So, I moved all my Sims 4 stuff into an external hard drive, but every time I open the game, I notice it will make a brand new Electronic Arts folder in my documents folder instead of reading the one in my hard drive. I have the game and EA Play app installed in my hard drive as well. I don't know what's wrong.

@Nerdy_AJ The command isn't correct. First, please make sure there's an Electronic Arts folder inside Users > AJ > Documents and that there is NOT a "The Sims 4" folder inside that. Is the game itself installed into D:\The Sims 4? As in, when you open that folder, do you see folders like Data, Delta, EPxx, etc.? If not, here's the command to use for the symlink: MKLINK /J “C:\Users\AJ\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\The Sims 4” If the game's program files are inside D:\The Sims 4, please create a new folder on D where your user data will go. For the purposes of the command below, I'm calling it Game Data . Then put your "The Sims 4" user folder inside Game Data. In that case, this is the command you need to use: MKLINK /J “C:\Users\AJ\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Game Data\The Sims 4”

Game will not read files in Hard Drive, but will make new ones in Documents

11 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Nerdy_AJ You can install the game's program files wherever you want, as you've done. But Sims 4 will always look for the user folder, which contains your saves, mods, and other user content, in Documents > Electronic Arts. If the game doesn't find a user folder there, it will create a new one. This location can't be changed in settings.

What you can do instead is create a symbolic link redirecting to the location where you want your user files to be:

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

Please make sure that you are NOT trying to put the user files inside the same folder as the program files. For example, if the program files are in D:\Games\The Sims 4, the user folder needs to go elsewhere, not directly inside Games where it would combine with or replace the program files.
Nerdy_AJ
3 years ago
I did all the steps, but when I try to enter it in the command prompt, I'm left with a message that says "The system cannot find the path specified".
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Nerdy_AJ Try again, except this time write out the exact file path to the folder where the symlink is supposed to go rather than writing %userprofile% . And make sure that this is the location where Sims 4 is placing the new folder every time you play. The easiest way is to launch the game one more time, then find the new Electronic Arts folder (or the Sims 4 folder inside), right-click it and select Properties > General, and copy the file path under Location.

If this doesn't work, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Please also let me know which language you play Sims 4 in as well as the full file paths to the location Sims 4 is reading (as described above) and the file path to where you want the user folder to go.
Nerdy_AJ
3 years ago
When I tried it the other way you mentioned, I'm getting a new message that says "Cannot create a file when that file already exists" and it's still going in the wrong path. I attached my dxd log.
This is where it's going: C:\Users\AJ\Documents
And where I'm trying to get it in here: D:\

Dialouge.txt115 KB
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Nerdy_AJ If there is already an Electronic Arts folder in C:\Users\AJ\Documents, Windows won't be able to create a symbolic link there because it won't allow two files or folders with the same name in the same location. That's why you need to move the folder to your external drive first.

If this doesn't help, please post a screenshot of the command window the next time you try to create the symlink so I can look over the command.
Nerdy_AJ
3 years ago
This is the command I'm using.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@Nerdy_AJ The command isn't correct. First, please make sure there's an Electronic Arts folder inside Users > AJ > Documents and that there is NOT a "The Sims 4" folder inside that.

Is the game itself installed into D:\The Sims 4? As in, when you open that folder, do you see folders like Data, Delta, EPxx, etc.? If not, here's the command to use for the symlink:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\AJ\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\The Sims 4”

If the game's program files are inside D:\The Sims 4, please create a new folder on D where your user data will go. For the purposes of the command below, I'm calling it Game Data . Then put your "The Sims 4" user folder inside Game Data. In that case, this is the command you need to use:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\AJ\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Game Data\The Sims 4”
Nerdy_AJ
3 years ago
It worked! Thank you for being so kind and patient with me!
studentsimmer1
Seasoned Newcomer
2 months ago
Hi there
I am trying to do this just now, but even when using this command:
MKLINK /J “C:\Users\watso\OneDrive\Documents” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”
I am still getting the "Cannot create a file that already exists" error. I have deleted the Electronic Arts folder from the documents folder.
If you have any other advice on this that would be great. Not sure if its something to do with not being able to do this in a onedrive file?
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 months ago
studentsimmer1 Your command is incorrect. If you want to redirect the Electronic Arts folder, use this:

MKLINK /J "C:\Users\watso\OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts" "D:\Electronic Arts"

The point is that the first part tells the system where to create a symlink and what to name it, so in this case you were saying create a "Documents" folder inside that OneDrive folder; and the second says what to link it to, which in the case of Sims 4 has to be the same-named folder as the symlink.