Forum Discussion

Re: please help!! game won't recognize my saves/mods

@jakurais  First, move your saves and Tray files here:

C:\Users\honey\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4

(No OneDrive in the file path.)  Once you've done that, uninstall Sims 4 itself and reinstall somewhere else.  Having it in the OneDrive folder can and will cause problems, later if not now.  You can install it almost anywhere, including the default C:\Program Files\EA Games, but it should never be in the same location as your saves.  The folders that contain the program files and the user data should always be separate.

To reiterate, you do need to move or back up your saves and Tray files before uninstalling the game because uninstalling will remove the entire Sims 4 folder that contains your program files.  It should not remove the other Sims 4 folder, the one the game is reading, since you haven't installed Sims 4 itself there.  But backups are always useful to have.

2 Replies

  • jakurais's avatar
    jakurais
    1 year ago

    Yes, I did do that and was surprised when the game was able to launch and all my stuff showed up. but as you said, launching it from the onedrive location will cause problems in the future, so I'll definitely want to avoid that.

    what you're saying now, is for me to have a back up of my trays, mods and saves before uninstalling again? before, I just copied them from their location in the onedrive version and put them in the documents one (where the game was saving new screenshots to). 

    if I uninstall, can I just copy all that again? or do you mean, since I now have it installed to my onedrive specifically, it will remove all that if I uninstall it now? either way, before doing so I can just move the files all to my desktop. that will keep them right? 

    I guess I never realized the saves and game files were separate before. 

    also im sorry if I'm misunderstanding, I'm also fighting a really rough cold right now.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    1 year ago

    @jakurais  Yes, I'm saying you should create another backup.  When you uninstall the game, the entire Sims 4 folder that contains the program files is removed.  In your case, since one copy of your saves and Tray files is mixed in with the program files, that one copy will disappear.  The second copy, the one you moved into the Documents folder that is NOT in OneDrive, should stay intact, but it's always best to have two copies of anything you wouldn't want to lose.

    And yes, you can leave the extra copy on your desktop if you want.  It doesn't matter much where that copy is as long as it's in an entirely different location.

    It's always fine to ask more questions before proceeding.  That's certainly better than the alternative, which is trying something you don't understand and potentially doing it incorrectly and possibly losing data or causing more problems.