ISSUE SavesOne minute your game is working fine. The next you go to play and the Load Game button has disappeared, there seems to be no way to play an existing save. CC/ModsNewly added CC/Mods do not show up in your game despite being properly installed (for help with installing 3rd party content see here) or CC randomly starts disappearing from your game. Library itemsSaving Lots, Rooms and Households to your in-game Library doesn't work CAUSE Most likely the internal storage on your Mac is too full and iCloud is pushing any newly added files to your Documents folder in the cloud. This can happen at anytime. You can check the storage level by clicking on the Apple in the top left corner of the menu bar then About This Mac, then the Storage tab. By default, the game stores your Saves, Mods, Tray (where your Library items are saved) and all your user game data in a folder called The Sims 4 in Documents > Electronic Arts. If there is no Sims 4 folder in this location the game will recreate a new one each time it is launched. If you have iCloud Drive enabled and set to store your Desktop & Documents folder in the cloud it may be moving your existing Sims 4 folder to the cloud, hence the need to create a new Sims 4 folder every time you launch the game. You can check the status of various files and folders, and what the little cloud icons mean, here. FIX Firstly, you MUST free up some space on your Mac otherwise doing this is pointless. Empty the Downloads folder, go through your data and see what you no longer need, empty the Bin. If you have large Photos, Music and TV libraries consider storing them on an external drive. Instructions here on how to do this for your Photos library, the principle is the same for the Music and TV apps. Open System Preferences and then your iCloud settings. What you click on can vary by macOS, check Apple's help page here if you can't immediately find where to look. This is where you can choose what gets stored in the cloud. We are only interested in two settings, iCloud Drive and Optimise Mac Storage Click on Options... in the iCloud Drive setting and make sure Desktop & Documents Folders is unchecked. Scroll down to the bottom of this Apple help page to understand what happens to your data when you turn off the setting. Back at the iCloud settings window, Uncheck Optimise Mac Storage below the list of apps using iCloud. This means that your Mac will stop pushing files to the cloud when the internal storage is getting full. For more info on this setting read this help page. Once you have successfully stopped iCloud from moving the contents of your Documents folder to the cloud you need to move the Sims 4 folder back into the default location - Macintosh HD > Users > [User] > Documents > Electronic Arts Apple explain here what the status of the little cloud icons mean. If you're feeling brave you could consider creating a symlink and storing your Sims 4 folder on an external drive. Or maybe change your Origin Games Library location to an external Drive.

@EthanKFox The file path MUST be:Users > [your Mac user account/home folder name]* > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4If it is not exactly that then the game will not see your files and keep recreating a Sims 4 folder in the correct location.*for example, if your home folder is called Dave then the file path would be Users > Dave > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4

@tamaratamaramoch Your Mac is running out of storage and pushing your files to the cloud. I've just created this stickied help thread as so many people report this issue. Please see the opening post and read the fix https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/READ-FIRST-Saves-CC-Mods-or-Library-items-disappeared/m-p/10242133#M45493Thanks for explaining about the c/p not showing the full file path, that's annoying!

@Bluebellflora Okay, here it is! Also, I'm replacing my name with 'user' just for privacy reasons:/Users/USER/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/The Sims 4 copy-version1/Mods/Users/USER/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/The Sims 4/Mods/Users/USER/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/The Sims 4-test/Mods/Users/USER/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods/Users/USER/iCloud Drive (Archive)/Documents/Electronic Arts copy/The Sims 4/Mods/Users/USER/iCloud Drive (Archive)/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods/Users/USER/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods/Users/USER/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods/Game ModsMacBook-Pro:~ USERAlso, I kind of figured they were all gone forever so I started to redownload some things, so hopefully that doesn't mess anything up! Thank you again for helping!

@llatekate Check your iCloud Drive settings and internal storage - https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/

Hi, I have followed the link you sent me and I have now turned off the iCloud documents thing which may have been impacting on my game play. I will keep an eye on things and see how it goes. Many thanks

Forum Discussion

Bluebellflora

Hero+

4 years ago

[READ FIRST] Saves, CC/Mods or Library items disappeared? iCloud issues

ISSUE

Saves
One minute your game is working fine. The next you go to play and the Load Game button has disappeared, there seems to be no way to play an existing save.

CC/Mods
Newly added CC/Mods do not show up in your game despite being properly installed (for help with installing 3rd party content see here) or CC randomly starts disappearing from your game.

Library items
Saving Lots, Rooms and Households to your in-game Library doesn't work

CAUSE

Most likely the internal storage on your Mac is too full and iCloud is pushing any newly added files to your Documents folder in the cloud. This can happen at anytime. You can check the storage level by clicking on the Apple in the top left corner of the menu bar then About This Mac, then the Storage tab.

