Playing Sims 4 on External HD Mac
BluebellFlora, Thank you for being so helpful to many people. I followed your website instructions very carefully for the symlink to my external hard drive that I formatted APFS beforehand. I gave...
Forum Discussion
- No, you need to change the game library installation location in Origin > Application Settings > Installs & Saves. Mine is installed on an external. After changing the location I would download a fresh copy of the game and packs to avoid any corruption from moving apps around:
- After you have successfully done step 1, yes.
- Changing the location in step 1 applies to the base game and Sims 4 Packs folder. No symlink is needed.
- Yes. The symlink is used to move your Sims 4 user data folder containing your saves, tray etc. files to the external. Installing the game on an external doesn't require a symlink, that's why you need to do step 1.
- Origin will do this once you have completed step 1.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Great! This provided the clarification I need. Thank you!
hmm... I played it just great yesterday so I know it DID work. Now it is telling me Sims 4 is already running. I looked at the original instructions and the instructions of other people who had this problem too but I can't seem to find a solution.
I put both of these in terminal originally:
mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/SimsHD/
ln -s /Volumes/SimsHD/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents/
Origin AND Sims 4 have permissions to access removable volumes and folders.
Origin still has installs and saves going to /volumes/SimsHD
In my SimsHD drive I also right clicked Get Info and made sure that everything is read and write for everyone.
I don't get what is going on!- @thelordsgrace
It sounds and looks like everything is where it should be. I don't know of any other reason it could be popping up with that error. This person posted why it was happening for them https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/#comment-67624 maybe that helps although you are moving the EA folder like I did.
Can you screenshot the permissions in System Preferences > Files & Folders for Origin and the game?Yeah. I also do not understand. I do not have any game user data folders and I never did that command in terminal. I'm so confused. I also have a Macbook air from 2014, in macOSCatalina Version 10.15.3.
I've been following some of your steps for getting TS4 onto my SSD drive. So far, it's been working! I do have a few questions.
1. If I uninstall and reinstall my game + the expansion pack with the new game library location, will I still lose all of my data if I do the EA file transfer through your Smylink method?
2. At what point in this process can I delete the sims files from my internal drive?
3. Do you have a link to one post with every step/ method to complete transfer TS4 + your data successfully and fully on an external HD? I've been following alot of the post, but It seems like I learn about a new process/step that I also must do in each individual post and I don't want to leave anything out!
4. Additionally, what do I do about my expansion pack data? I notice I have a separate file that is dedicated to the sims 4 packs.
Thank you so much, you've been extremely helpful!
- Game installation location and the TS4 user data folder are two completely separate entities.
- Which Sims files, game installation or the TS4 user data folder?
- No but there are two distinct posts:
- Installing the game on an external - https://bluebellflora.com/2020/11/26/external-drive-not-showing-in-origin/
- Storing the Sims 4 user data folder on an external - https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/
- The Sims 4 Packs folder is automatically installed with the base game and contains all the DLC. If you move this folder to a different location Origin won't think you have any DLC installed and will prompt to re-download
🙂
- @Bluebellflora
2. Both the game installation and user data folder, if both are successfully transferred onto the external SSD.
So, as long as I transfer my TS4 user data to the external HD, I can uninstall the game from my internal drive and reinstall the TS4 onto the external SSD without having to start over?
@Bluebellflora Hi I'm having a similar problem, except when I look to change the game library location, my external hard drive doesn't show up. Is there any way I can fix this? I can't do school work on my computer without putting the Sims 4 somewhere else.
- @ewp2k2
My comment here on page 1 links to instructions https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Playing-Sims-4-on-External-HD-Mac/m-p/10264749#M45771
