[SOLVED] Moved my Sims 4 files to a new drive, game data gone? [ Edited ]

[ragingredfox]

To clear up some space on my C drive, I moved my entire Electronic Arts file to my D drive, which I should add, is the same drive that my game is installed on. However, when I launch the game all my save data and library content is gone. I’m really confused by this because when I go into D/ElectronicArts/Sims4/saves all of the save info is there? I just uninstalled OneDrive because Ive heard that’s often a problem with Sims, and I do use mods/cc but all of it is up to date. Any way to get my game to register the save data? Should I just uninstall/reinstall the game? Please help!

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@ragingredfox  If you'd like to be able to store your Sims 4 user files on D, you have two options.  One is to move the entire Documents directory to D, which is simple and supported by Windows.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/74952-move-location-documents-folder-windows-10-a.html

The other is to create a symbolic link that points to your Sims 4 folder on D, so the game knows where to find your files.  If you use this method, please make sure to get the command exactly right, and back up your saves beforehand just in case something goes wrong the first time you try.

https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-lin...

[chaseam01]

The game recognizes that data if it's in the documents folder. To get your saves and library content back, you would have to take what you moved over to your D drive and put it back into the documents as that is where the game reads save data and the like from. I'm afraid you'll have to clear up space from another source if you want to keep all your saved content and be able to use it in the game as far as I know.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@ragingredfox  If you'd like to be able to store your Sims 4 user files on D, you have two options.  One is to move the entire Documents directory to D, which is simple and supported by Windows.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/74952-move-location-documents-folder-windows-10-a.html

The other is to create a symbolic link that points to your Sims 4 folder on D, so the game knows where to find your files.  If you use this method, please make sure to get the command exactly right, and back up your saves beforehand just in case something goes wrong the first time you try.

https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-lin...

[ragingredfox]

@puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for this! I got it working somehow using a combination of these two steps. I can’t quite explain it haha but my saves and library and mods are all back and working!!

[Rolfocopters]

To clear something up, because when I searched my question it really wasn't answered:

If you are like me and are trying to move the folder with all the mods, saves, etc for Sims 4 because it got rather large (for me I wanted to move it from an HDD to an SSD so that the load time was better and hopefully make the game smoother), you do NOT just take the documents folder and copy and paste it or cut and paste it to where ever you want.

What you do need to know is how the Documents, Pictures, Downloads, folders work and how they are located and how other applications locate them.  If you right click on the Documents folder (this is based off windows 10) that actually looks like a document and not a folder for the icon, (by default this is usually in the Quick Access panel on the left side of your open folder).  Right Click and go to Properties > Location > and here you will see the exact drive and location this folder is, which is going to be more specific than the navigation bar in your folder at the top which will most likely say "This PC > Documents".

To change where this Documents folder "lives" you can create a new Documents folder in the drive or location you want it to be, then type the path to that new folder in the box where you want the Documents folder to be located.  You can also click "Find Target" and navigate to it as well.  When you do this and click Apply, windows will ask you if you want to move all the files from your Documents folder's current location to the new, and Yes you want to.  Depending on how much stuff is there it will take a few minutes.

For a more detailed guide see any of the links that explain how to move the documents folder.

Now what wasn't really clear in a lot of step by step guides is how the game locates or looks for the documents folder.  Some people explained how to find out where the game is looking but not why it looks there

The game does not go by the actual location that the Documents folder is but rather the location of the Windows Default Documents folder that has the Document as an Icon.  This is the default windows Documents folder for the current user logged in.  Its actual location on the drive or which drive its on is irreverent because you told windows where to physically store it.  The game doesn't care where it's physically stored, just that its the Default Windows Documents folder, and since you told windows where to move it, the game doesn't even know it moved.

The game is basically looking at the folder that is "This PC > Documents"  where ever that folder is, the mods, saves, etc are going in there. (Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 folder to be more specific).

