Okay, so it worked kinda. I had to re-download the sims but it downloaded in the proper spot because of the previous steps we took. Yippee.
Unfortunately, it's not recognising my previous saves in the saves files. I'll do some repairing and see if I can get it working. We're so close!
Thanks again for the help. At the very least, I can make a new save in the meantime.
@NaamarTissue Your saves should be usable once they're placed in the correct folder, i.e. E:\The Sims 4\saves if you used the command we've been talking about. The other question is whether the saves are named properly, which means Slot_ followed by an eight-digit hexidecimal number (digits 0 to 9, a to f) followed by .save , with no extra characters.
I'm not sure from your description, but did you actually install Sims 4 itself on the external drive? If so, where exactly is it installed? You can see in your EA App game library, under Sims 4 > Manage > View properties:
This cannot be the same location as the user folder. If it is, you'll either need to uninstall it and reinstall elsewhere, backing up any user data currently inside this Sims 4 folder; or you'll need to delete your current symlink and create a new one pointing somewhere else.
If you'd like help with this process, please let me know which approach you want to use as well as the current location of the game install, as seen in the App.
The sims downloaded in the E:\The Sims 4 where we had created the symlink to. I ran the base game without downloading my packs again (which sucks that I have all the files for them, yet I have to download them all again), made a new save with just random stuff and then checked my saves folder. The new one is there, but none of the older ones are being registered in game. So we know it's pulling from my external drive, just not reading them I guess. They're all in the same folder with the slot name. I'm not sure why it's not quite working.
I appreciate your help so much!
@NaamarTissue Right, you really need to separate the game's program files from the user folder. Not doing so is asking for trouble, and probably sooner rather than later.
If you want to install the game elsewhere, move anything inside E:\The Sims 4 that you'd like to preserve to a new location, then uninstall the game through the EA App and reinstall it wherever you like. This can be a folder on E, for example E:\Games; it just can't be in the same location as the user data.
If you'd like to leave the game where it is, you can create a folder on E and redo the symlink so it points to that new location. For example, you might create E:\Sims Data, then when you redo the symlink, the last part of the command would be "E:\Sims Data\The Sims 4" (just like that).
Either approach is fine, but this is really important to do in one way or another.
Okay so I deleted and redownloaded it in a folder so it's not directly in the user. It downloaded perfectly!
I just booted it up and it's working!
Only downside if that only the most recent save file is being registered in game.
At least we fixed my initial problem!
Any idea on how to fix the rest of my saves? No worries if not, i'm sure i'll find something
Thank you so much for your help!
@NaamarTissue Since you know the game is reading the most recent save, you know where to put your other save files. Make sure they're all named in the proper format, as I mentioned in post 9. The saves that end in .verx are backups of the saves with the same number, so you can ignore these unless the main save with a given number doesn't load, in which case try restoring one of the backups. To do that, renumber the file and delete the .verx extension, so the name ends in .save instead.
If this doesn't help, please post a screenshot of the contents of the folder that contains your saves, as in, I'd like to see the file names and sizes. Let me know which save is the one that currently shows up.
I got it working!
I had taken out all the .verx cause I was told to delete them. Luckily I saved them on my desktop! I put them back in my save folder and now they show up in game!
Got them working and everything is good now!
Thank you so much for your help!
