the new one i created after i had this issue because i just wanted to play lol

    This is what it says after i hover over the saved game like you did in the screenshot you sent:

    C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves\Slot_00000002.save

    Thanks again for helping me try to solve this! 🙂 

  • RandomBuzziness's avatar
    RandomBuzziness
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    @Abbie173 The part where you hovered over the little folder icon looks good, that is what you want it to say.

    The writing in your screenshot is kind of hard for me to read but it looks like there are several Sims 4 save files from earlier this year in that OneDrive folder. They are the files that are labeled as "SAVE File" in the "Type" column. If I am reading it correctly it looks like one of them is showing like this:

    Name- Slot_0000001d.save, Date- 06/04/2020, Type- SAVE File

    It looks like there might even be five of them in there? The game won't see them in this OneDrive folder because that is not your active User folder.

    You can try copying just those files that are marked as "SAVE File" from your OneDrive back into your regular Documents/Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Saves folder. Just copy & paste them do not cut & paste, we'll keep those OneDrive files as a backup for now.

    Skip the very first one that looks like it's dated from 2016. I think it says Slot_0000001 and that's just an auto save from when you first started playing & the game won't read it anyway. Just copy & paste those 5 save files from 2020. Then restart your game & see if they appear in your Main Menu again.

    I hope this helps & please let me know either way. Good luck :D

  • Abbie173's avatar
    Abbie173
    5 years ago

    @RandomBuzziness 

    YAY! I copied the files into the correct folder and they are back in my game!

    Thank you so so much for your advice, you've helped me get back more hours of game play than I care to admit! 🙂 

  • RandomBuzziness's avatar
    RandomBuzziness
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    @Abbie173 Hey that's awesome!

    LOL I have a lot of hours in my saves too xD You might want to back up your Saves and Tray folders on a regular basis so if anything ever happens again you'll know where to find them. I manually back up my Saves, Tray, and Mods folders every few days (I use mods and CC).

    If OneDrive ever gives you any problems with Sims 4 you can turn it off or disable it for your Sims 4 folders. More info on that here:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

    Anyhow, happy Simming :D
    I'm just a regular Sims player, I do not work for EA.

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