Hi, I follwed the instructions on the first link you posted and this is what happened. I think im probably making a meal out of this but I dont want to do something and then make the situation more complicated. Thanks so much for your help so far I hope its not too much of a bother
How should I proceed?
@pwalshwaring The error is probably because OneDrive is still running and protecting the contents of its folder. That's why I also linked the second way to change the location.
However, your screenshot lists this location:
C:\Users\pheeb\Documents Documents
with the extra space and Documents in the file path. That is probably not the reason you're seeing this error, but I wanted to point this out because for the second method, you absolutely need to get the location exactly right:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents
If there is a single extra character there, you could run into serious trouble. Editing the registry is a powerful intervention, for better and for worse. It's fine as long as you're precise, but it's unforgiving of errors.
@pwalshwaring That's actually unnecessary and can cause its own problems. You're not creating a new folder with this technique, you're telling Windows which folder to use as its default Documents location. If there isn't already a "Documents" folder in the location you've specified, either you'll get an error (good because you can correct), or you'll get no error and mangle things further (bad, obviously).
Point is, don't rename anything.
In the first link you attached, there is a step that says create a new folder named documents so that is what I did. Should I instead do the properties thing and move it to the documents folder that is already there? I have attached a screenshot of what my file explorer looks like, the documents underlined in yellow is the one i created and is empty, and the one underlined in red is the one i usually use, which contains all of my documents and the sims folder as far as i am aware.
@pwalshwaring The guide was saying create a new folder in the destination you want to use because it was written with the idea that people would be moving Documents out of the default location, for example to a secondary drive. Instead, you're moving it to a location where a Documents folder already exists. I'm actually surprised Windows let you have two Documents folders in the same location like that—you'd normally get an error, but perhaps some of the metadata is different.
For the second approach, the folder that encounters the issue is the Documents folder, and you're changing the registry entry for Personal (that refers to Documents) to this:
%USERPROFILE%\Documents
That's what the guide means by the default, as in, what the guide itself lists as the default setting.
I do want to say that if this is giving you too much of a headache, there's an easy workaround: create a new admin Windows account. If you don't link it to your Microsoft sign-in, the new account won't have OneDrive, and you could then just move your files to the new account and pick up where you left off. It's your choice how you want to approach this.
@pwalshwaring The next step here is to make sure Sims 4 is currently reading the correct folder:
https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/
The game should follow the Windows setting, but it's always best to check before making that assumption.
If Sims 4 is reading the correct folder, you can put your saves and anything else you want to keep into that folder and pick up where you left off. You actually don't need to delete any of the other folders—the game won't get confused by their presence, and neither will Windows. I have a number of user folders on my computer, some inside Documents, some on the desktop, some that I put somewhere that I'm probably forgetting. It doesn't matter; there's only one location that Sims 4 reads, and only one folder in that location, so nothing ever gets confused. But if you'd like to do some cleanup, of course go right ahead.
@pwalshwaring Sorry for the late reply. No, it doesn't matter to the game itself if it keeps reading the Public folder going forward. As long as your content is all showing up, and OneDrive can't sync the files (which it can't if they're in Public), you should be fine.
I would definitely suggest keeping a backup copy of the Sims 4 user folder just in case though. Not that this particular setup is problematic, but you never know when a computer problem might surface and delete some of your data. And you never know when a Sims 4 bug might bork your saves for that matter. As an example, I periodically back up entire user folders (more for Sims 3 than 4) and put them on an external drive, then I delete the oldest when I know I won't need them. But if you don't have an external drive or USB stick, you could zip the folder and upload it to Google Drive or another free filesharing service.
And you're welcome. I'm glad we were able to work though this and get your game and your content working again.
