Directory Junctions for Mods folder no longer functioning after recent update

AwesomeHulkc4​  Does the game work if you create a junction/symbolic link for the entire Sims 4 user folder?  Linking only the Mods folder has always been unreliable, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that the entire user folder can't be redirected elsewhere.

Thank you for the suggestion. I have considered linking the entire user folder; however, my testing indicates that the root of the problem involves how the game now parses directory depth and handles OneDrive-managed paths since the update.

Even when the link is active, the game appears to 'bypass' it and generate a fresh, physical directory on the C: drive. Furthermore, I've noticed that the update has significantly tightened the allowed 'levels' for mod loading. Because a junction or symlink technically adds a layer to the file path, my script mods (which must be at Level 1) are being pushed to Level 2 in the eyes of the game engine, causing them to fail even if the link technically 'points' to the right place.

With 105GB of content, moving the entire user folder via a symlink often triggers 'Access Denied' or 'LiveKernelEvent' errors in my DxDiag, especially with OneDrive active. At this stage, only a physical folder directly on the C: drive seems to be recognized by the game’s startup crawler. Is there any known change to the game's file-system permissions in this patch that would explain why it is now prioritizing local physical directories over established Windows junctions?

AwesomeHulkc4​  So that we're talking about the same thing, please let me know whether a symbolic link to a Sims 4 folder works when it's here:

C:\Users\your username\Documents\Electronic Arts

or here:

C:\Users\your username\OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts

Please also let me know what you mean when you say this:

AwesomeHulkc4 wrote:

Even when the link is active, the game appears to 'bypass' it and generate a fresh, physical directory on the C: drive.

If the symlink isn't where the game creates the new folder, then that's where the symlink needs to be.  If the two ARE in the same location, that is extremely weird behavior—Windows shouldn't be allowing it.  In that case, please let me know where this is happening.

I'm not sure why you'd get an Access Denied message when entering a command to create a symlink in either location unless OneDrive was being weird about permissions.  And creating one should never cause a LiveKernelEvent of any kind.  I do see the errors in your dxdiags, but they're kind of obtuse and not useful without a crash dump.  However, creating a symlink is simply creating a very small file, so I can't see how it would trigger either of these errors without an underlying system issue.  Unless... is it possible there was some leftover process still running from moving the Sims 4 folder elsewhere?  Restarting your computer after moving the folder and before trying to create the symlink should fix that.