[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.🛠️ 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/10242133
Game Won't Open Old Saves
For the last week, my game will not open my old saves. At first they wouldn't even come up when I opened the game (even after I removed the original sims folder to my desktop and copied the save files in one at a time), but once I finally created a new game they would appear, but the icons would be greyed out. If I clicked on the saves, it would automatically open the new game rather than my old save. Including a screenshot below. I've tried repairing my game, restarting my computer, and clearing out my computer storage and making sure all the saves were downloaded (not on the cloud). I've tried restoring older saves of my game, all to the same effect. I don't & have never downloaded any CC or mods. Does anyone have any tips? I would be devastated to lose my old saves--I've been playing on the same family for years!
All Sims and Households GONE :(
Hello everyone, I have no idea what to do, I'm not even really sure what I did wrong. For starters I am not a technology person like that whatsoever, and basically my Sims4 game had put furniture for all my houses inside my sims inventories. When I would try to place the items back in my game it would say "SCRIPT CALL FAIL" and after some further research I think (heavy on the I think) one of my mods or CC items was broken or outdated, however, I do not know which one it was. I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to fix that problem and I thought I did it correctly but I guess I did not, because when I opened my game back up it was showing as if I never even played before, and I have 701 hrs. of game time listed in my EA account. It wouldn't even give me the option to load an old game or anything my only option was "New Game." I've tried everything to get my sims back and all my game data, the mods and everything is still on my MacBook Air, they even show up in the clothing and hair/makeup section in the game still, all of the mods stuff is still there, but my sims and households are JUST NOT THEY ARE GONE :( Idk what to do at this point, and I got directed here after speaking to someone through EA Post-Chat. Does anybody know what I could've done wrong or have any advice on what I should do, any tips? Really anything at all :( Please, I've spent SO much money on this game, I've paid for 11 different add on's and I have spent so much time on over 80 sims and so many houses and rooms, so much detail and dedication is just all gone and I don't even wanna play anymore because starting alllll over is not even worth everything I accomplished and had set up with my original sims, their lives, homes, and just everything.I can't install any custom content PLEASE
I have been struggling with this for about a year now. At some point, my Documents folder somehow made it into the cloud. I redownloaded it from the cloud along with everything in it, but it's been weird ever since. No matter what I do, including repairing the game, the files from my saves, cc, and all of that are disconnected from the game. I could go to my Documents folder, then to the Sims, and then to mods and see my files, but the files won't show up in my game. After a lot of research, trial, and error, I ended up uninstalling the Sims 4 and deleting all of the related files, including the Sims 4 file from my Electronic Arts folder. I've reinstalled it now, and there is no Sims 4 to be found in my Electronic Arts folder or anywhere, for that matter. I can open and play the game from Finder. I just see the game file and cannot access anything else. When I first downloaded The Sims 4, it was on Origin. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I just want MCCC and UI Cheats back please!!!!!!! (my other cc would be nice too)
Computer and External Drive
Any ideas????????????? I've been playing my game on an external drive. I recently had an issue with my iCloud was seen by Apple. We ended up turning it off. I go to play, plug in my drive, and nothing was loaded in the game however, all the information is still on the drive. I was able to see that I have another electronics arts folder. When I looked in there, everything was empty. I moved my mods and saves in that folder, then everything was working again. So now it only recognizes my saves and mods on the computer and not the drive how it was originally. I have repaired the game multiple times. I have took out the mods and placed them back I made sure the installer location on the EA app has my external listed I've run out of ideas. I hope this made sense. Basically, I have the game in two locations, but I only want it to recognize one.
What the **bleep** is going on EA...
Last night I keep getting inconsistent "Error:0" messages rendering the game incapable of saving (but then sometimes it would work), "Unable to connect to server" to upload to my gallery (but sometimes it would work), and some other crazy-**bleep** message about EA checking for game updates in the background for new stuff. I repaired my game, removed all my mods, cleaned out every cache, and when I go to re-boot the home page is showing me some household I've never played and where the household income dollar amount should be, it showed a bunch "W"s criss-crossing and overlapping. My entire saved game was wiped and I can't recover the back-up files I have. I reached out for support via chat and Ricco tells me there's no issues that have been submitted by their studio team. Oh yeah? Then why are the forums and X blowing up with people having the exact same issues as me?! I repeat, WHAT THE **bleep** IS GOING ON EA?!?!! I've given you how much money over the last few years? You all should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves! I WANT A REFUND FOR EVERY GAME IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE A CONSISTENTLY WORKING PRODUCT!!!!!!!