By default, the game stores your Saves, Mods, Tray (where your Library items are saved) and all your user game data in a folder called The Sims 4 in Documents > Electronic Arts. If there is no Sims 4 folder in this location the game will recreate a new one each time it is launched. If you have iCloud Drive enabled and set to store your Desktop & Documents folder in the cloud it may be moving your existing Sims 4 folder to the cloud, hence the need to create a new Sims 4 folder every time you launch the game. You can check the status of various files and folders, and what the little cloud icons mean, here.

FIX

Firstly, you MUST free up some space on your Mac otherwise doing this is pointless. Empty the Downloads folder, go through your data and see what you no longer need, empty the Bin. If you have large Photos, Music and TV libraries consider storing them on an external drive. Instructions here on how to do this for your Photos library, the principle is the same for the Music and TV apps.
Open System Preferences and then your iCloud settings. What you click on can vary by macOS, check Apple's help page here if you can't immediately find where to look.
This is where you can choose what gets stored in the cloud. We are only interested in two settings, iCloud Drive and Optimise Mac Storage
Click on Options... in the iCloud Drive setting and make sure Desktop & Documents Folders is unchecked. Scroll down to the bottom of this Apple help page to understand what happens to your data when you turn off the setting.
Back at the iCloud settings window, Uncheck Optimise Mac Storage below the list of apps using iCloud. This means that your Mac will stop pushing files to the cloud when the internal storage is getting full. For more info on this setting read this help page.
Once you have successfully stopped iCloud from moving the contents of your Documents folder to the cloud you need to move the Sims 4 folder back into the default location - Macintosh HD > Users > [User] > Documents > Electronic Arts

Apple explain here what the status of the little cloud icons mean.

If you're feeling brave you could consider creating a symlink and storing your Sims 4 folder on an external drive. Or maybe change your Origin Games Library location to an external Drive.

file structure

icloud

mac

604 Replies

Duwsh
7 years ago
Hello, I've had The Sims 4 on my mac for a while now but something has bothered me since the installation, the EA folder with all my saves etc is in my iCloud Documents folder, this is useful for transferring data to my PC but it's irritating as it makes the game take absolutely ages to start up (I'm guessing this is the issue) plus it would just be more convenient to have the folder actually on my Mac, if anyone could help me moving the location I'd appreciate it.
Tremayne4260
Hero
7 years ago
You need to change your preferences in System Preferences to save your game to your Documents folder located on your hard drive. I turned off saving to iCloud and everything now saves correctly to my Mac's hard drive. Once you change this, start up your game and allow a new Sims 4 folder to generate on your hard drive and then you can move your saved games from the Cloud to your computer. And yes, saving to the Cloud or another hard drive does slow down the response time of the game and can cause problems like corrupted game files much faster than if it is saved on your computer directly.
EthanKFox
6 years ago
Hi.
So I recently downloaded TS4 on my Mac and downloaded a few mods and CCs. When I go to play all of the mods show up under Custom Content along with the CCs. I am confused as to how I am able to fix this issue. I did not mess with the downloading process, simply moved the files via Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Mods. I am super eager to play with mods, however, none of them are showing up under the correct list.
How can I fix this?
jpkarlsen
Hero (Retired)
6 years ago
@EthanKFox
Your screenshot only shows that there is nothing under Script mods so we can assume that they will be under normal mods. For help on how to use them in the game contact the author.
Bluebellflora
Hero+
6 years ago
@EthanKFox

Please could you click on your Mods folder once to select it then go to File > Get Info. Under the General > Where section near the top of the info window please copy and paste the location of your Mods folder here.
EthanKFox
6 years ago
@Bluebellflora
Where: ‎⁨iCloud Drive⁩ ▸ ⁨Documents⁩ ▸ ⁨Electronic Arts⁩ ▸ ⁨The Sims 4⁩
EthanKFox
6 years ago
@jpkarlsen
Where are normal mods' list? I only see Custom Content, where my mods are under, and Script Mods. I don't see "normal mods".
jpkarlsen
Hero (Retired)
6 years ago
You will see normal mods under Custom Content. Script mods are easy to recognize because the file name ends in .ts4script where CC and normal mods ends in .package.
Bluebellflora
Hero+
6 years ago
@EthanKFox

Thanks. Your problem is iCloud Drive. You need to disable it and store your Documents locally on your Mac. Instructions here - https://bluebellflora.com/2017/02/06/sims-3-and-sims-4-not-loading-save-games/
EthanKFox
6 years ago
@Bluebellflora

That seems like it helped, however now all of my mods/CC were removed from the list. I did the instructions you told me and documents are not stored locally. None of them are showing up anymore?