Re: Changing drives

The Sims 4 is already installed on my D: drive. It has been for a while now. The "Electronics Arts/The Sims 4" folder was moved to the D: drive a week or so ago.

I tried the symbolic link thing and ran into a problem. I already had the first portion done, I just needed to do the part with the CMD so I'm not sure where I went wrong. The only thing I can think of is that I have the TS4 folder in the EA folder instead of just straight into the D: drive.

@imjuliewaters  The issue is more likely the first part of the command.  First, make sure the Electronic Arts folder is still present in Documents.  If it's not, create a new Electronic Arts folder, or make the symlink for the Electronic Arts folder, like this:

MKLINK /J “%UserProfile%\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

The symlink works just as well this way.

If that doesn't help, the issue is probably the %UserProfile% part.  Instead, write out the entire file path to the Electronic Arts or Sims 4 folder, for example:

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

To double-check the file path, right-click on the Sims 4 folder on C, or the Electronic Arts folder, and select Properties > General, then find the Location.  One common problem is that the user folder is in OneDrive, in which case %UserProfile% doesn't find it.

Please let me know which of these is the issue, for future reference.

I double, triple checked that the locations are correct, but I keep getting the same error message.

These are the commands I've tried -

MKLINK /J "D:\Users\water\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” “D:\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4”

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

MKLINK /J "D:\Users\water\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” "D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4"

MKLINK /J “%UserProfile%\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4” "D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4"

I made sure there was an EA/TS4 folder in the place I said it was. My Documents folder is in my OneDrive folder. I'm not sure how it ended up there, but I can't move it back out. When I try it tells me "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected. Access is denied."

@imjuliewaters  Here's how to stop OneDrive from syncing your Documents folder:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/m-p/12475370#Disabled

If you want OneDrive gone entirely, please see the next section ("I want to get rid of OneDrive") of that guide.

With OneDrive still in the picture, the proper command here, assuming your username is "water,", would be this if there's an Electronic Arts folder in Documents:

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

or this if there's no Electronic Arts folder in Documents:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

There cannot be a Sims 4 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts, or else Windows won't be able to create the symlink there.

If you do stop OneDrive from syncing Documents, one way or the other, the proper command will be this:

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

One more thing:  Under no circumstances should you involve D:\Origin Games\The Sims 4 in any of this.  That is, presumably, where the game's program files are located, and mixing those with the user folder will only cause more problems.

I didn't think the Origin folder was what I needed to use in the command but thought I'd give it a go since nothing else was working. I haven't messed with that folder on its own though.

I was able to move my Documents folder so that it is no longer in the One Drive folder. So now it's just in the D: drive. There is no Electronic Arts folder in the Documents folder or anywhere in the D: drive. Or in the C: drive.

I tried this "MKLINK /J "D:\Documents” “D:\Electronic Arts” and got the message "Cannot create a file when that file already exists." If they mean an EA file I'm really confused because that file/folder doesn't exist on either drive on my laptop. So now I'm just more confused.

@imjuliewaters  Please run this command in Command Prompt:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

and post the result here.  I want to be extra careful with the command now that you've changed some settings.

@imjuliewaters  Okay, please go into Documents and make sure there is NOT an Electronic Arts folder inside.  If there is, move or rename it.  Then use this command:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Electronic Arts”

This will create a symlink pointing the Electronic Arts folder to D, where it currently should be.  If the command doesn't work, open D, find the Electronic Arts folder, right-click it, select Properties > General, and you'll see its Location.  That should be the second part of the command, e.g. if the file path is D:\Games\Electronic Arts, you'd use this:

MKLINK /J “C:\Users\water\Documents\Electronic Arts” “D:\Games\Electronic Arts”

If you'd really rather only use a symlink for the Sims 4 folder, this is the command:

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

Here, make sure there's currently an Electronic Arts folder inside Documents, but that there is NOT a Sims 4 folder inside that.  And here again, if the command doesn't work, make sure you have the proper path to the Sims 4 folder on D.

