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argburdotnet's avatar
argburdotnet
Seasoned Newcomer
9 days ago

i installed the sims onto an external drive and i can't use mods

hey, i got an external hard drive for my windows PC today as i don't have enough space to download The sims 4 on my C: drive. (because my PC didn't come with enough.) i installed the game just fine and it works as good as a falling-apart windows laptop can run it. the only issue is that since i downloaded it directly to my hard drive (by selecting the D: drive as the install location, not via moving it), there's no documents folder on my D: drive to store the mods folder in. i tried to create one on my C: drive by going to documents and making an Electronic Arts folder and making a subfolder named The Sims 4 with a mods folder inside it, and placed my mods there. i made sure the mods and CC is enabled in the game too, but it still doesn't work. i have tried symbolic links, making a mods folder inside my D: drive's sims 4 folder (as "the sims 4 → game → bin → mods") and yet it still does not work. when i installed the sims onto my D: drive, it didn't make a sims 4 folder on my C: drive's documents either, like most discussions on here say. what do i do to get this to work??? i am completely unable to download the sims onto my C: drive to move the folders as my C drive has insufficient space (even after a factory reset. believe me, i tried.)

if this makes any difference, here's some details,

OS:  windows 11 Home (64-bit)

Installation location: D:\the sims 4

external hard drive: Maxone USB 3.0 mobile hard disk

3 Replies

  • argburdotnet  If you've started the game once, you have a Sims 4 folder already, with its own Mods folder inside.  So it sounds like you're simply not looking in the right place.  That would also explain why the symlink didn't work: you may have created it in a location the game is ignoring.  Here's how to find the user folder:

    https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/

    If you need further help with the symlink, please list that location for me and the location where you'd like your user data to be on the external.  It can be anywhere except for the same folder as the game's program files, as combining these can and will break your game eventually.

  • argburdotnet's avatar
    argburdotnet
    Seasoned Newcomer
    8 days ago

    the only folder with the sims 4 i have is D:/The Sims 4. which only contains game, data, and delta. none of these subfolders have anything titled "Mods" inside them. the sims 4 is quite literally the ONLY folder on my D: drive (and thats with show hidden files on) 

     

  • argburdotnet  The folder with Data, Delta, etc. contains the game's program files, not the user data.  But again, if you've started Sims 4 once, the user folder exists too.  I already linked a guide to finding it.

    I promise you that it has to exist if the game is opening at all, and that its location is independent of where you've installed Sims 4 itself.

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