Re: how can I transfer sims 4 from my macbook to an external hard drive?
You can install the game on an external drive but not your user data in the Sims 4 folder as the game will always look in Documents > Electronic Arts for the data.
Forum Discussion
25 Replies
Sorry, two years later.
Doesn't that mean you can't run the game if it always looks for User Data somewhere else?
- @Bluebellflora Does this mean that you can run the game on the external hard-drive, but keep your saves and CC on your main (internal) drive?
- @deecharrl @JimFraser7
Yes. We've also found a way to store your data on an external drive too, or in the cloud, successfully but the instructions really have to be followed exactly. There is a lot of room for error - 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/ New to gaming with mods and CC. I never had the storage on my Mac so I went and purchased an external drive. I managed to reinstall everything onto it but for the life of me could not figure out how to get the dam EA folder to stay on the drive instead of documents. I was able to do Symlink. This just saved me from so much frustration thank you!!!
- @naye2shy when you did symlink does it still show a alias folder in documents for electronic arts
- @naye2shy I hope the symlink works. I hate of how small storage is on Macs. But I will never move to PC. I love Macs all the way
how did you get the sylink to work?? Idk If im doing it wrong but I get a error or something.
- @heyysydd
What error? You have to carefully read the instructions and really make sure you're following the instructions properly. Hi, I read your page on how to transfer my mods to a USB with the symlink, but The Sims recently updated and I went from 16gb of space to less than 4gb. I'm not sure if this is just from the game's new update taking up a ton of space, but I'm trying to move my game to the USB. I went into Origin settings > installs and saves > game library location, but I can't seem to select my USB as the location, like there's no option to select it. Would you know what I'm doing wrong? Thank you so much!!!!
- @Bluebellflora I've followed the instructions and everything worked until I relaunched Origin to check if it sent me the popup thingie, and it didn't😭 I changed the USB permissions to everyone can read and write and I also went into system preferences to give Origin full access of my thing, restarted my laptop and tried again and it still didn't work ☹️( I'm so sorry to hassle you with this but please help me😭😭😭
- @1nternetgrl
What is the "popup thingie" and "my thing"? Please be really clear when providing info for technical issues 🙂
Can you post a screenshot showing your Origin games library location, a screenshot of the Full Disk Access in Origin, and a screenshot of the contents of your external drive showing the game installed there.
Sorry, I meant the popup that asks for permission to access the files and "my thingie" as in my full disk access. I'll attach the screenshots below!- @1nternetgrl
Thanks. That isn't the game in the screenshot showing the contents of the external drive. That is Electronic Arts > Sims 4 folder that contains all your saves etc. Have you created the symlink for that?
Are you getting a Download option in Origin for the game? - @Bluebellflora
Hi so.........basically I messed around a bit and completely broke my entire game. It's a loonggg story, but I deleted the sims application and reinstalled it onto the drive. It worked until I realised I had wiped the USB drive in order to make space for the application so I now had no EA folder. I tried to reverse the symlink but obviously I need the EA folder to reverse it which is nonexistent so I couldn't. Luckily I had backed up my mods and cc and my save files, so I deleted the alias folder and started a repair on the sims. All was going well, it created a new EA folder and somehow un-symlinked itself so it was on the main drive. I could launch the sims off the USB drive successfully, I just had no packs. I continued my repair, until I realised that it was actually installing a new sims application in a new folder that my macbook had created in /Volumes that was named USB. I tried reverting it back to the USB drive but that didn't work, so right now I am just letting Origin do it's thing and create a new Sims application with my packs so I can symlink the EA folder back to my USB drive. Do you have any advice? Thank you so much😭 - @1nternetgrl Clarifying that now I have 2 sims games, one on my main macbook and one on my USB drive, my EA folder is on my main macbook, and I have no packs, but all my mods and cc and my saves.
- @1nternetgrl
If you have problems reversing the symlink because the Electronic Arts folder is no longer there you can simply create a folder manually. The symlink is just looking for a specifically named folder, it doesn't care what is in the folder.
If Origin is still showing /Volumes/USB as the game library location you could trash the game installed locally on your Mac and hopefully you will still get the Play button in Origin which means it can see and load the game from the external. @Bluebellflora
Thank you so much omg😭 Origin has decided to install my EPs and other packs on my drive in a folder named "The Sims 4 Packs" and I have attached a ss of what it is doing. Should I be worried? Thank you so much again, I was fully ready to cry because I thought I wouldn't be able to play the sims again.- @1nternetgrl
All completely fine 🙂 DLC is installed in the folder called The Sims 4 Packs and this folder must be in the same install location as the base game otherwise Origin can't see it so re-downloads it all again - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/The-Sims-4-macOS-Notarization-FAQ/td-p/8876253 - @Bluebellflora
Oh okay, thank you SO much I was stressing so much over this ☹️ tysm again!!!!!!!! - @Bluebellflora
Hello........I'm back. So I've run out of storage on my USB drive which is 30GB and I'm gonna buy a new one tomorrow with more storage. Is there a way to transfer my sims game between drives? Am I able to just drag and drop/copy and paste or do I have to do something more complicated? So sorry for bothering you again😭😭 Hi so I have run into the issue of having no space on my MacBook. How can I transfer the sims? What should I buy and what will work?
- @1nternetgrl
Ah sorry didn't see this. Presumably you're all up and running again now? 🙂
@NayNay1850
I wrote a guide here on how to choose a good drive - https://bluebellflora.com/2023/11/26/choosing-an-external-hard-drive-for-your-game/
