Forum Discussion

5 years ago

Issue with Origins, Sims 4, and External Hard Drive

Good evening! I'm having issues with loading my Sims 4 game from my LaCie External Hard Drive. I had no issues until I updated Origins today. I set my Installs and Saves to the directory path for th...

mac

Bluebellflora

Hero+

5 years ago

@TonyTiger09

The game installs the user data to Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4. If there is no folder there it will create one each time you load the game. There are ways round this by creating a symlink to an external drive or by using 3rd party software to do it for you to a cloud server.

The Sims 4 Packs folder is fine. Your DLC is now installed in this separate folder in the same location as the Sims 4 app - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/The-Sims-4-macOS-Notarization-FAQ/m-p/8876253#M29009

TonyTiger09
5 years ago
@Bluebellflora
Good afternoon,
Thank you! Based upon this explanation and the link you provided, I understand a little better what is going on. However, why are none of my save files and any of my Mods (downloaded content) even appearing in my game anymore? Again, I have the installs and saves directed to my External Hard Drive, so I cannot fully grasp why they are not pulling through to my game (but the game, which is installed on my External Hard Drive, still plays).
- Bluebellflora
  Hero+
  5 years ago
  @TonyTiger09
  
  If you have moved your Sims 4 folder from Documents > Electronic Arts, or even just the saves folder within, to the external drive then the game does not know where to look so just recreates it in the default location. This explains it better and links to the two options I mentioned in my previous post - https://bluebellflora.com/2020/03/01/if-youre-running-out-of-space-to-play-the-sims-here-are-your-options-for-storing-your-data-externally/
  
  You can't just move your saves folder to another location and hope the game knows where you have moved it to, and there is no way of changing the file path in the game sadly ☹️
  - TonyTiger09
    5 years ago
    @Bluebellflora
    This makes a lot of sense. Interestingly enough, I was able to launch the game and all of my saves/CC from just the external drive without using those methods, but perhaps that was just based on luck.
    So I am able to load the game and have it installed on my external hard drive, but the saves/CC should be stored locally on my computer, right? I can deal with that if that's what I need to do since I won't have to install the Sims 4 on my internal hard drive.