Re: 🛠️ Creating a symlink in macOS to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive

Thank you for explaining! I managed to successfully move the Electronic Arts folder to my hard drive, but I'm now facing a new problem. When creating the symlink for the Electronic Arts folder, it doesn't say "alias" in my local documents folder as described in the tutorial. 

Sorry, it got changed to "alias" now, so I think it will be working.

I managed to do all the steps, but I'm getting a message when I try to start the game. I get this  message with a different mod every time I try to open the Sims game. Do you know what I can do about this without having to delete all of my mods?

I followed yours🙂 Yes, I'm aware, but I don't know how to reformat the hard drive? 

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to all of my newbie questions

Thank you! I have a lot of important files on my hard drive, and it seems risky to format the drive. I will not take the risk of losing all of my files. Does this mean I won't be able to launch the game at all?

Okay thank you

Hi again! I have now found a solution as to how I can install the game and the mods on my hard drive after all. I have another hard drive which I can format if necessary. My question is now how I can safely move the game and the mods to the other hard drive. Btw, I would usually try to do it all on my own, but I'm scared I will lose data or my files if I make any mistakes. Therefore, I ask you first🙂 

@annakristineb97 

To avoid any corruption of the install I would uninstall the game then change the game library location in Origin to the new drive, then re-download the game again.

For your user data (Sims 4 folder) you need to reverse the current symlink then redo it to the new drive.

There’s always a risk to lose files when moving stuff around and creating symlinks but so long as you have backups it doesn’t matter 🙂

I see! Thank you! I need to reverse the symlink even though I never created one, as you recommended me not to?

Also, I don't know if this matters, but as of now I don't have any data/active games in the Sims 4. The mods are the only thing I'm worried about losing in the moving process 🙂

I have not created a symlink for the Sims game itself, as this update didn't require it (Based on what you wrote to me here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Moving-mods-and-Sims-4-to-external-hard-drive-MAC/m-p/11351076#M49421).

I have indeed created a symlink for the Electronic Arts folder as showed in the instructions 🙂 

---

@annakristineb97 wrote:

I have not created a symlink for the Sims game itself, as this update didn't require it (Based on what you wrote to me here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Moving-mods-and-Sims-4-to-external-hard-drive-MAC/m-p/11351076#M49421).

---

There has never been a need for creating a symlink for storing the game externally. Please do not confuse the Origin workaround with creating a symlink.

---

@annakristineb97 wrote:

I have indeed created a symlink for the Electronic Arts folder as showed in the instructions 🙂 

---

Exactly, so you now need to reverse that symlink if you are going to use a different drive and then create a new symlink to the new external drive. If you don't do this your Mac will forever point towards your current drive that you don't want to reformat when the game loads your user data. This wiki page may help you better understand what a symlink is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link 

How do you reverse the symlink?

Hi! I was reading the thread to see if I could come to my own resolution but i have to ask now bc of this comment. How did you manage to successfully move your Electronic Arts folder into your hard drive? I've done everything else but this is my current issue I'm running into. Every time I load the game, my mac creates a new electronic arts folder in "documents - local". You also had that same pop up as me that was newly updated and looks different from OP (the 4 folder: applications, library, system, users". I don't have the tab OP was referring to either, I have what you have. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you. 

Hi everyone - I'm really hoping someone can help me!

I use a Mac and play Sims 4 (via Origin) from an external hard drive using a symlink. I accidentally unplugged the drive while still playing, and of course got a notification that it hadn't been ejected properly. I immediately plugged it back in and tried exiting the game (without saving) but the loading wheel just kept spinning, so I force quit the app. Then I quit Origin and tried to start over, but now I'm getting this error message when I try to launch again.

This actually happened to me once before and the only thing I could do to fix the problem was reverse the symlink, completely uninstall and wipe every trace of Origin/Sims 4 from my laptop, and then re-download both and redo the symlink. I'm DREADING having to repeat that process again, so I'm really hoping there's an easier fix. 

For more context, I don't currently have Origin and Sims installed on the same drive. When I had to re-do this whole process the first time I made this mistake, things installed differently for some reason and I was too exhausted to investigate lol. I'm not sure how to fix that and have them together, but the game has been running perfectly up until this ejecting issue. Okay, I'm done panic rambling... please help SOS. Let me know if any other screenshots would be helpful lol

Hello! So, I play The Sims 4 on my MacBook Air using an external hard drive, thanks to a symlink I had to create (meaning that the Electronic Arts folder is entirely moved to the external hard drive, and there's just a shortcut in my computer's Documents to the Electronic Arts folder).

My situation is this: I downloaded the Newsea Holic hair, but when I opened the game, I got the following message: "cannot start because the file appears to be corrupted. if this file is a mod.... .../users/myname/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/newsea sims2 hair j057f_holic_mesh.package" (I get that it says sims2, but it came with a Sims 4 recolor of the same hair). Meaning, the file is located in the original Documents, not on the external drive (I think, I don't know, these are my conclusions).

I moved the said corrupted files to the trash, but they aren't moving. The trash bin is empty, and the files are still there, but like ghosts? I don't know; the option "move to trash" doesn't even appear, so yeah, I don't know what to do. Can somebody help me?

This is the only CC I've had a problem like this. I have lots of CC installed, and all of them go smoothly with my game