OneDrive was full and couldn’t take any more CC. Now I can’t open my game [ Edited ]

[SimsSailBe]

HELP ME! This is driving me mad!

I have been downloading mods and CC. Everything was fine until my onedrive got full. I started to delete stuff from the trash can thing on OneDrive (I think that was old cc and saves from my old pc) But this didn’t release any more space!

I downloaded a bit more cc and hoped that I didn’t have to save everything in OneDrive. (Red crosses appeared next to the cc/mods that didn’t fit into onedrive btw)

When I tried to start the game, everything was rested! My saves GONE, CC GONE! 

This morning I bought the 100G pack on OneDrive, and hoped it would fix everything. This was when the OneDrive folder “Where is my files” popped up in my Documents folder. When I open that, my CC and Mods were there.

So I open sims 4 again. But everything was still gone. I went back to check what happened and it seems like a new “Electronic Arts” folder (EMPTY/without my mods and cc) appeared. So I think Siam 4 opened with that instead of the Cc/mods one.

I tried copying all my OneDrive files (with cc/mods) and replace it with the clean Electronic arts. But now as I open my game, it doesn’t open. Only Origin opens. There’s no Error. I have tried repairing the game. It didn’t work. 
what am I supposed to do?? (Sorry for my English)

(Those files underneath the folders in my Electronic Arts as you can see in the photo, I don’t think they were there before. I may be mistaken)

[puzzlezaddict]

@SimsSailBe  You may have corrupt or outdated mods or custom content.  Please move your Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, launch the game to make sure it works, and then start adding your content to the new folder in batches.  Start with mods and cc; leave your saves for last.  Any time the game stops working, you'll need to split the most recent batch of files you moved and retest until you find the problem.

Unless you really want to sync all your Sims 4 content, you don't need to pay for extra OneDrive storage.  It's easy enough to prevent OneDrive from automatically syncing the Documents folder, and you can still manually upload files when you want.  If you'd like help configuring your setup, let me know what you'd prefer to do.

[naloodles]

 my mod folder got full and i had no storage left so i stopped syncing to onedrive but now new things i download dont even show up in my game unless i sync it.

[puzzlezaddict]

@naloodles  What folder is the game reading?  Please load Sims 4 and have a look, as described here:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/

Please write out the entire file path you see, or post a screenshot.

[naloodles]

i really wish it wasnt saving to onedrive bc im not tryna pay for more storage...

[roberta591]

@naloodles Microsoft has made it hard to stop OneDrive. You can open OneDrive settings and exclude the user/documents/Electronic Arts folder from syncing. Exempting this folder allows the game to function normally. This will allow other programs to use the user documents folder the way Windows wants to and won't affect any other programs. Once you have turned off syncing for the game you'll want to check keep files on this device (computer?). Options can not be changed while OneDrive is in the process of syncing' You have to let it conclude whatever it is doing. OneDrive may not svnc right away and those files are not available until OneDrive does what it does. I have a gaming rig and I do not backup my games. For other computers I backup to a local NAS (network attached storage) I setup in the Windows XP days. You can unlink your computer from your Microsoft account but that could affect access to the Microsoft store. You could stop syncing the user documents folder but that could affect other programs. You could stop OneDrive from starting at boot but that doesn't stop OneDrive from being called by another program. It could help in case the computer has a storage device malfunction. To setup a backup strategy for the Sims game to a thumb drive and using basic script language would not be hard.

add: ypu can uninstall OneDrive and if need be reinstall it from the Microsoft store.

[naloodles]

@roberta591 thank you so much i'm so relieved it worked, i unsynced my mods folder!! fun fact i bought a gaming laptop solely for sims 4 lol so other games arent a problem, im gonna go on a cc shopping now byee tysm

[roberta591]

@naloodles You should have done the whole Electronic Arts folder. If you have any issues go back and undo the mods folder and check the whole Electronic Arts folder. The reason is the game is probably doing a hard call to the user game folder. The coding should do a call to the Windows operating system. That way if there is a redirection the game will follow the redirection. The Windows operating system is no longer (hasn't been for a long time) a true operating as such but an operating environment. Kind of like Master Control in the movie Tron. You should take note of this - it may be on the test later.

[puzzlezaddict]

@naloodles  Please leave OneDrive syncing disabled; it only causes more problems than it could possibly fix.  Your screenshot shows that Sims 4 is using the folder you'd want it to instead of the one inside OneDrive, so that's good.  The only thing you need to do here is place the newly-downloaded custom content in the correct location.

For that, open a File Explorer window and click This PC in the left panel, then double-click the C drive.  From there, open Users > your username > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, and add your cc to the Mods folder inside.  If you want, you can pin the Sims 4 folder to Quick Access (right-click the folder to see the option) so you don't need to open it the long way every time.

If this doesn't help, please post a screenshot of the contents of Mods, as in, I'd like to see the files themselves.

[roberta591]

@puzzlezaddict   The OP only excluded the Sims 4 mods folder. If you read my answer I recommended excluding the usesr>documents>Electronic Arts folder. The OP only is playing Sims 4 but if she decides to play Sims 3 there will be no problems. I don't know (or care) if other EA games are having this issue and this should not effect other programs. Right now there might (probably) be issues with the save game files. Right now the ONLY thing that is not getting synced is the mods folder. If I am right she might (probably) run out off free OneDrive space sooner or later. There are several posts reporting this issue (and probably more coming up) . If you click keep files on this device (computer?) you will see the excluded files getting copied back to the user documents folder. There are other programs besides this game that use OneDrive and actually some people may even want (or have to) use OneDrive to sync files. Microsoft built data centers to provide cloud storage. I know this because I worked in one. MS would like you to run out of free storage. I think you can figure out why. Seeing as MS wants you to use OneDrive I thought I'd figure out a way to keep OneDrive intact and still solve the problem. You could uninstall OneDrive (like some users have done) but I don't know (or care) how tightly OneDrive is integrated into Windows therefore I figured this out to solve the issue and keep OneDrive happy. BTW that is the first thing I tried is to uninstall OneDrive. You can reinstall OneDrive from the MS store. Btw if you uninstall OneDrive you get a periodic nag message you did that. So you see if the OP leaves it the way it is the problem  is not completely solved. I don't want or need OneDrive. I have NAS boxes and before that I used Colorado tape drives for backup devices. I styled much of my programming after James Gordon Letwin's programming style. So creating a backup strategy was just another project.