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TonyTiger09's avatar
TonyTiger09
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...
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Bluebellflora's avatar
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's avatar
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. 

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    5 years ago
    @TonyTiger09

    You must have had the Sims 4 folder in the Documents folder or maybe using iCloud Drive? The game cannot load saves stored on an external drive unless you trick it into thinking the stored content is actually in the default Docs > EA folder stored locally by one of those methods.

    Yes, you can happily have the game installed on an external just so long as the default location for game installs has been changed to reflect this in Origin 🙂
    • TonyTiger09's avatar
      TonyTiger09
      5 years ago

      @Bluebellflora 

      I completely remember now. I haven't played in a month, and so I did have the folder in my Documents tab, and I was somehow confused last night after the update and deleted the entire folder from my Documents tab on my internal hard drive. I remember telling myself I would back up all of the Sims 4 data on my external hard drive so I would have a copy should anything ever happen to my computer. 

      Wow, I need to play the Sims 4 more! Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it! I'm just a heap of confusion!

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