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MaddeIsabelle's avatar
MaddeIsabelle
Rising Newcomer
20 days ago

A question about the account at EA Games

Hello,

I have a question regarding the Sims 4 that my daughter plays on your site.

The whole game was installed on the wrong hard drive and now the hard drive has become full when the Sims 4 wants to update itself, there is no space on the hard drive. So how is it easiest to do? Uninstall everything and reinstall it on the hard drive it was supposed to be installed on originally, or can it somehow be moved over some other way?

We have bought a lot of different expansion packs on the Sims 4, so my question is if you uninstall it, are they still in the account or do they disappear? I want it confirmed before doing anything else.

Thanks so much for reply!

Best regards, a worried father to his daughter,

 

6 Replies

  • EA app holds all the games purchases. There is a simple fix for this. Just go to the hard drive where the game was installed. Find the “Electronic Arts” file. Copy the file then paste it to the computer’s “My Documents” file. Then unplug the hard drive from the computer to make sure it’s working. 

     

  • jpkarlsen's avatar
    jpkarlsen
    Hero (Retired)
    20 days ago

    First off do NOT follow the advice from mslataprada as it could not be more wrong.

    To move the game to another drive you need to uninstall it and when reinstalling specify the new drive as the destination.

    The game and packs are tied to the account so will not be lost by reinstalling.

  • MaddeIsabelle  The only supported way is to uninstall the game and reinstall it where you want it to be.  You can choose the install location on the same initial pop-up where you choose the language and which add-ons to install.

    If your internet is slow and you want to try a workaround, move the Sims 4 data to where you want it to be, then tell the EA App to "install" to that location.  It may simply verify the files and complete the install process.  Or it may redownload everything.  This is kind of hit or miss, to the point where I've had it reinstall some packs but not others when I've tested.

    Make sure you're moving the Sims 4 folder that contains the game's program files, with subfolders like Data, Delta, and Game.  Don't move the Sims 4 folder that has saves, Tray, Mods, etc.  If you'd like this in another location as well, that's certainly possible, but it's a whole different process and is entirely unrelated to where you've installed the game itself.

  • mslataprada's avatar
    mslataprada
    New Traveler
    18 days ago

    Ok, I was unaware of each Electronic Arts file being exclusive to an external hardware device, LOL. I've NEVER heard of such thing. But anyway-Doesn't make any sense. But whatever. but if they have to uninstall, then reinstall to the computer's hard drive, before they do that they will have to save her progress from the "Electron Arts" save file to an external hard drive or somewhere else so she won't lose her progress. Am I correct? That I do know!

  • The most imortant thing is to save the "save" file which contains her progress in the game. 

  • mslataprada  The game install itself is not specific to a given computer.  But the install process creates additional files that are specific, for example registry entires that not only say "you own this game and have the right to play it" but "this game being referenced is installed in this location on this machine."

    This refers to the install that's in C:\Program Files\EA Games by default.  The Sims 4 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts is a completely separate issue and is NOT specific to any computer.  You could send me your folder and I could use all its contents on my computer without doing anything special.  And this is the folder that holds your saves, so you can simply zip it up and transfer it.

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