[PC] Sims 4 Missing User Content (saves, mods, etc.)
If your saves or other user files are missing, start here. This guide is only for Windows.
This article is about missing user content in Windows: saves, mods, saved households and builds, and anything else stored in the user folder. If you have a Mac, use this thread instead. If you're missing packs/DLC on either platform, see this article instead.
Overview
Saves and other user files can disappear from the game for a variety of reasons, including:
- Files may be completely gone, typically due to cloud storage issues or user error
- Files may be renamed in a way that the game can't read
- Saves may be corrupt or Tray files incomplete, as in, missing one or more components
- Files may be intact but not in the folder the game is currently reading, the location of which could have changed without notice
The fix, if any, depends on the reason the content isn't appearing in-game.
Note: EA doesn't support cloud storage for saves or other user data, so there is no way to retrieve your saves from EA servers. You can however find previously-uploaded households and builds in the Gallery.
Step One: Find the folder the game is reading
Load Sims 4 to the Main Menu, click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the screen, and select Game Options > Screen Capture. The Location Path shows the relevant folder.
To make sure you're working with the correct folder, open a File Explorer window, select This PC in the left panel, then the drive (C: in the above screenshot), then the folders the game lists. This Sims 4 folder should have subfolders like saves and Tray (saved households and builds). Are your missing files present here?
Yes | No | No and I have changed Sims 4's language
Different language
The user folder is called "The Sims 4" in most languages, but a few (Dutch, French, German, and Spanish) have localized names, e.g. "Los Sims 4" in Spanish. If you've switched to or from one of these languages, your user data will still be in the folder for the previous language. You can simply copy the files to the folder the game is now using.
Some subfolders will also be localized, for example Screenshots and Videos ("Capturas de pantallas" and "Videos grabados" in Spanish), including in languages where the overall folder is called "The Sims 4." So when transferring data, check the folder names, and where necessary, move the files to the correct new folders rather than moving entire subfolders.
My files are not in the correct folder
You'll need to search your computer and cloud storage for your files. If you have an external storage device with Sims 4 data on it, plug it in before proceeding.
Cloud storage
jump to: Standard search of your computer
jump to: Advanced search
This section is about OneDrive in particular. If you use a different cloud storage service, please refer to its online documentation or user manual.
Given the variety of negative effects OneDrive can have on your game and user data, I would strongly suggest preventing it from syncing your Sims 4 data unless you want this feature for a specific reason. Please see this guide for help managing OneDrive settings and how to change them without losing your data:
If OneDrive has ever run on this computer, which is possible even if you never opted into the service, please open Edge, go to onedrive.com, login to your Microsoft account if necessary, and view My files and the Recycle bin. If you see any Sims 4 files there, restore them and place them in the correct folder.
If the files still don't appear in-game, please see this section below.
OneDrive can continue to cause issues, potentially removing Sims 4 files when internal storage is low, or renaming them when it detects duplicates, for example older and newer versions of the same file. If you'd like to prevent this, or change OneDrive settings in general, please see this guide.
Standard search of your computer
If onedrive.com doesn't have your old files, search your computer instead. Open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter Slot_ in the search field in the upper-right corner. The search may take a few minutes to complete. When it's done, expand the window sideways so you can see the full path to any files it has found. If there are multiple locations, you may want to take a screenshot (Windows key-shift-S) or write them down.
You can see in this screenshot that I have at least one save sitting on my desktop, where the game won't read it.
If you're searching for other content rather than saves, you can use a different search term: Tray or Mods for that folder, or ConfigOverride for an entire second Sims 4 folder.
For any file or folder that is not in the correct Sims 4 folder, you can select it and click the Open file location menu button to jump to the location listed. This folder or the one it's inside may contain other content you're looking for, so look over its entire contents.
In any case, move the files to the correct Sims 4 folder. If they still don't appear in-game, please see this section below.
Advanced search
Click Windows key-R, enter cmd in the run box, and a Command Prompt window will open. Copy and paste this command in the window, and enter:
cd "C:\"
This says you want the next command to apply to the entire C drive. To search it, enter one of these commands, depending on whether you're looking for saves, Tray files, or mods:
dir /s "Slot_*"
dir /s "Tray*"
dir /s "Mods*"
The asterisks at the end of Tray and Mods are in case the folders have been renamed, for example if OneDrive detected duplicates. (The asterisk means "any extra characters can be here.") Results for a search for Slot_ should look something like this:
The file paths, which I've underlined in red, will tell you where to look for your missing data.
