🛠️ Creating a symlink in macOS to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive

I followed yours🙂 Yes, I'm aware, but I don't know how to reformat the hard drive? 

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to all of my newbie questions

Thank you! I have a lot of important files on my hard drive, and it seems risky to format the drive. I will not take the risk of losing all of my files. Does this mean I won't be able to launch the game at all?

Okay thank you

Hi again! I have now found a solution as to how I can install the game and the mods on my hard drive after all. I have another hard drive which I can format if necessary. My question is now how I can safely move the game and the mods to the other hard drive. Btw, I would usually try to do it all on my own, but I'm scared I will lose data or my files if I make any mistakes. Therefore, I ask you first🙂 

@annakristineb97 

To avoid any corruption of the install I would uninstall the game then change the game library location in Origin to the new drive, then re-download the game again.

For your user data (Sims 4 folder) you need to reverse the current symlink then redo it to the new drive.

There’s always a risk to lose files when moving stuff around and creating symlinks but so long as you have backups it doesn’t matter 🙂

I see! Thank you! I need to reverse the symlink even though I never created one, as you recommended me not to?

Also, I don't know if this matters, but as of now I don't have any data/active games in the Sims 4. The mods are the only thing I'm worried about losing in the moving process 🙂

I have not created a symlink for the Sims game itself, as this update didn't require it (Based on what you wrote to me here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Moving-mods-and-Sims-4-to-external-hard-drive-MAC/m-p/11351076#M49421).

I have indeed created a symlink for the Electronic Arts folder as showed in the instructions 🙂 

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@annakristineb97 wrote:

I have not created a symlink for the Sims game itself, as this update didn't require it (Based on what you wrote to me here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Moving-mods-and-Sims-4-to-external-hard-drive-MAC/m-p/11351076#M49421).

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There has never been a need for creating a symlink for storing the game externally. Please do not confuse the Origin workaround with creating a symlink.

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@annakristineb97 wrote:

I have indeed created a symlink for the Electronic Arts folder as showed in the instructions 🙂 

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Exactly, so you now need to reverse that symlink if you are going to use a different drive and then create a new symlink to the new external drive. If you don't do this your Mac will forever point towards your current drive that you don't want to reformat when the game loads your user data. This wiki page may help you better understand what a symlink is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link 

How do you reverse the symlink?

Hi everyone - I'm really hoping someone can help me!

I use a Mac and play Sims 4 (via Origin) from an external hard drive using a symlink. I accidentally unplugged the drive while still playing, and of course got a notification that it hadn't been ejected properly. I immediately plugged it back in and tried exiting the game (without saving) but the loading wheel just kept spinning, so I force quit the app. Then I quit Origin and tried to start over, but now I'm getting this error message when I try to launch again.

This actually happened to me once before and the only thing I could do to fix the problem was reverse the symlink, completely uninstall and wipe every trace of Origin/Sims 4 from my laptop, and then re-download both and redo the symlink. I'm DREADING having to repeat that process again, so I'm really hoping there's an easier fix. 

For more context, I don't currently have Origin and Sims installed on the same drive. When I had to re-do this whole process the first time I made this mistake, things installed differently for some reason and I was too exhausted to investigate lol. I'm not sure how to fix that and have them together, but the game has been running perfectly up until this ejecting issue. Okay, I'm done panic rambling... please help SOS. Let me know if any other screenshots would be helpful lol

Hello! So, I play The Sims 4 on my MacBook Air using an external hard drive, thanks to a symlink I had to create (meaning that the Electronic Arts folder is entirely moved to the external hard drive, and there's just a shortcut in my computer's Documents to the Electronic Arts folder).

My situation is this: I downloaded the Newsea Holic hair, but when I opened the game, I got the following message: "cannot start because the file appears to be corrupted. if this file is a mod.... .../users/myname/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/newsea sims2 hair j057f_holic_mesh.package" (I get that it says sims2, but it came with a Sims 4 recolor of the same hair). Meaning, the file is located in the original Documents, not on the external drive (I think, I don't know, these are my conclusions).

I moved the said corrupted files to the trash, but they aren't moving. The trash bin is empty, and the files are still there, but like ghosts? I don't know; the option "move to trash" doesn't even appear, so yeah, I don't know what to do. Can somebody help me?

This is the only CC I've had a problem like this. I have lots of CC installed, and all of them go smoothly with my game

I have been downloading some CC, but ever since I've downloaded this one, this has been happening. There's an update left in my mac, but the game itself is all updated. My drive is formated correctly, I had to reformat it to fit the mac's standard to make the symlink.

Oh no its completely ok! You dont seem to be asking dumb at all! 🙂

The format i chose for the drive is APFS MacOS expanded (journaling).

Yes, this is only happening to this single piece of CC.

My version lf mac is 11.7.9

In my opinion, I feel like the https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/ steps needs to be re-written or updated.

Previously, when I first used my external hard drive when I first started playing the Sims 4... the steps from the above article worked seamlessly until for some reason I could not open my Sims 4 game.

It resulted me to impulsively start over aka delete, delete delete and erase everything from my Sims 4 game. I relied heavily on my iCloud drive since then until I am getting a popup window from my MAC telling me that I am low on storage and I would need to force quit some applications in order for the Mac to operate correctly (Which the only applications are the Finder and my Sims 4 game).

If you are one of the few that are experiencing the issues above and wish to finally start your MACOS... here's what you need to do.

As mentioned before in the article.

1. You would have to make sure to hook up your external hard drive to your MAC computer

2. Open Disk Utility

3. Select the first category of your External Hard Portable Drive

4. Click Erase, then make sure to select the Journaled option for your hard drive, then Erase.

5. This is optional but after my hard drive is erased, I eject my external hard drive from my computer then re-connect it again.

 Now the here's the fun part.

I did follow the steps in Step 1, I ironically named my external hard drive as USB.

1. After I moved the Electronics Folder that was from my iCloud drive to my External Hard Drive (USB), I did notice all of the contents from the iCloud Drive Electronics Folder was gone but what's left was just the Electronics Folder.

2. I followed Step 2 to create a symlink, problem was.... THE FOLDER ALREADY EXISTS in the original iCloud drive.

What did I do?

The user who often replies to the help inquiries suggest that the Electronics Folder should be gone in your iCloud drive Documents section and should appear as an "alias" folder after you moved the content using the mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/USB/ code in Terminal.

I did a social/technical experiment on my end by deleting the existing Electronic Arts Folder in my iCloud/Documents section.Then I proceed to create a sym link to create an alias.

I started my Sims game and noticed that not only did it start up quickly, but it got me to the dashboard quickly. So you know what that means? The Symlink was not correctly created and linked.

I quite my Sims 4 game, then headed over to my iCloud/documents section and noticed that I now see two Electronic Arts folders: 1. Electronic Arts folder that looks like it was downloading the content from my External Hard (that was also created because I started up Sims 4) and 2. The Electronic Alias folder that I previously attempted to symlink.

Let's try this again: I deleted both of those folders from my iCloud/Documents section.... then re-tried to create that symlink again by inputting the code ln -s /Volumes/USB/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents/. The Electronic Folder alias now is the only Electronic Arts related folder that is shown in my iCloud/Documents folder.

The moment of truth: I start up my Sims 4 game, and noticed how not only my external hard drive light is blinking, but my game is starting very slow.... and I knew there was a chance of hope.

Sims 4 loading screen appears and it appears that all of my CC did NOW transfer over successfully to my game aka THE SYMLINK IS FINALLY CONNECTING.

I hope this helps anyone who is experiencing the same thing that I was experiencing.