Organizing your game saves!

It depends on how you save. I always do "Save as" because multiple saves for each 'game' help me to be able to roll back if something horrible happens. (My sims married Johnny Zest and he dropped dead on the sidewalk on their wedding day of hysteria) The multi-save would have helped me save him to an earlier time had I done the save as thing back then. Its part of the reason I started doing this.

If you just click save, then there will only be one file per save because the game will overwrite the old one each time.

One thing I do know is that you can check which save is which by going to 'Load Game' on the main menu screen. This will show the active family for each save and name of the game if you gave it one. Next to the pic is a little folder icon which will show you the 'slot' name of that file (just hover mouse over it) that you can then find in your Sims 4 folder.
https://i.gyazo.com/6cb78bd57760a15ec8c7848953568a49.png


This is how I originally sorted my games into my current system.

Personally, I use copies of the entire Sims 4 folder under Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 and store a clean copy as backup. Then each 'version' of my game is then stored with a name at the end of the folder name since the game launch will only use the one called 'The Sims 4' meaning mine looks like this :
https://i.gyazo.com/86a6aed1f4fd9703757b05e1bc086a44.png

This way, anytime I want to use one of the other saves, I simply rename the current one with the appropriate name tagged on and rename the save I want to move into as 'The Sims 4'. In the pic, my 'The Sims 4' folder is my Supersim game that I'm currently playing, so if I move on to another it will become 'The Sims 4 - Supersim' until I need it again.

I then store my mods sorted into folders in a Master folder so i can pull out the ones i want for an individual game save and copy them over. I don't use all my mods in all my games. Most of my CC is used in my Supersim and Berry legacy games, Regrowth challenge has only the victorian-esque etc CC required to recreate the time periods and the others just keep basic 'fix' mods like MCCC and a mod that stops vampire pestering. This way I don't end up with tons of mods i don't want cluttering up every single game, just the ones they're needed in.

This system has the benefit of allowing me to store aging settings and other settings that are needed for certain challenges without having to change them all each time I swap games (or forget to change them - oops). I find this so much easier than hopping between settings, and remembering all the settings I need for each one. It also automatically means all snapshots related to one game are store in a folder inside that game rather than all smooshed together in a giant folder.

I use a year count, playing years of 28 days (7 days per season). The year number will be part of the save name. In the long run I might delete every save but the 5th or 10th. Not sure if it will make the game run more smoothly if fewer saves. I like to keep a few historical saves in case I need to go back checking something, or getting old painting/photos etc.

@simwolf I'd never have thought to simply switch entire game folders between sessions before! The only heavy switching I do is switching out mods between saves, and I might try to do that at a later date, if not for the fact I can switch between saves within one game session lol. :smiley:

@paradiseplanet :) Glad I could help