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KalaisMusic's avatar
KalaisMusic
Rising Novice
4 months ago

Deleted everything after update

I opened the EA app to play Sims 4 and received an orange pop up at the top that says the game requires a restart within the next 18 hours. I thought, "I guess I'll go ahead and restart it now". Soooo i restarted, pulled the EA app back up, and pressed on "play" The Sims 4. After the game loaded, I see "start new game" where I usually would see resume, and instead of my Sims face it shows a white figure. I tried to go to my save files but they're all gone. The only option I have is to start a new game. I had 3 save files! I had a whole legacy on the one I've been playing with lately, that took me months to create. I went into my Sims 4 folder and I see my save files are there. I only had the MCCC mod which is updated and compatible, and the RPO mod which is also updated and compatible. I am using a Dell laptop and I still have lots of space. Trying to give as much information as possible 'cuz IDK what to do, I am extremely frustrated. Please help!

  • KalaisMusic  The install location for Sims 4 is fine; I just wanted to make sure you didn't install it into Documents as some users have done.  That creates more problems.

    Please make sure your saves are in the folder the game is actually reading.  Under Options > Game Options > Screen Capture, you'll see the full path to the Sims 4 user folder.  Make sure it exactly matches the location of your saves rather than, for example, one of the folders being inside a OneDrive folder and the other not.  If your saves aren't in the right folder, that's why they're not loading.

    If that's not the issue, please post a screenshot of the contents of the saves folder, as in, I'd like to see the save names and dates.  Include the address bar, above the list of files, in the screenshot.  You can attach it to a post with the Camera (Insert Media) button included with the other formatting options.

    • KalaisMusic's avatar
      KalaisMusic
      Rising Novice

      Thank you for this information. I followed the steps in the link to make sure and yes, there is a Sims 4 folder is in the documents. When I open that folder all of my Save slot files are there as well so I dont understand why my saves aren't loading in the game. 

      When going to "View properties" in EA, it states "C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4" as the install location. Is this the correct location? 

      SN: I was playing Sims 4 all morning the day this happened (8/6/24), and everything was fine. I closed it to run to the grocery store. When I came back it asked me to restart the game and I did. I also deleted my WW and repaired Sims 4 through the EA app before opening my game again. That's when the issue happened. That's what makes me think it's an EA issue with either the restart or the repair deleting everything. 

      Please lmk what you think and if you have any other tips!

  • KalaisMusic  The install location for Sims 4 is fine; I just wanted to make sure you didn't install it into Documents as some users have done.  That creates more problems.

    Please make sure your saves are in the folder the game is actually reading.  Under Options > Game Options > Screen Capture, you'll see the full path to the Sims 4 user folder.  Make sure it exactly matches the location of your saves rather than, for example, one of the folders being inside a OneDrive folder and the other not.  If your saves aren't in the right folder, that's why they're not loading.

    If that's not the issue, please post a screenshot of the contents of the saves folder, as in, I'd like to see the save names and dates.  Include the address bar, above the list of files, in the screenshot.  You can attach it to a post with the Camera (Insert Media) button included with the other formatting options.

    • KalaisMusic's avatar
      KalaisMusic
      Rising Novice

      Thank you so much! This worked! I guess when I moved WW out of my onedrive I moved other things as well. Once I restored everything to the onedrive the game started working again.

    • alyssaleigh101's avatar
      alyssaleigh101
      Newcomer

      Hi! I know this is marked as solved but I was hoping I could get some help on this as well. This was really helpful -- I had no clue you could see where the game was being pulled from off the computer. I had a bad feeling it was coming from my OneDrive as well and it is. I suspect OneDrive is the issue. I've been trying to delete and uninstall OneDrive to no success. How do you change where it's being pulled from? I tried changing it in the game but it wouldn't let me. I have so many folders with the sims 4 downloaded and I don't really know which one to reference or what to do. I lost all my saves but I found them in a separate file but I can't seem to figure out how to access that...

  • Had the same issue....literally erased it all...even the daily log in rewards that we were able to get exclusive items...all GONE.  Started a new game, and still after a day of playing, the dreaded error code came back.  This literally has me stressed out.  I just want to play to relax from the stress of work...now...it's like fine...I will just sleep. 😐

    • KalaisMusic's avatar
      KalaisMusic
      Rising Novice

      Literally! ☚ī¸ I'm scared to open my game because of the same issue. If I start all over and this happens again I will lose it. 

  • Do you have Lovestruck? Just a question, because I'm wondering if it is a problem with the new thing or if it's just a general problem that everyone should be worried about. I'm so sorry that happened to you, I would be so sad!

  • alyssaleigh101  Sims 4 uses the same Documents directory as your Windows account.  (The computer will have several Documents folders, but only one will be the designated directory.)  So the simple solution is to change the directory, specifically to somewhere not in OneDrive.  Here's how:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/td-p/12475370#Remove

    If you'd prefer to create a symlink instead, this is the basic idea:

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

    But you'll need to use the current location of the Sims 4 folder the game is reading rather than %UserProfile% etc. as is in the guide.  Let me know if you'd like to use a symlink and you need further help with the command.