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kh2w80setqk7's avatar
kh2w80setqk7
2 years ago
Solved

Cannot start because game data is missing or damaged. If you have Mods installed

I am writing here because i'm at a total loss. i don't know what to do anymore....

I am on a macbook air 

my sims 4 game is installed on my laptop but my electronic arts folder is on a usb drive (i followed a tutorial where it appears both on my documents folder and on my usb folder so i have more space) 

i have been able to transfer all my old cc on my usb drive perfectly and everything is there and the game is playable 

i even went on a major download spree and added more cc into my game and everything was working perfectly

but somehow i purchased the premium on tsr today and went on a download spree and now i get this error when i transfer the mods

usually it tells me a specific mod is corrupt but sometimes it just says game data is missing or damaged

i deleted the corrupted file one at a time until i realized it was all 500+ of my new files! How are ALL these files corrupt?

even when i try to download any new files from anywhere else i still get this error! 

I've tried everything!

repairing my game, replacing my mods folder, deleting .cache files, etc 

my game still works perfectly fine with my old mods folder with my old mods but i can't add anything new no matter where its from

please help!!!

mac
  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    IM SO HAPPY 

    i wanted to write to you because i was able to figure out what was wrong (hopefully it stays working for good)

    but i guess APFS wasn't the right format for my drive and i changed it to extended (journaled) and just like magic everything worked!

    i feel like crying tears of joy who knew it was such a simple fix?

    thank you so much for being patient with me and working with me because i was about to give up 

    hopefully this may help someone in the future who was having problems like this

    hopefully there won't be any further problems lol 

29 Replies

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago
    @kh2w80setqk7

    Please tell me the name of one of the pieces of CC that isn’t working. I can download it and test in my installation which uses the symlink for the Sims 4 folder. Make sure it’s a free piece of CC, nothing behind a paywall.
  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    well now it seems like my game isn't running properly anymore so i uninstalled the game and i'm reinstalling it (backing up my tray, saves, and mods) hopefully this gives me some positive progress

    update: nothing ground breaking. i wanted to mention that when i refresh my sims 4 folder (delete and letting the game regenerate) my game options don't save. I click no music, enable mods and script files and press apply and exit game. it'll save once, but when i exit game to test again the options regenerate back to original and i have to keep changing it over an over

    ALSO i refreshed the mods folder but when i try to add a few of my mods to the folder it doesn't show up in game whatsoever 

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago
    @kh2w80setqk7

    If you've successfully created the symlink then you don't just delete the Sims 4 folder. This is clear in the instructions to troubleshoot.

    A clean Sims 4 folder is just that, clean and vanilla without any of your saved content including in-game options.
  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    im at a total loss because i've been trying to figure this out for 3 days and im constantly getting the run around without a solution

    my usb is formatted to APFS 

    i completely uninstalled sims 4 and reinstalled with a new electronic arts folder just so i can start over from scratch. i backed up my mods

    my game works perfectly fine on my computer but as soon as i do the symlink in terminal (which appears to work fine because the folder shows up in the usb and in my documents with the black arrow so i know i did that right)

    as soon as i do the symlink what happens is: my game settings resets every time i load the game, my cc don't show up, its just a fresh game but none of my settings saves! 

    im very close to giving up on this but i make content on youtube and i need this to work im desperate!

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago
    @kh2w80setqk7

    Can you post screenshots showing the folder and its contents on the external drive and the local folder on your Mac.
  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    on the left is my drive (with my original mods folder on the side because there is 50gb of mods and i only have like 2 cc to test in the electronic arts mods folder which doesn't show up in game)

    my documents folder on the right

  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    here is whats inside the electronic arts folder

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago
    @kh2w80setqk7

    Thanks. Can you put in list view in Finder and show screenshots of the contents of the two Electronic Arts folders so the date modified columns are clearly visible. Then please open the Sims 4 folders within the EA folders and screenshot those too. Lastly do the same for the Mods folders. Please turn on Show Path Bar in Finder too so the file path can be seen in Finder, you can cover up your user account name, don't need that.
  • kh2w80setqk7's avatar
    kh2w80setqk7
    2 years ago

    ok here are the screenshots

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago
    @kh2w80setqk7

    Thanks. That all looks fine. The modified time on your saves folder is 3 minutes before you took the screenshot. Do you have a save that successfully saved at that time?

    I looked up the CC to test on my Mac with the symlink but it's from TSR, a site I refuse to use. Do you have a piece of CC to test that isn't from there or any paywalled sites that I can also download and test?

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