Either approach is valid, so pick the one you like.  I prefer the first because it makes troubleshooting a bit simpler down the line, just one less step at each turn.  But it's not a big deal either way.

@imjuliewaters  Your Documents directory, as in, the one that Windows uses as the proper directory for Documents, is on C.  That's what the command I gave you reported:

C:\Users\water\Documents

So please use the symlink command I wrote out.  And delete the symlink you created in D:\Documents.  I don't know what that folder is doing there, but Sims 4 isn't using it.

I changed the command from C: to D: because I do not have a Documents directory on my C: drive, only on my D: drive. I moved the Documents folder a few weeks ago because I was running out of room on my C: drive. Everything I have for EA/Origin/The Sims is installed on my D: drive. The game now loads as it should, I just now need to find The Sims 4 folder because it's not in the Electronic Arts folder so that I can transfer back my mods, saved games, houses, etc.

@imjuliewaters  I promise you that you do have a Documents folder on C.  This command that I posted earlier:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

is asking your computer for the location of the Documents directory, and the answer was what you saw.  So that folder is present, or at least it was at the time you ran the command.  You can run it again if you want to double-check.

Make sure you're looking in the proper location though.  Open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, double-click the C drive, then open Users > water, and you should see a Documents folder.  That's what Windows thinks anyway.

If you want to know what folder Sims 4 is reading at any given time, you can check in-game:

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

Oh there it is! 😂 Since it's normally just right when you go into the C: folder I wasn't looking for it elsewhere.

Besides my mods folder, saves folder, and tray folder, is there anything else I need to copy back into The Sims 4 folder to play my saved games? Or is there a way for the game to get these things from their folders on my external drive when I play? I only have 13.7gb free in my C: drive right now and there's nothing left that I can uninstall. I have a lot of CC and it was slowing down my game when everything was on the C: drive so I'd rather not have to move the CC back to the C: drive.

@imjuliewaters  You don't need to have any of this data on C.  The entire point of the symlink is to store the data on D and tell the game where to find it.  Now that you know where Documents is on C, you can use the command I provided to create a symlink inside it to point to the folder on D where you want to store your data.  When everything is running properly from D, you don't need anything on C except the symlink itself.

If you happen to double-click the symlink, the one you create on C that has the little arrow on it, you'll jump to the location the symlink points to.  I mention this in case you'd double-clicked the symlink and found all your files, then thought those files were still on C.  They're not; you're clicking through and landing on D just like Sims 4 will when it's looking for those files.

Aside from saves, Mods, and Tray, you might want to keep the contents of Screenshots and Recorded Videos, but the rest is disposible; the game will recreate those files as necessary.

@imjuliewaters  I'd like the file paths for everything, and a few screenshots, just to make sure I'm not missing any critical details.  First, please go in-game and find the file path Sims 4 is reading.  Here's how:

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

Open that file path in a File Explorer window, starting with This PC, and take a screenshot of the contents of the Electronic Arts folder.  If you see a proper Sims 4 folder inside, not a symlink with an arrow but a normal folder icon, open that and post a screenshot of the contents.  Make sure it's in detail mode so I can see the dates on the files and folders.

If the Sims 4 folder is actually a symlink, with the arrow, or the Electronic Arts folder is, double-click it and take a screenshot of the contents of the location that you jump to, again in detail mode.  Include the address bar, above the list of files and folders, in the screenshot.

Finally, do the above for the Electronic Arts folder on D that you'd like to use.

For the address bar, the screenshot needs to show the entire file path, starting with the drive letter, e.g. C > Users > username> Documents.  If it does not for any particular folder, right-click that folder and select Properties > General, then list the Location along with the screenshot.

@imjuliewaters  Yes, just use the instructions in that post.  And you're welcome, I'm glad we could figure this out.