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Bluebellflora's avatar
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago

🛠️ 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
keeyawnuh's avatar
keeyawnuh
2 years ago

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.

Bluebellflora's avatar
Bluebellflora
Hero+
2 years ago

@keeyawnuh 

Thanks for the feedback, always welcome especially when helpful for others 🙂 . I won't be updating the guide, let me explain why:

  1. The guide is intended for those running out of space on their internal drive seeking to store data externally. If a user has iCloud Drive enabled for the Documents folder, together with Optimise Mac Storage, that is their choice and they should fully understand what having these options enabled means, including any effect on relying on locally stored data as opposed to cloud based. Apple make using a computer very easy for the basic user. They enable various options in the OS by default, ask during setup, or prompt for permission during usage. Most users simply click the Yes/Allow/Enable option because Apple recommends doing so, so they do it. Similarly when the OS asks for permission, and the Deny button is the highlighted option, for example the game accessing the Documents folder, users click Deny, because Apple recommended it.
  2. Creating the symlink can have serious consequences if not correctly pointing to the right locations. It may still work, even with different file paths specified, if files with the exact filenames exist in that location (but it may be the wrong location for the game). A symlink cannot be erased, only reversed. If the user has created the symlink in error, they need to remember what they entered, or arrow up in Terminal, to find the command to correctly reverse it and then figure out how to reverse it.
  3. Creating a symlink is reasonably technical and for that reason I don't believe in holding someone's hand whilst doing it. There should be a good grasp of why and what they are doing before attempting it. If the user properly understands this then they will be able to figure out the correct file path if their setup is different, for example if optimising storage is enabled.
  4. Having iCloud enabled, having iCloud Drive enabled, and having Optimise Mac Storage enabled within iCloud Drive are different and should be properly understood by the user (point 1 above). iCloud Drive can share the Desktop & Documents folder to iCloud if enabled. This has no bearing on the symlink command IF there is internal disk space available, the command is the same as on my guide because the files are still local. The problem happens when internal disk space is full and iCloud starts moving files and folders to the cloud as they are then no longer local but depend on the iCloud > Documents file path which the game won't recognise so will attempt to create a new Sims 4 folder locally.
  5. Every user's setup is different. No guide would cover all bases. I have provided a written guide and a video guide to give users a set of tools to use. How they use those tools and if they understand what to do with them is up to them. If a user can't figure out a deviation of the file path in the command I recommend they read up on the process more and have a practice.
@keeyawnuh wrote:

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).


Was this error message related to internal disk space or was it related to VRAM? The OS uses free space on the internal drive as virtual memory when needed. If space is being used up you will get a similar or the same message, I forget which. Restarting your Mac clears the VRAM resulting in more available internal disk space.

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