This is for those running out of space on their Macs and wanting to save their user information – Saves/Tray/Mods etc. – to an external bulldoze. By post-obit this workaround your entire Electronic Arts folder will exist stored and updated on the external drive although your game will call back it is being stored locally on your Mac internal storage (for the equivalent instructions for Windows, caput to Crinrict'south site hither). This is because yous will be creating a symbolic link, too known as a symlink, to reference the file path of your user data stored in some other location. To create the symlink you will be using Last which can be plant in Applications > Utilities.

(If you lot're a Windows user, head over to Crin'south site for instructions)

Delight be aware that entering erroneous commands into Last can have severe consequences  both for the stability of your operating system and your data. Yous should only follow these instructions if you are comfortable using Terminal and have a solid backup of your organisation. If annihilation goes catastrophically wrong you can always wipe and reinstall your macOS through Internet Recovery or bootable installer but yous WILL lose all your data.

Ok, happy to keep? I'll start off by explaining my setup and so you can familiarise yourself with my Mac user account and figurer name which appear in the screenshots:

  • My Mac user account/Domicile directory has total Administrator rights and is called exam
  • My computer name is TouchBarMBP
  • The external drive I am using is a 128GB USB-C thumb bulldoze. Information technology MUST be formatted as Mac Os Extended (Journaled) or APFS. Information technology is named USB
  • At the fourth dimension of writing, I am running macOS 10.xv.3 Catalina

These instructions move your whole Electronic Arts binder to the external drive and assume that your Electronic Arts folder is currently stored locally on your Mac. As such, all games yous have installed which shop their user data in the Electronic Arts folder will need to have the external bulldoze plugged in to access the data. This includes Sims 3, Sims Medieval, Sims iv, Sims 4 Legacy Edition and any other game folders in your Electronic Arts binder. In these instructions I am using my Sims 4 user data.

  • Fill-in your Electronic Arts binder to a split external drive or deject storage in case you inadvertently wipe it.
  • Plug in your external storage device and check it is properly mounted in Finder or on your Desktop, depending on your Finder View settings. If needed, use Disk Utility to reformat the drive to Mac Os Extended (Journaled) or APFS:
  • I would recommend reading through these instructions at least once in total before applying the workaround so yous are familiar with Terminal and any fault and warning messages that pop upwards during the process.

Step one – Moving the Electronic Arts folder to the external bulldoze:

  1. The outset thing nosotros are going to tell our Mac to exercise is movement the Electronic Arts binder from the Documents folder to the external drive. Open a Word or any text document and copy and paste the following command (where mv means move and the tilde ~ indicates your home directory) into the document. This is purely for editing purposes:
    mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/USB/
  2. Replace USB with the proper name of your external drive. For example, if your external is called EXTERNAL the command would exist:
    mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/EXTERNAL/
    However, if your external is chosen EXTERNAL DRIVE yous have to innovate backslashes before the spaces in the name (similar Electronic Arts in the Documents binder):
    mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/EXTERNAL\ Bulldoze/
    To testify you lot where the spaces are, I have entered a black X in the command below (for illustrative purposes merely):
    mv Ten ~/Documents/Electronic\ Ten Arts Ten /Volumes/EXTERNAL\ Ten Drive /
    Note that the directory file paths are separated with forward slashes / and file and folder names with multiple words are separated with backslashes \
    If your Electronic Arts folder is to exist nested within another folder on the external you must state this clearly in the command. For example, if your EXTERNAL Bulldoze has a folder called  Game User Data and you would like the Electronic Arts folder to be within this folder the control would expect similar this:
    mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts /Volumes/EXTERNAL\ DRIVE/Game\ User\ Information/
    and with the black X denoting the spaces:
    mv X ~/Documents/Electronic\ Ten Arts Ten /Volumes/EXTERNAL\XDRIVE/Game\TenUser\10 Data/
  3. In one case you are happy with the command, open Terminal and re-create and paste it from the Discussion/Text certificate into the Terminal window and then it looks like this but with your own data. If it is highlighted blackness just press the right pointer on your keyboard to move the cursor to the finish of the line:
  4. Striking enter/return to execute the control. Your Electronic Arts folder should have moved from your Documents folder to your external drive. Open the Documents folder to check and open a second Finder window showing the external bulldoze.

