[READ FIRST] Saves, CC/Mods or Library items disappeared? iCloud issues
ISSUE Saves One minute your game is working fine. The next you go to play and the Load Game button has disappeared, there seems to be no way to play an existing save. CC/Mods Newly added CC/Mods do not show up in your game despite being properly installed (for help with installing 3rd party content see here) or CC randomly starts disappearing from your game. Library items Saving Lots, Rooms and Households to your in-game Library doesn't work CAUSE Most likely the internal storage on your Mac is too full and iCloud is pushing any newly added files to your Documents folder in the cloud. This can happen at anytime. You can check the storage level by clicking on the Apple in the top left corner of the menu bar then About This Mac, then the Storage tab. By default, the game stores your Saves, Mods, Tray (where your Library items are saved) and all your user game data in a folder called The Sims 4 in Documents > Electronic Arts. If there is no Sims 4 folder in this location the game will recreate a new one each time it is launched. If you have iCloud Drive enabled and set to store your Desktop & Documents folder in the cloud it may be moving your existing Sims 4 folder to the cloud, hence the need to create a new Sims 4 folder every time you launch the game. You can check the status of various files and folders, and what the little cloud icons mean, here. FIX Firstly, you MUST free up some space on your Mac otherwise doing this is pointless. Empty the Downloads folder, go through your data and see what you no longer need, empty the Bin. If you have large Photos, Music and TV libraries consider storing them on an external drive. Instructions here on how to do this for your Photos library, the principle is the same for the Music and TV apps. Open System Preferences and then your iCloud settings. What you click on can vary by macOS, check Apple's help page here if you can't immediately find where to look. This is where you can choose what gets stored in the cloud. We are only interested in two settings, iCloud Drive and Optimise Mac Storage Click on Options... in the iCloud Drive setting and make sure Desktop & Documents Folders is unchecked. Scroll down to the bottom of this Apple help page to understand what happens to your data when you turn off the setting. Back at the iCloud settings window, Uncheck Optimise Mac Storage below the list of apps using iCloud. This means that your Mac will stop pushing files to the cloud when the internal storage is getting full. For more info on this setting read this help page. Once you have successfully stopped iCloud from moving the contents of your Documents folder to the cloud you need to move the Sims 4 folder back into the default location - Macintosh HD > Users > [User] > Documents > Electronic Arts Apple explain here what the status of the little cloud icons mean. If you're feeling brave you could consider creating a symlink and storing your Sims 4 folder on an external drive. Or maybe change your EA App Games Library location to an external Drive.Game Crashes When I Use the Coffee or Tea Makers and Kettles
Hello! I wanted to transfer a post I made under the Mods and Custom Content section to see if it makes more sense here based on what I've found. My game keeps crashing when my controlled sim uses a beverage maker. I'm not getting anywhere doing the typically prescribed CC and mods checks (50/50 method, starting on a new save, placing mods and CC back in Mods folder one-by-one by creator, etc.), and the Mods and Custom Content pages don't have any other suggestions. My ultimate question is: Does this appear to be a CC issue or an issue with Mac? I've copied and pasted the responses here for more details: My game crashes every time my sims use a coffee or tea maker small appliance. This has been an issue for a while in my game and I can't seem to figure out the cause. I have done the 50/50 method three separate times now, and just when I think I've dwindled it down to the CC culprit, as soon as I put back all my mods, it continues to crash. With the 50/50 method, I identified a Pandasama mod and BuildBuy items as "allegedly" causing the crashing. I removed those items, tested in the save again, and it didn't crash. But when I put back all my mods, it crashes again, even though while doing the 50/50 method the game did not crash while I'm testing each of the items separately. I don't know how else to troubleshoot for the crashing. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! For the record, I play on a Mac with an Apple M2 Pro Chip, and it's on the macOS Tahoe Version 26.6.1. If you need any more information on my computer, I'd be happy to provide. Hello! So I've finished testing all my BuildBuy CC and with all my BuildBuy CC in my game, it does not crash. However, when I added my CAS CC folder back as well as the BuildBuy, it crashed. That would indicate that there must be some bad CC in the CAS folder, right? However, when I tested the game with just my CAS CC folder in there, and NOT my BuildBuy CC folder, it did not crash. To clarify, the control test I'm using is my sim getting hot cocoa from using a kettle that came with For Rent. The crashing happens while my sim is drinking the drink. Also, another control is that my Mods, which I also tested separated, are all in the game at the time of testing--I'm only swapping out the CC items at this point because my game did not crash with any of just my mods. Just a quick update on this because I don't know how much longer this will take me to keep going through, but now I'm testing with all my mods and CAS CC installed, and bit by bit I'm adding back my BuildBuy CC. I got about halfway through testing without it crashing, then all of a sudden it starts crashing again. I removed the cluster of sub-folders I tested when it crashed and isolated it thinking that was the culprit and put another cluster of BuildBuy sub-folders in, and it crashed again. I removed those folders, and removed the sub-folders I put in last before the crashing started to essentially go back to before the crashing began again, and it crashed again. This save file is only 6 months old, and I've only been playing in Live mode in it for about 6 weeks (prior to that I was just placing lots and creating sims). Could it possibly be corrupted already? Literally everything else in the game works fine except this singular feature, and all this testing is not bringing me any closer to any solutions. Has there ever been a bug report on small appliances? Could Sims 4 Studio help? Hi there! I have the same problem, and I play on mac as well (apple m3). When a sim drinks tea/coffee/hot chocolate game can crash, but not everytime! For example, it does not crash when my sim goes to his open career lot and drinks coffee there. Also, some kind of tea does not crash game as well. It appeared in 3 different saves with 3 different combinations of mods. I tried 50/50 but got absolutely random results. It seems to me, that there is no particular mod which cause it, but some mac-specific mod issue in general, because in generated report there is a KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE which probably might mean that game tries to get access to some protected or invalid part of memory. I'm trying to analyze it with llm, but to no avail yet. Confirming, that for me this bug does not appear on vanilla game as well. Thank you in advance!Sims4
It’s started for almost two weeks. Here and there when I play Sims4 I get multiple saves in my save file instead of just one. I only save once and then, if I need to again I’ll delete it IN THE FOLDER then I’ll save it and there’s one everytime cause I go back in everytime I feel like I should save it. Also, for mcc command center when I go to relationships and then add relationships no title of a relative pops up like normally. I never did anything when it wasn’t happening or I don’t remember but this isn’t the first time and it doesn’t happen often.
🛠️ Creating a symlink in macOS to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive
➡️ This is not to be confused with installing the actual Sims 4 game on an external drive. The game installation location is determined in EA App and there is no need to use a symlink for this. As internal storage gets smaller we're forced to use cloud based solutions to store files and folders or resort to a trusty external drive. Cloud based only storage is not an option for the Sims 4 folder that contains all your saves, Mods, Library items and other user data because the game only looks in one place for your data: Macintosh HD > Users > [your user account] > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 If there is no Sims 4 folder in that location the game will create a new one. There is no way around this default Sims 4 folder location unfortunately, it is hard coded into the game. Because of this the only option to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive is to create a symbolic link, otherwise known as a symlink. Creating the symlink is relatively easy provided you understand the concept of what a symlink is and why you are creating it. You should also be familiar with Terminal on your Mac and the security and permission systems in place in whichever version of macOS you are running as these dictate the ability for the game to access the external drive and whether your Mac user account has permission to grant the necessary access. You should also make sure you are using a good quality, fast external drive. You get what you pay for and if you bought a cheap drive, with low quality cables, you will most likely struggle to get the symlink to work because it will be too slow. For help buying an external drive and what to look out for read this guide. I am not going to write step by step instructions here, the post will be far too long. Instead, you can read the detailed and comprehensive guide I wrote several years ago here https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/ If your symlink is not working it is down to user error. It really is that simple. macOS is a Unix based operating system and as such uses Unix commands which are all provided in the above linked guide. This thread is for consolidating all posts related to the Mac symlink process here at Answers HQ. If you're a Windows user read Crinrict's excellent guide here https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-link.html. What I have provided below are a few of the common issues people