That's why when people upgrade their windows version their game seems to loose all the saves and mods.  This is because when the upgrade happened, the Windows Default Documents folder has been moved to the default location that windows uses, which is C:\Users\(your user name)\Documents.

As long as you move the documents folder in the manner I described, everything will be fine.

[exileascension82]

Thank you for this great write up. So I followed the instructions, but had a few questions. 

Do I have to move every folder in that directory? For instance, video, music, downloads? or is it okay I just move my Documents which is the file taking up all the space. Next question, After the move, do I need to start up the game and change any settings? and final question, now that I moved Documents over to my spare drive can I delete all the sim content from my original documents folder which is still on my C drive?

[roberta591]

@exileascension82  What was described is one way to create a symbolic link. Your asking questions that should be answered BEFORE you attempt to create this situation. The game is hard coded to look for the user game data in a certain location. When looking in file explorer This PC translates to the boot device which is normally C where system files are that initializes the boot strap process. It is possible to have any letter as the letter designation is symbolic rather then physical. then comes the user directory. this is where all the users of this computer have separate directories. Next comes the name of the user that logged in at boot. Next comes all the sub directories for this user.. It has been talked about changing the file system file  from a tree type to a dbase (data base) several times but that never happened. So the game looks for c/user/(user name)/user files. This way different people can use this device and have their own user files. The game is hard codes to look for game files in (boot device) C/users/(user name)John Doe/(user directory)Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 4. Now using a powerful tool called symbolic link you can tell the operating system this directory is no longer located at the default location. DO NOT REMOVE THE ORIGINAL DIRECTORY! What happens is that the symbolic link creation process creates an system invisible file in the ORIGINAL directory. The operating system looks for this file and if it finds it automatically fetches files from the new location without the program knowing what happened. I recommend only using symbolic link on directories that are required rather then the whole user file directories. That way only files that pertain to the game are affected. Other programs can operate the way the programmer meant to work. Case in point - you move the whole user directory to an USB storage device and the symbolic drive designation changes because it now loads differently. Only the game will be affected but if you were to relocate the whole user files sub directories then the whole system is affected. Symbolic link is a powerful tool and should be used with caution. Microsoft created the Windows operating system to run on top of DOS (disk operating system). Microsoft Windows is no longer an operating system as such but has become a complicated computer operating environment. There are now college level classes on computer operating systems. To answer your first question - no you can move any subdirectory and I recommend only the directories that are affected such as the Electric Arts directory. You don't have to do anything to the game - the operating system does it all. Be careful what you delete. If you delete the original directory with the invisible file in it bad things will happen and the link will stop working. I hope this answers your questions - class dismissed.

[roberta591]

@Rolfocopters You ask why the game looks in the user documents folder. The Microsoft gods created the file system and programmers thought well if the gods say this is good then we will use it. Kind of like that. Actually the file system tree structure was in use before Microsoft but MS made it a little easier to understand. For reasons given in another answer below you want to affect the basic file system as little as possible. My reasoning is I was taught KISS - keep it simple stupid. The operating system is a fragile environment and sometime it implodes all by itself - users don't need to help it. Symbolic link is a very powerful tool to be used carefully. Think of it this way - a symbolic link is user created kind of like a mod is for this game. When MS updates it doesn't know (or care) what a user has done. so it is possible for some yet unknown reason the symbolic link could fail. The more complicated you make it the harder it will be to fix it should it fail. Should a symbolic link quit working (that will never happen - right?) the more complicated the more it may affect the whole operating system to the point of not booting. Study hard - there will be a test later.

[holger1405]

@exileascension82 

Just follow the guide in the first link in the accepted solution of this thread by @puzzlezaddict.

After that your Documents folder, and only your documents folder, will be at the new drive (It should not be an external drive) and Windows will always recognise the path because this is an internal function of Windows.

[EA_Solaire]

Hey all,

As this thread is older now, it's been locked to prevent necro-posting.

If you need further help on this topic, please feel free to create a new thread so we can take a look with you