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

➡️ This is not to be confused with installing the actual Sims 4 game on an external drive. The game installation location is determined in EA App and there is no need to use a symlink for this. As ...

external drive

file structure

icloud

mac

z7zax3jmeh8r

3 years ago

@BluebellfloraI don't seem to have the same options...?

Bluebellflora

Hero+

3 years ago

@z7zax3jmeh8r

But it has Full Disk Access so that’s fine. What access does the game have in that screenshot?

z7zax3jmeh8r
3 years ago
@Bluebellflora It also has Full Disk Access, the same as under Terminal
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago
@z7zax3jmeh8r

Can you copy/paste the output you’re getting from Terminal when you enter the move command?
z7zax3jmeh8r
3 years ago
@Bluebellflora I didn't want to paste everything because it's quite long (basically every line is saying that a specific content from the Electronic Arts folder has no such file or directory).
But this is what comes up:
cp: /sims4drive: Read-only file system
cp: /Users/name/Documents/Electronic Arts: unable to copy extended attributes to /sims4drive: Read-only file system
cp: /sims4drive/.DS_Store: No such file or directory
cp: /sims4drive/The Sims 4: No such file or directory
cp: /Users/name/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4: unable to copy extended attributes to /sims4drive/The Sims 4: No such file or directory

…

cp: /Users/name/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4: unable to copy ACL to /sims4drive/The Sims 4: No such file or directory
cp: utimensat: /sims4drive: No such file or directory
cp: chown: /sims4drive: No such file or directory
cp: chmod: /sims4drive: No such file or directory
cp: chflags: /sims4drive: No such file or directory
cp: /Users/name/Documents/Electronic Arts: unable to copy ACL to /sims4drive: Read-only file system
mv: /bin/cp /Users/name/Documents/Electronic Arts /sims4drive/: terminated with 1 (non-zero) status
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago
@z7zax3jmeh8r

And the exact command you’re entering please. Also a screenshot showing the contents of the external drive in Finder with the path bar visible at the bottom of the Finder window.
z7zax3jmeh8r
3 years ago
@Bluebellflora
mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /sims4drive/
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago
@z7zax3jmeh8r

Thanks. Is your game successfully launching from the external? The game library location in Origin is showing /Volumes/sims4drive? I’m asking these two specific questions to make sure the Mac is properly accessing the external and successfully launching the game. Sometimes people move/install the game to the external but didn’t correctly change the Origin game location so it’s still launching from the Applications folder.
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago
@z7zax3jmeh8r

Also, your command is wrong. You haven’t correctly copied and pasted from my guide as there is no Volumes in the file path.
z7zax3jmeh8r
3 years ago
@Bluebellflora Yes, the game works from the external 🙂
z7zax3jmeh8r
3 years ago
@Bluebellflora Oh thank you so much, I didn't look closely enough!