face as a result of not entering the commands correctly or having the correct permissions in place. Common issues reported and the solution: Always check your external drive has the correct name in Disk Utility: open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities) change View to Show All Devices then click on the drive in the left sidebar the Mount Point shows the name of your drive. If there is a number added to the drive name it means the drive has not been properly ejected multiple times Close Disk Utility and eject the drive In Finder click on Go in the menu bar then Go To Folder. Enter /Volumes in the input field and hit return in the /Volumes location, trash the folder(s) that has the same name as the external drive Close Finder, plug the drive back in, open Disk Utility again to check the drive name in the Mount Point. If it matches try to create the symlink In addition to checking the external drive mount point above, the following may also be helpful: Terminal states my access/permission is denied check your Mac user account is an Administrator account and not a Standard account. check that Terminal has access to external drives, also known as Removable Volumes, and your Documents folder. I'm constantly getting "Unable to start... Cannot start because the below file appears to be corrupted" error message make sure the external drive is correctly formatted as either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If it isn't, reverse the symlink, reformat the drive in Disk Utility and start again. check your Mods actually aren't corrupted by downloading a compatible version from the creator. I keep getting the error message "Unable to start... The Sims 4 is already running" make sure the external drive is correctly plugged in and mounted. check EA App has access to the external drive in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Give it Full Disk Access if necessary. disable iCloud Drive if the symlink folder in Documents is a white page instead of a folder with the little arrow the symlink has broken. Trash it and attempt to recreate the symlink. Check the Mount Point in Disk Utility shows your exact external drive name and doesn’t have a number added to the drive name. If it does this means your drive has not been properly ejected multiple times. To fix it: eject the drive in Finder click on Go in the menu bar then Go To Folder enter /Volumes in the text field and hit Enter/Return in the Finder window that appears you should see a folder, not a drive icon, with the same name as your external drive. Trash it. plug the drive back in, check the mount point in Disk Utility is the exact drive name with no appended numbers, then try to create the symlink again. if the mount point is still showing a number you have problems with your drive. Consider reformatting it, trying different connector cables, or getting a better drive. Terminal tells me No such file or directory did you copy and paste the command from the guide and correctly substitute the name of your external drive? If you didn't copy and paste you may have used the wrong letters in the command. Copy and paste from the guide. Does the folder you are trying to move or create a symlink to exist in the location you are stipulating in the command? Terminal tells me Directory not empty in Step 1 Is there already a folder on the external with the same name as the folder you're moving? i.e. have you already copied over the Electronic Arts folder? If there is already a folder with the same name as the folder you're moving, Terminal will return this result. Terminal tells me File already exists in Step 2 of the guide Did you correctly complete step 1 or is there still an Electronic Arts or Sims 4 folder in your Documents folder? If the folder is still there you have not correctly moved it in Step 1. If you have iCloud Drive enabled to store your Documents folder in the cloud and Optimise Storage enabled, it will cause issues with the symlink. I strongly advise to disable this iCloud feature otherwise you will have issues, especially if you use Mods. As a reminder, creating this symlink is aimed at people storing their Electronic Arts/Sims 4 folder locally. Using iCloud Drive stores your folder in the cloud and locally. For help with iCloud see this thread https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/READ-FIRST-Saves-CC-Mods-or-Library-items-disappeared/m-p/10242133Lost saved game and pack
I recently bought the cottage living pack and actually played with it, I stopped for a month and when I went back in to play with it I had all my packs except the cottage living one. I then watched a few videos on YouTube to try and get it back into my game and now I have lost my saved games. Please help!!! I know it has something to do with the files but im so lost and confused [CM edit - CAPS in title]
game packs not showing in game anymore
Hi, i brought/downloaded a couple packs and went to restart the game once downloading finished but for some reason all my downloaded packs have gone. its says on game that they are downloaded just needs to restart. I've tried restarting, uninstall/reinstall both sims4 and EA app, clearing cache, restarting and repairing but nothing is bringing my packs back. any ideas of how to fix this?