If Command Prompt doesn't find your missing files, and your computer has multiple drives, you can substitute any drive letter into the first command, for example cd "D:\" specifies the D drive. (The name of the drive doesn't matter, only the assigned letter.) If you're not sure how many drives your computer has, or what letters have been assigned, open a File Explorer window and click This PC in the left panel to view them.
Open the folder(s) specified to find the missing files, and move them to the correct Sims 4 folder. If they still don't appear in-game, please see this section below.
If your missing data is not on your computer, and not in OneDrive or other cloud storage, and not on an external drive, then there is nowhere else to look. The files are unfortunately gone.
My files are present but not loading
Make sure that all your files are in the correct subfolder, for example custom content provided alongside a downloaded sim or lot needs to be in Mods, not in Tray. And make sure that your files are not in an extra subfolder, e.g. a save in a saves folder inside another saves folder.
Saves
jump to: Tray files
jump to: Mods
Saves need to be named properly, or the game won't load them. Save names have the format Slot_XXXXXXXX.save , where each X stands in for a hexidecimal (0 to 9, a to f) digit; there need to be exactly eight of these. The name cannot have any extra characters. Sims 4 also sometimes has trouble reading saves when the first digit is not 0. Slot_00000001.save was formerly the game's auto-save data, but the feature has been removed, so this file now serves no purpose and can be deleted if you still have it.
As an example, after changing OneDrive settings a few times, my saves folder looked like this:
For each file with a red arrow, I would need to change its number to something higher than 00000005 (the highest I have) and remove the - Copy from the name. The ones with a .ver0 extension are copies of backups, so I could ignore them unless the main saves with the same number were missing or didn't load in-game.
The .verx extension denotes backup versions of the save with the same internal number: the game keeps the data from the last five times you saved before the most recent one. These are also valid saves if you need them—just renumber the file you want to use so it doesn't conflict with any other, then strip off the .verx extension so the name ends in .save . These should then show up at the Main Menu. The newest backup is .ver0 and the oldest .ver4.
If a save is correctly named and in the correct location, but it doesn't load, it may be corrupt. Try renaming and loading a backup save, as described above. You can keep trying versions until you find one that loads. If one does load, immediately use "save as" to rename the save so you don't overwrite your intact backup. That way, if the save corrupts a second time, you can revert to this backup again.
For saves that show up but don't load all their data or are otherwise unplayable, please see this master thread, and consider sharing an affected save in one of the linked threads:
[PLEASE READ] Save Game Corruption
If your save corruption is not listed in that thread, please consider creating your own thread and sharing the save, as well as details about how it corrupted, including the mods you've been using, if any. The Sims Team investigates causes of save corruption and could always use another save to test. Here's how to provide a save; please include any intact backups too.
[INFORMATION] How to Send User Files to The Sims 4 Team
If your save appears at the Main Menu but you can't play it (crash/error code/endless loading/bounced back to Manage Worlds), please post in the Sims 4 Gameplay forum.
Tray files
Tray file names are more obtuse, but if you see - Copy or extra characters in the name, delete these. Each in-game Library item (a household or build) will have several associated Tray files, the number and types depending on the content. Each Library item's files are created at the same time, so you can sort the folder by modified date to group them together. The names should look like this; you'll notice that the file names are mostly the same for a given item.
If some Tray files are missing for a particular Library item, it may not appear in-game, or it may be present but unusable. If you can't find the missing files anywhere, the item is probably not recoverable.
Mods
Mods and custom content files should work as long as they're unzipped and not inside too many subfolders. Zipped files have extensions like .zip, .rar, or .7z; these need to be unzipped before use. Files that end in .ts4script can only be one subfolder deep inside Mods, i.e. Mods > creator name > file. Custom content can be five subfolders deep. Always review the install instructions on the download page for any extra requirements.
If a mod or cc item is in the correct location, and not too many subfolders deep, but isn't loading, try downloading a fresh copy. If that doesn't work, delete Resource.cfg, directly inside Mods, launch the game to create a new copy, and try again.
For further mod-related help, please post in the Sims 4 Mods forum.
