@gracelynmageI probably can't help you get back to where you were but I can help you with OneDrive. Microsoft wants you to use OneDrive so now they almost (but not quite) made it part of the Windows operating system. Over the years I noticed that Microsoft REALLY wants you to use Windows their way. I don't need OneDrive, I don't want OneDrive. But I noticed that now if you delete (you can uninstall) OneDrive Windows will nag you about that. What you can do is stop just the EA folders from syncing. That's part of it. OneDrive will continue to move files so you have to check the option to keep files on this computer and OneDrive restores all the files (if they are still there) so EA can find them. The ONLY issue is those files will not have backup. You don't need to backup the game core files as those can just get reinstalled. I have a NAS box (network attached storage) that I can copy my user files to as backup if I so choose. What I have for the company is a very expensive (Synolgy) NAS that is configured disks configured in a RAID for redundancy. For the other network I have a D-Link 2 bay NAS (Ebay $50 no disks) now with 2Tb of storage. Once you het OneDrive configured right it won't bother the game anymore. hth
@gracelynmage Just to be clear, there are always two Sims 4 folders, at least when the game has started. One contains the program files, which by default will be stored in one of these locations, depending on the app you use to install:
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 4
The other folder contains user data and is always stored in Documents > Electronic Arts. But the full file path follows the Windows location for Documents, and enabling OneDrive can change that, as can other user interventions.
You don't need to reenable OneDrive, and it sounds like you'll be beltter off long-term if you leave it disabled. The first step is to find out what folder Windows is using for Documents. Search Windows for "command prompt," open it, and enter this command:
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"
If the file path points to OneDrive, that's the issue. Here's how to change it to the proper location:
You'd change the Personal value to %USERPROFILE%\Documents . If the file path doesn't point to OneDrive, you can still change it; either way, this may well be the reason Sims 4 won't start.