Stride two – Creating the symlink for the Electronic Arts folder:

  1. Copy the post-obit command into your Word/Text document:
    ln -s /Volumes/USB/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents/
    replacing USB with your external drive proper noun and paying attention to the forward and back slashes and spaces. If nosotros use the same example equally before with the EXTERNAL DRIVE > Game User Information file paths and names this would be the result:
    ln -southward /Volumes/EXTERNAL\ DRIVE/Game\ User\ Data/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents/
    and with the black X denoting the spaces:
    ln10-southwardX/Volumes/EXTERNAL\10Drive/Game\XUser\XData/Electronic\XArtsX~/Documents/
  2. One time you are happy with the control, open Terminal and copy and paste information technology from the Give-and-take/Text certificate into the Concluding window so it looks like this but with your own information. If it is highlighted blackness just printing the right pointer on your keyboard to move the cursor to the cease of the line:
  3. Hitting enter to execute the command. An Electronic Arts folder will appear in your local Documents binder as an alias with a lilliputian arrow in the bottom left corner:whilst the actual Electronic Arts folder is still safe on the external drive (I also have the game installed on the external, ignore the app in the image below):

Stride 3 – Launch your game:

  1. Launch the game as you would unremarkably. You lot should notice no difference at all, you lot should be able to choice up where you last saved the game.
  2. If you become the post-obit fault message maxim the game is already running:
    • Your external hard drive is non plugged in or not plugged in properly
    • You have not granted Sims iv or Origin access to either your Documents binder or the external drive during the symlink creation procedure
  3. If you use CC/Mods and get this message:
    • Your external bulldoze is formatted as ExFAT. You demand to start once again and format as Mac Bone Extended (Journaled) or APFS.

Security warning windows you may run into during this procedure if y'all are running macOS Catalina or after:

Make sure you click ok on all these windows to grant your Mac the access it needs to execute the Symlink.

Reversing the symlink:

If yous want to start storing your Electronic Arts folder dorsum in the default location in your Documents folder on your Mac, you must use Final commands to practice so. Only unplugging the external drive volition not force the game to recreate an Electronic Arts folder in the default location, it volition result in the The Sims iv is already running dialogue box (see to a higher place). To return the folder back to your Mac:

    1. Copy the following command into Terminal and hit Enter/Return:
      mv ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents/Electronic\ Arts_bkp
      This will relocate the current symlink/folder to a new proper name in your Documents folder:
    2. Copy the following command into your Word/Text file and then you can edit the external storage part:
      cp -a /Volumes/USB/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents
      If we apply the same examples from Steps 1 & 2 to a higher place where your external storage is called EXTERNAL DRIVE and the Electronic Arts folder is within a folder called Game User Data on the external drive, it would look like this:
      cp -a /Volumes/EXTERNAL\ Drive/Game\ User\ Data/Electronic\ Arts ~/Documents
      and with a black X denoting where the spaces are:
      cpX-aTen/Volumes/EXTERNAL\XDrive/Game\XUser\TenData/Electronic\XArtsTen~/Documents
    3. Once you are happy with the command, open up Terminal and copy and paste it from the Word/Text document into the Terminal window and then information technology looks like this but with your own data. If it is highlighted blackness just press the right arrow on your keyboard to move the cursor to the end of the line. Hit enter/return to execute the command:
    4. In your Documents folder you should at present come across your Electronic Arts folder back where information technology used to be before creating the symlink:
      The binder should still be on the external drive as well as nosotros have just copied it, non moved it.
    5. Launch your game, zilch should have changed and all your saves should still load perfectly. You can safely trash the Electronic Arts_bkp alias now, no need for the external drive to be plugged in.
    6. You may encounter system security dialogue boxes again, brand certain to click Ok.

Whilst your user information is stored on the external drive, usual troubleshooting methods will be slightly different. You cannot now move your Sims iv to the desktop to force the game to create a clean binder equally this will just re-create it. Yous must rename the Sims 4 folder on the external bulldoze, this volition force the game to create a new one on the external.

If you have any questions feel free to inquire below. Please make certain you conspicuously reference the part you lot practice not understand so I sympathise which step y'all are stuck on 🙂