Why is the folder to this game so big?

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

I just checked my Sims 3 folder, and it's 37 GB. Ridiculous! What is making this folder so big?

igazor · November 2021

Are you talking about your TS3 user game folder in Documents (this one has your added store and player made custom content, saves, mods, things the player adds and is flexible as to what gets kept in it) or your Program Files (x86) folder where the base game and EP/SPs are actually installed (not flexible)?

Sorak4 · November 2021

Save games for TS3 can really bloat. The game creates two copies for per saves. Ones a backup, and as a result you'll end up with a whole server room full of saves given time. I advise to delete backups of saves you don't play, or have backuped already on another hard-drive. Also use this save cleaner http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/1532/ often and it should cut down on bloat.

Save bloat piles on a lot more if you have memories enabled too, so disabling that can slow the rate your save becomes the install size of TS2 with all its expansions. And it's really worth using that cleaner tool if you've been on vacation, played through a few generations. Or just using memories.

If you also play in a lot of worlds, the games world cache also ends up building up. Just Bridgeport alone ends up to 500mb for me. You CANNOT delete these if you play on MAC, but if you're on Windows it's perfectly safe.

Also clean out your recordings and screenshots often. Especially if you play on a larger monitor and have videos set to play sound and uncompressed size. They build up in size scarily fast.

Ah, and featured items. All the icons for store content that gets advertised is created sometimes. You can clear these out, but they always tend to come back, so I recommend setting the FeaturedItems folder to read only to rid of these for good.

That *should* be everything I know of.

Overall. If you have a second hard-drive with lots of space, make backups and send your screenshots there frequently. If not. Throwing out the featured items, screenshots/videos you don't want and clearing cache should give you some space back quickly, especially if your as C spammy as I am.

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

Are you talking about your TS3 user game folder in Documents (this one is has your added store and player made custom content, saves, mods, things the player adds and is flexible as to what gets kept in it) or your Program Files (x86) folder where the base game and EP/SPs are actually installed (not flexible)?

The one inside the My Documents folder.

igazor · November 2021

@wolfkomoki1 - That's the one you actually have control over. So if you take a look, which sub-folders are accounting for the file bloat? Is it your Saves (possibly too many or too many bloated saves), DC Cache (lots of sims3pack content), Mods (package based content), World Caches, DC Backup (expendable if you don't wish to share things you have created on the Exchange except for the one small ccmerge file), something else in there?

I just checked and my own very carefully tended to TS3 user game folder is also over 30 GB. Players will have and need to have very different sized folders there depending on their playstyles, added content, and habits no matter how much cleanup they do on it.

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

I just looked at my save files. What the heck game?

igazor · November 2021

Are those really all of your save files? I mean, the nhd files you are showing us are only about 35-40 MB each. That's like next to nothing. Saves don't really need to be Save Cleaned, for example, until they begin approach 150-200 MB or so, some of us wait longer.

What exact problem are we trying to solve here? Is your hard drive too small or running out of usable space to the point where 37 GB total makes a huge difference?

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

Yeah, it's eating the C drive, which I don't understand because the game itself is in E.

igazor · November 2021

You can use Windows to redirect your entire Documents drive to E if you want. That's a good way to relieve stress on a too-small C drive (like 128 GB) that was really only designed to carry the operating system. That way your TS3 user game folder is still in Documents so the game is happy, but the entire Documents directory is really on E and not C.

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

You can use Windows to redirect your entire Documents drive to E if you want. That's a good way to relieve stress on a too-small C drive (like 128 GB) that was really only designed to carry the operating system. That way your TS3 user game folder is still in Documents so the game is happy, but the entire Documents directory is really on E and not C.

Okay why is there no location button?

Turjan · November 2021

We are talking about a Windows function, not a game function. Just follow a tutorial (like this one). It's easy.

igazor · November 2021

Are you saying that there is no Location tab on the Folder Properties window of the user Documents folder in its current location? If you are denied access to the Location tab, then you either require admin access to this system or there is something else blocking/protecting it.

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

Are you saying that there is no Location tab on the Folder Properties window of the user Documents folder in its current location? If you are denied access to the Location tab, then you either require admin access to this system or there is something else blocking/protecting it.

Yeah and it's strange cause isn't the main account you use the administrator? Or do I need to log into the one that says Admin?

igazor · November 2021

@wolfkomoki1 - A quick Google search reveals the missing Locations tab is common if you don't approach Documents > Properties in the correct way.

If you are using Libraries to get to the Documents folder, it will not show the location tab.

Go to Documents from your user folder. The location tab will be there.

In my case, on Win 10 anyway, it also works if I right-click on the Documents shortcut in my file explorer window on the left side panel under This PC.

wolfkomoki1 · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

@wolfkomoki1 - A quick Google search reveals the missing Locations tab is common if you don't approach Documents > Properties in the correct way.

If you are using Libraries to get to the Documents folder, it will not show the location tab.

Go to Documents from your user folder. The location tab will be there.

In my case, on Win 10 anyway, it also works if I right-click on the Documents shortcut in my file explorer window on the left side panel under This PC.

Okay how do I do that? Do I go through C or?

Cororon · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

You can use Windows to redirect your entire Documents drive to E if you want. That's a good way to relieve stress on a too-small C drive (like 128 GB) that was really only designed to carry the operating system. That way your TS3 user game folder is still in Documents so the game is happy, but the entire Documents directory is really on E and not C.

I think the game will take longer to load if you put the Documents folder on a spinning hard drive. Maybe not so much if you don't have lots of downloaded content, though.

igazor · November 2021

@Cororon - It depends on whether either of the drives are an SSD, they both are, or neither. That is, as long as both drives are internal ones.

Cororon · November 2021

igazor wrote: »

@Cororon - It depends on whether either of the drives are an SSD, they both are, or neither. That is, as long as both drives are internal ones.

You missed that I said if you put it on a spinning hard drive.

Lots of people have Windows on an SSD and a spinning HDD for storage.

I have the game installed on D : and Documents on C: but those are just two partitions on the same 1TB SSD.

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Why is the folder to this game so big?

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