How do you organize your screenshots?

On my computer I organize them by month taken.
On Imgur I have them sorted into albums by household for sharing.

So I know that some screenshots will save to your game screenshot folder (usually ones that you take with a sims camera) but most of the time, my screenshots do not save as part of the game (maybe its because I use the tab key to zoom properly?) Not entirely sure why, it must be about the mode you take it in. I often find when I take accidental screenshots that they save to my game folder but the ones I plan never do haha

I have one main folder on my hard drive in Documents I created to store a folder for each household I've ever played in my game. I play one household per save and make a folder named after the Sim or Challenge I'm playing in that save. Inside these folders are a copy of the rules if it's a challenge, a folder each for screenshots, Sim tray files and a folder for their house tray files if I want to keep it. Since I play a lot of different saves, sometimes I will remove older saves to play later and create a save file folder in addition to the other folders previously mentioned.

For on-going challenges, such as the BuildNShare challenge, I keep a folder for each round I've entered in the main BuildNShare folder. Inside those folders will be a folder for the build tray files, a folder for any Sims created for that round and a screenshots folder, plus the rules/deadline for the round. Inside the screenshots folder is another folder for a slideshow created to present my entry for that round. Sometimes I'll even have folders inside that one for each room to better organize them for the best screenshot to include in the slideshow.

For my Drifter Challenge, I have a folder for each House in the challenge named after each House and the Sim for that House, for example; Drifter House 01 - Ella McDonough. The same as above, inside those folders is a copy of the House rules, a folder for screenshots, the Sim tray files, House tray files and one for the save game file, if it's been removed to play later or the House is finished.

In the case of the Legacy Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenge by Queenarella where I've entered several contestants, I have one main folder and inside are folders for each contestant I've entered named after the contestant and which generation they were entered for. Inside that will be a copy of their completed entry form, screenshots for their entry and a folder for the Sim tray files. Sometimes I will also have a folder for other Sims tray files associated with that round I've downloaded to put in my game.

I also have a House Plans folder. Inside are folders named after the type of build, for instance; Craftsman, Cottage, Farmhouse, Mid Century Modern, etc. Inside those are folders with blue prints for builds, any photos of the builds and sometimes photos of ideas on how to decorate it and information on typical architectural design elements. If I've actually built a house from blue prints saved in that folder, it will get a separate folder named after the in-game build. Inside that will be the original blue prints/photos, folders for the tray files and in-game screenshots.

Lastly, I have a Miscellaneous folder with folders for competition models and one-off challenges/contests, etc. and other important information such as cheat codes, photos of all the neighborhood lots with names/sizes, frog breeding chart, garden grafting combinations, all the plant types and what season they will grow, where to find them, etc., etc.

I absolutely love going back sometimes and looking at the screenshots in these folders to reminisce and/or see how much I've improved in my building skills over the years. I even have a folder with tray files for the Sims I created in the Demo before TS4 was officially released. The very first Sim I ever played in the game was ported over from that folder. <3

My folders are updated almost daily since I will remove screenshots and/or tray files to put in their respective folders after every play session and also clean up cache files, etc. Once a month or so, sometimes more frequently, I will copy this giant folder of folders to my external hard drive for safe keeping.

It sounds like a lot of work to do all this, but it really isn't if it's done consistently every time you play. The pay off is a more streamlined and lag free game, at least in my case. I started doing this when I still had my old toaster of a laptop out of necessity. I probably could get away with leaving screenshots and tray files in my game now since I have a gaming desktop. But it's become a habit and I like being able to find what I want in a snap from having everything organized in folders. :)

Happy Simming! <3

I take a lot of screenshots. I play a bazillion households in one big save so I have a few ways I divide them.

First, I have a folder with subfolders for each household. If the household is big, I might use more subfolders for each Sim. I try to sort and delete when I move pics from the screenshots folder to the proper household folder, because if I leave them all in it gets out of control.

I have a separate folder for all of my CAS shots. I take a lot of these, sometimes for posting, often times just because I like to have pics of all of the outfits I've chosen or various angles of their features. I make a fair share of fantastical "creatures" and odd Sims so I like to have some good shots of them.

Next, I have a "Special Collections" folder. Here is where I put my memorable gameplay stories. These collections can include Sims from various households getting together to have adventures or random events. I title the subfolders with something that will tell me what the happenstance was, like "Bella's Vampire Abduction" so I know exactly what's in it.

Then I have a folder called, "Edited Pics for Posting", where I keep subfolders of pics I've cropped, adjusted lighting, or collaged, etc and those are final edits that I put online. I even keep a subfolder for Avatar pics.

So, yeah, I have a lot of folders but it really helps me to be organized with my screenshots. I can do a household dump after playing and just throw pics into their household folder for sorting later, if I just want to keep my screenshot folder clean to free up the game. Videos, however, are another story. I keep those separate and don't have a system yet.

Households would be more ideal and neat.

At the moment I'm playing rotationally with one family. I organize mine by a folder for each couple, then a folder for screenshots taken during family gatherings, one for landscape and one for households that I don't play but might check in on. After reading this thread though I might Start putting each couples folder into one for their generation. :)
So right now my screenshots folder looks like this
https://i.imgur.com/zf4sn7T.png

Organize?

Thank you everyone, so many good systems and ideas! I will hopefully have time to organize my screenshots using your ideas :heart: It will probably take a few hours as I have about 2000 screenshots to sort :D

@permanentrose I have never had issues with my screenshots not saving even before I started to take pics with reshade. I always take pictures in the tab mode as it allows for much more interesting shots. That's so weird that it happens to you :( It would really make me mad, if I was taking a picture and it didn't save.

@permanentrose Do you take the pictures with c-key? That should save them to game's screenshots folder. I also use tab-mode all the time so it shouldn't affect.

On my current laptop, screenshots are sorted into folders by month, and then sub-folders within those month folders (by save file, CAS, extras, or genetics experiments which I conduct very often lol).
These are the folders in my Pictures folder (the folder labelled 'hwat' is for storing images that I've edited in GIMP to be avatars, etc. Reference images is a place to store pictures of sims that I want to draw from different angles so I don't clutter up any of my other folders)
https://i.imgur.com/HBcpn4r.png

And as an example, here is my June 2020 folder (with sub-folders for my 100 baby screenshots, CAS, extra stuff, genetics experiments (which covers at least 4 separate saves I created solely to have sims make babies in), and my current favourite save named for the first couple I started playing in it):


My screenshots on my external hard-drive are compiled from 3 separate computers, each of which have died horrible deaths, and those aren't organised at all other than chronologically and each folder not exceeding 5,000 screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/S3ghrd7.png

'Ultra screenies' is for screenshots taken on a (still alive) 4th computer that I don't play TS4 on anymore (I used it before I got my laptop). I called it 'Ultra screenies' to differentiate from the other computers, all of which could only handle the game on medium or high graphics (before they died) and it was my first time playing on ultra graphics settings.

Ultra screenies is further differentiated by save file (and has even more screenshots that I haven't sorted out yet):


I actually find it really fun to organise my screenshots, and it's cool to see how others here do it too :smiley: