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RattInsomniac's avatar
RattInsomniac
7 months ago
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EA App Creates Electronic Arts Folder in the wrong drive

I'm trying to open The Sims 4 (Which I have downloaded via Steam) through my external drive, but whenever I try to open the game, it defaults to an Electronic Arts folder in the C drive. I have t...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    7 months ago

    @RattInsomniac  The location of the Sims 4 user folder, with your saves and other user content, is independent of the location of the game's program files.  If you'd like the user folder to be on the external drive, you'll need to create a symbolic link.  Here's how:

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

    The folder can be almost anywhere on the external, but please do NOT combine it with the program files, as doing so can and will create a variety of problems.

    If you need further help with this process, please post a screenshot of the Command Prompt window showing the command you're using and the result.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
7 months ago

@RattInsomniac  The location of the Sims 4 user folder, with your saves and other user content, is independent of the location of the game's program files.  If you'd like the user folder to be on the external drive, you'll need to create a symbolic link.  Here's how:

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

The folder can be almost anywhere on the external, but please do NOT combine it with the program files, as doing so can and will create a variety of problems.

If you need further help with this process, please post a screenshot of the Command Prompt window showing the command you're using and the result.

RattInsomniac's avatar
RattInsomniac
7 months ago

I've tried multiple variations of the name of the external drive and none of them have been able to be picked up. I'm sure there's probably a right way to word the name of the drive, but I am unaware of it.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    7 months ago

    @RattInsomniac  The drive name doesn't matter, only the letter.  Is it labeled E or something else?

    Separately, there needs to be a "The Sims 4" folder directly on E (or whatever the drive letter is), AND there needs to be an "Electronic Arts" folder here:

    C:\Users\your username\Documents

    AND there cannot be a "The Sims 4" folder inside this version of the Electronic Arts folder.  (If there were, you'd get a "file already exists" error, but I'm mentioning it anyway.)  If OneDrive is in the mix, and your user folder is landing there, then there won't be an Electronic Arts folder in the version of Documents above because it will be here instead:

    C:\Users\your username\OneDrive\Documents

    To make sure you're viewing each of these locations, open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, double-click the C drive (you may need to scroll down a bit), then open Users > your username and proceed from there.

    I can help get rid of OneDrive if it comes to that, but it shouldn't be necessary in most circumstances.

    • RattInsomniac's avatar
      RattInsomniac
      7 months ago

      The drive is the letter E, there is an empty Electronic Arts folder in my username's documents tab, a The Sims 4 folder in the external, and I checked the OneDrive documents and nothing is in it. The Users folder for the account I'm currently on does not match up with the name in the settings homepage, I'm not sure if that means anything though.

      EDIT: If Junction is the same thing, It worked! The issue was I was running cmd prompt with admin, then I did it without running it as admin and it worked.

      Edit part 2: I tried opening The Sims and am still getting the low on disk space pop up.

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