i reinstalled the sims 3 (from steam) but my save files won't show up

hobislongsnakeu

(UPDATE: i fixed it. i didn't realize steam made a documents folder for the game data and not just a folder that holds the launcher and everything.) so, i got a storage usb for my laptop and wanted to put the sims 3 on it, but of course microsoft doesn't let you directly move a lot of apps to an external hard drive, so that meant i had to reinstall the whole game. i made a backup of my entire "The Sims 3" folder by copying it and pasting it onto a file, still called "The Sims 3", on my usb drive (it looks like this: USB Drive/The Sims 3), then deleted steam and the sims 3. after redownloading them, i've tried so many things to attempt to get my old saves to register in the game, but they won't. i've copy and pasted my entire sims 3 folder and replaced the new one, i've left the new "The SIms 3" folder alone and only replaced the saves, i've tried restoring with my .backup saves and renamed them to just "(save file name).sims3" but nothing will work. i've restarted my laptop and my game each time i tried something new, and i've even deleted and reinstalled the sims 3 four different times now trying these methods. at this point, i think it's definitely me who's doing something wrong, but i don't know what. also, i don't have a folder called "Electronic Arts," and i think that's because it's downloaded through steam. my folders up to the sims 3 look like this: USB Drive/Apps/steamapps/common/The Sims 3 .