[INFO] Using Mods/CC on a Mac
For Sims 4, the process of installing mods and custom content on a Mac is the same as it is on a Windows PC. Standard mods and cc work equally well (or not at all) in both OSs, and the Sims 4 user folder has the same form and function as well. There are however a couple of technical aspects to take into consideration which this post aims to address.
This guide is only for technical questions about using mods and custom content in macOS. For help with specific mods or cc, or for in-game issues that may be mod-related, please see @luthienrising's master Mod and CC Issues Support thread pinned to the top of the Mod/CC Issues forum, or create your own thread in this forum.
For Curseforge-related questions, please use this thread.
jump to: Documents stored in iCloud Drive
jump to: Mods/cc stored in a custom location
jump to: Problems with storing data externally
jump to: "Unable to start," file appears to be corrupted
jump to: Formatting an external drive for mods/cc
jump to: Transferring files between computers
jump to: Problems loading overrides or default replacements
For Documents stored in iCloud Drive
In addition to enabling iCloud syncing, some users will have also have iCloud Drive enabled, pushing Documents to cloud storage. If you have done this and also enabled the "Optimize Storage" option, you may run into problems with mods/cc, saves, etc. disappearing or not loading. Please see this guide:
And post in that thread if you need further help on the subject.
For mods/cc stored in a custom location
In order to store mods and custom content on an external drive, or any location other than Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, you will need to create a symbolic link to tell Sims 4 where to look for the data. The external drive must be formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This is the definitive guide for storing data externally:
https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/
If you need further help setting up the symbolic link, please post in this thread:
Common problems associated with storing mods/cc externally
jump to: "Unable to start," file appears to be corrupted
Mods/cc don't show up in-game
Double-check that the symbolic link was created correctly and that your files are in the proper location. You should be able to double-click the symlink you created (the Sims 4 or Electronic Arts folder with the little arrow in the corner) and jump to the folder it points to. If this doesn't happen, the symlink wasn't created properly, or your computer isn't recognizing the external drive.
To see the exact location of a file, right-click it and select Get Info, then look for the file path listed as "Where." My external drive is titled "Sims stuff."
"Unable to start: Cannot start because the file below appears to be corrupted."
Note that despite my storing my user data on an external drive, the message above still lists the file's location as Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4. This is normal.
When this happens for one or a few files:
- The mod or cc item(s) may be broken, outdated, or otherwise not compatible with Sims 4. Please remove the file(s) from your Mods folder and test with a different one.
- The file(s) may be corrupt. Please download and test a fresh copy.
When this happens with most or all files:
- If the Mods folder is on an external drive, the drive may have an incompatible format, for example exFAT. Please see this section below.
- If the Mods folder was transferred from another computer, the files may have been corrupted in transit. Please see this section below.
How to format an external drive for storing mods/cc
Formatting a drive will erase it, so start by transferring any existing data you want to preserve to a different location. Open Applications > Utilities, launch Disk Utility, click View > Show All Devices (green), and you'll see something like this:
The main volume for my drive is exFAT (blue), which is incompatible with Sims 4 mod/cc .package files. So I need to erase the volume (red), choosing APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead. The alternative, if the drive has enough free space, is to choose Partition, to the left of Erase, and create a new partition with the format of your choice. You can find more information on partitions and containers in this Apple article.
If you see "Erase process has failed," erase the entire drive, titled "USB SanDisk 3.2" in my screenshot above. Choose "GUID Partition Map" as the Scheme and APFS as the Format.
Transferring files between computers
Mods and custom content files can be corrupted when transferred between computers, or more specifically to an external drive and then onto a different computer. This is particularly true when transferring between two different operating systems, e.g. from macOS to Windows.
The workaround is to zip the folder that contains the files before transferring it, then unzip it once it's on the new computer. This protects the files from corruption. In macOS, right-click a folder and select Compress to zip it, and double-click it to unzip. In Windows, right-click and select Send to > Compressed (zip) file to zip, and right-click and Extract to extract.
Overrides/default replacements
With overrides and default replacements, the load order matters: files loading in the wrong order can mean some don't show up in-game at all. Please see this post for a thorough explanation and a way to specify the load order for your cc:
Thanks to @Bluebellflora for consulting on and editing this guide.
