Sync Sims 4 saves across multiple computers?
I play The Sims 4 on both my laptop and my computer, however my progress on either of these is not reflected on the other. Is there any easy way to do this within Windows or is there a way to enable...
Forum Discussion
Unfortunately The Sims 4 does not feature cloud saving. This means that any progress made on one computer is not carried over to another computer, even when you are logged into your Steam or Origin account.
A solid way around this is to set it up so that your Sims save location is linked to your Dropbox or OneDrive.
Ensure The Sims 4 is closed and then within File Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\<your_user>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4
Copy the entire 'The Sims 4' folder to your desired location within OneDrive or Dropbox (you should have the program for either of these installed)
In the start menu, type 'cmd' and click 'Run as administrator' link
Type the following: mklink /d "[path to cloud service folder]" "[path to your documents folder]"
e.g. mklink /d "C:\Users\Oast\OneDrive\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves" "C:\Users\Oast\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves"
What this does is creates a symbolic link between your local Sims saves folder and your cloud storage saves folder, so any changes to your save file is also made to your cloud folder. If you do this on both computers then you will always have both of them linked.
It is worth noting that you will need to ensure you have adequate space in your cloud storage (the file size should however be negligible) and that your files are synchronised before playing.
@bradleyw532 I'll repeat saying this is a bad idea. I've seen enough "GAH! All my CC and saves are gone!" posts on various forums/discords/subreddits after the user has put their Sims data in the cloud to be firmly convinced that it should simply NOT be done. The game expects the data to be in your Documents folder, and that's where it should stay. Any attempt to game (pardon the pun) the system will only end in tears.
tl;dr Just because you could, doesn't mean you should. Don't do it.
tl;dr Just because you could, doesn't mean you should. Don't do it.
all my Sims data resides on an external SSD drive and has done so for months. I haven't lost a single save or any of my (expansive) collection of CC. I don't know why one shouldn't do this, especially since both Origin and the EA Desktop app explicitly offer to save to folders other than the standard C: drive. Anecdotal evidence from the forums to the contrary, I am in the process of setting up an online save location, but just for my saves and just as backup when I move play remotely on my MBP laptop rather than my Windows tower PC rig. If I do encounter any of these ghostly effects (vanished CC and saves lost to the ether) I'll report back to apologize.
@severinwanderer I think most of the warnings are for people that either don't understand how cloud saving works or allow a built-in service (OneDrive, iCloud) to auto-sync their data on its default settings. Quite a lot of people lose their data that way, or at least can't find it until someone shows them where to look.
Origin and the EA App don't support storing user data, including saves, in a custom location. There settings are for games' install locations. Sims 4 will always look for user data in Documents > Electronic Arts, and the only ways around that are to move the location of Documents or to use a symbolic link to point to another location. Syncing is different: the game will still use the default location, but the files will be backed up elsewhere and in some cases automatically shared between computers.
Featured Places
