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Bluebellflora's avatar
Bluebellflora
Hero+
3 years ago

Re: Issues with installing Sims 4 onto external hardrive

@devgriff98

I've now moved your post above out of the symlink thread as you have successfully created the symlink and your new problem is nothing to do with the symlink process.

To be clear, having the game installed on an external drive and having the Sims 4 folder on an external drive via the symlink process are two completely separate processes. The game installed on an external drive is controlled by Origin.

Please post a screenshot of your Origin games library location from Origin > Installs & Saves.

Please post a screenshot of the contents of your external drive in Finder.

Please post a screenshot of System Settings > Security & Privacy > Full Disk Access showing Origin having Full Disk Access.

4 Replies

  • devgriff98's avatar
    devgriff98
    3 years ago

    Origin will now let me play, I thought there may possibly be a delay between origin recognising the drive as it was initially coming up with download. 

    Do I have to go through origin to play? When the game was previously installed on my mac I just used to click on the application for it to run however it does not open if I try this when it is in the external drive. 

    I am aware that the load up can be longer through the drive, however my general gameplay seems to be lagging and my fan sounds very loud on my mac. I thought this may have resolved when using the external drive? 

    Sorry for asking so many questions, i really appreciate all the help you have given. 

  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    3 years ago
    @devgriff98 wrote:

    Origin will now let me play, I thought there may possibly be a delay between origin recognising the drive as it was initially coming up with download. 

    Yep, that is exactly right. It's always better to open a Finder window and let the OS load the files and folders on the drive before opening Origin, even if the drive is never unplugged.

    Yes, you always need Origin to run the game. It will have opened before when you double clicked on the game app and then automatically minimised.

    The only benefit of having the game on an external drive is storage space on your Mac. It's still using the same CPU and GPU to run the game. What are the connections on the external drive and your Mac? Are you using an adapter on either connection? Are you using an SSD/Flash drive or old style spinning HDD?

  • devgriff98's avatar
    devgriff98
    3 years ago
    @Bluebellflora Thank you, that’s good to know.

    I’m using a Seagate 1TB HDD and I am using a connector to plug the drive into the mac. I had laptop made off on my sims settings, will this impact the game play?
  • Bluebellflora's avatar
    Bluebellflora
    Hero+
    3 years ago
    @devgriff98

    Ok. An HDD will definitely be contributing to the lag. SSD/Flash is much faster. Also you want the direct connection between the drive and the Mac to be USB C or Thunderbolt. If you go through an adapter to USB A it will only be as fast as the USB A speed which is too slow really.

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