Changing drives

@imjuliewaters  There are two separate issues here.  The first is that you can't simply tell the EA App to move the location of an already-installed game.  If you'd like Sims 4 to be installed on D, you'll need to uninstall it and reinstall it on D.

The second issue is that the user folder, the one that contains saves, saved households and builds, mods, etc., is always located in Documents > Electronic Arts.  This is independent of the game's install location.  If you move this Sims 4 folder, or the Electronic Arts folder it's in, to another drive, the game won't find it and will create a new folder in the default location.

If you'd like to move the user folder to D, you'll need to use a symbolic link:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-link.html

If you're moving both the game install and the user folder to D, make sure they're landing in separate folders, for example D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 for the user folder and D:\Games\The Sims 4 for the game install.  Placing these in the same location would combine the two Sims 4 folders and therefore their contents, and that could cause the game not to launch or a host of other issues.

The Sims 4 is already installed on my D: drive. It has been for a while now. The "Electronics Arts/The Sims 4" folder was moved to the D: drive a week or so ago.

I tried the symbolic link thing and ran into a problem. I already had the first portion done, I just needed to do the part with the CMD so I'm not sure where I went wrong. The only thing I can think of is that I have the TS4 folder in the EA folder instead of just straight into the D: drive.

@imjuliewaters  The issue is more likely the first part of the command.  First, make sure the Electronic Arts folder is still present in Documents.  If it's not, create a new Electronic Arts folder, or make the symlink for the Electronic Arts folder, like this:

MKLINK /J “%UserProfile%\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

The symlink works just as well this way.

If that doesn't help, the issue is probably the %UserProfile% part.  Instead, write out the entire file path to the Electronic Arts or Sims 4 folder, for example:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\username\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

To double-check the file path, right-click on the Sims 4 folder on C, or the Electronic Arts folder, and select Properties > General, then find the Location.  One common problem is that the user folder is in OneDrive, in which case %UserProfile% doesn't find it.

Please let me know which of these is the issue, for future reference.

I double, triple checked that the locations are correct, but I keep getting the same error message.

These are the commands I've tried -

MKLINK /J "D:\Users\water\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

MKLINK /J "D:\Users\water\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” "D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4"

MKLINK /J “%UserProfile%\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” "D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4"

I made sure there was an EA/TS4 folder in the place I said it was. My Documents folder is in my OneDrive folder. I'm not sure how it ended up there, but I can't move it back out. When I try it tells me "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected. Access is denied."

@imjuliewaters  Here's how to stop OneDrive from syncing your Documents folder:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/m-p/12475370#Disabled

If you want OneDrive gone entirely, please see the next section ("I want to get rid of OneDrive") of that guide.

With OneDrive still in the picture, the proper command here, assuming your username is "water,", would be this if there's an Electronic Arts folder in Documents:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

or this if there's no Electronic Arts folder in Documents:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

There cannot be a Sims 4 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts, or else Windows won't be able to create the symlink there.

If you do stop OneDrive from syncing Documents, one way or the other, the proper command will be this:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

One more thing:  Under no circumstances should you involve D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4 in any of this.  That is, presumably, where the game's program files are located, and mixing those with the user folder will only cause more problems.

I didn't think the Origin folder was what I needed to use in the command but thought I'd give it a go since nothing else was working. I haven't messed with that folder on its own though.

I was able to move my Documents folder so that it is no longer in the One Drive folder. So now it's just in the D: drive. There is no Electronic Arts folder in the Documents folder or anywhere in the D: drive. Or in the C: drive.

I tried this "MKLINK /J "D:\Documents” “D:\Electronic Arts” and got the message "Cannot create a file when that file already exists." If they mean an EA file I'm really confused because that file/folder doesn't exist on either drive on my laptop. So now I'm just more confused.

@imjuliewaters  Please run this command in Command Prompt:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

and post the result here.  I want to be extra careful with the command now that you've changed some settings.

@imjuliewaters  Okay, please go into Documents and make sure there is NOT an Electronic Arts folder inside.  If there is, move or rename it.  Then use this command:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

This will create a symlink pointing the Electronic Arts folder to D, where it currently should be.  If the command doesn't work, open D, find the Electronic Arts folder, right-click it, select Properties > General, and you'll see its Location.  That should be the second part of the command, e.g. if the file path is D:\Games\Electronic Arts, you'd use this:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Games\Electronic Arts”

If you'd really rather only use a symlink for the Sims 4 folder, this is the command:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

Here, make sure there's currently an Electronic Arts folder inside Documents, but that there is NOT a Sims 4 folder inside that.  And here again, if the command doesn't work, make sure you have the proper path to the Sims 4 folder on D.

Either approach is valid, so pick the one you like.  I prefer the first because it makes troubleshooting a bit simpler down the line, just one less step at each turn.  But it's not a big deal either way.