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LeoMontgomery's avatar
LeoMontgomery
Rising Rookie
2 years ago
Solved

Can't download Sims 4 on eternal hard drive, mac

Hi!

I am unable to install The Sims 4 on my external hard drive. After one of the patches following the From Rent expansion I started getting visual glitches, specifically red and white stripes and question marks covering my characters. I tried repairing the game multiple times, restarted my computer, but nothing changed. I therefor uninstalled the game but since then I have not been able to reinstall it in the exact same location as i had it previously.

The error I get: a pop up that says "Verifying The sims 4" but the progress bar is frozen. The game is not installed at the location I have specified (do not see the application in folder).

What I've tried: completely removing Origin as per BluebellFlora's instruction in the megathread "Compiled list of mac specific issues", then reinstalling origin, reinstalling only The Sims 4 base game. However the exact same issue occurs. I have tried a "Origin reset tool", uninstalled and tried reinstalling and repairing countless times, following many threads on here but nothing has changed. 

I have full permissions for the external hard drive (read and write). I have removed all files pertaining to the sims (so the full Electronic Arts folder in documents). 

When the initial graphical issue occurred i did not have any mods installed. 

Please help me solve this issue and troubleshoot it, I own every expansion and game pack, and most stuff packs. This is a huge sum of money being utterly wasted for weeks now. If I can't fix this, leaving the game literally unplayable, I hope there is a way to apply for a refund. 

Best regards, Leo

mac
  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    2 years ago

    @LeoMontgomery 

    Really helpful, thanks 🙂 Is it this one? https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/products/external-hard-drives/backup-plus/ if so I found the read/write speeds and more technical info here and they aren't great. The drive is a 5400rpm HDD which is slow by today's standards. Slow speed means data is more likely to corrupt when using it for installed software that is constantly reading and writing and Sims 4 has to load a lot of data from the drive to run. The visual glitches you're getting are a common indicator of a corrupted game installation.

    You really need an SSD with much faster speeds. I wrote a guide a little while ago on the best type of drive to use for the game.

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  • LeoMontgomery's avatar
    LeoMontgomery
    Rising Rookie
    2 years ago

    Thank you so much for responding! I'm using a Seagate external drive, and I'm not sure if this is answering the question about what type of connection I have but I went to About Mac -> system report and under Hardware USB I have: USB 3.0 Bus and USB 3.1 Bus, last one with a BUP Slim SL underneath. It's a couple of years old so I couldnt find the exact one via P/N number, but it's called "Backup Plus Portable Drive".

    I hope I provided the correct information you asked about

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    2 years ago

    @LeoMontgomery 

    Really helpful, thanks 🙂 Is it this one? https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/products/external-hard-drives/backup-plus/ if so I found the read/write speeds and more technical info here and they aren't great. The drive is a 5400rpm HDD which is slow by today's standards. Slow speed means data is more likely to corrupt when using it for installed software that is constantly reading and writing and Sims 4 has to load a lot of data from the drive to run. The visual glitches you're getting are a common indicator of a corrupted game installation.

    You really need an SSD with much faster speeds. I wrote a guide a little while ago on the best type of drive to use for the game.

  • LeoMontgomery's avatar
    LeoMontgomery
    Rising Rookie
    2 years ago

    Thank you so much Bluebell Flora! And apologies for this late reply. You indeed found the correct external drive, that looks a lot like a modern version of what I have! 

    If I'm understanding you correctly, it's time for me to upgrade my hard drive to one that has an SSD. I did at one point install only the base game on my internal mac drive, and that did not prompt the error. All in all, it's the external drive that's being a menace in all this. 

    I'm going to carefully read the links you provided. Thank you so much for your help and information, I would have been completely lost on my own and not dared to invest in something pricey in case it wouldn't likely solve the issue. It will take a while until I can buy a new drive, but now I have something to aim for.

    Once I've bought the drive and tested it out I will update this thread and mark it as solved if that is the outcome. It might take 2 months though (worst case). 

    Thank you again!

  • LeoMontgomery's avatar
    LeoMontgomery
    Rising Rookie
    8 months ago

    This is much much later than I ever intended, but I've finally been able to purchase an SSD external hard drive. It has a USB-C connection. And my game is working again! I can now play with all my packs installed on the external hard drive and I haven't had any visual glitches during the two "sessions" I've played so far.

    Thank you so so much Bluebell Flora for helping out, I can't thank you enough 🙂 

    Best regards, Leo

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