Organizing Sims 4 Save Files - Walk-throughWhen you have a lot of game saves, a suggested way to organize them is to sort them by year, then month and depending how many saves you have you can organize by week for example. - Work with small batches of files at a time. Move a batch of files into the saves folder, work on them and move them back.
But first, you may want to make a backup copy of the saves folder and copy it to backup media of choice. - Optional - You can zip it up, so it takes up less space. (Right-click on the saves folder, select your zip utility and Add to save.zip)
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1. Create yourself a folder to put the saves in. For example I made a folder called OSF.
2. Copy the saves.zip file to the OSF folder and extract the files.
3. Go into the saves folder and create some folders. I started organizing by year (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) So I made folders for those.
4. Move files that are from 2014 into it's folder, and files from 2015 into it's folder and so on. -- Easiest way to do this is by clicking Date modified a couple of times. Then 2014 should be up top under the folders.
5. I started organizing the 2017 folder, as those are the most current game save files.
-- I made a copy of that folder to work with just to be on the safe side. As that's the one we'll be working with first.
6. Organize by month - There are two months in the 2017 folder, so I'll create folders for January and June. -- Put January files in Jan's folder and June's files in June's folder.
7. I'm going to start with June, since it has the most current game saves in it.
The .ver files such as .ver0, .ver1, .ver2, .ver3, etc. are backup files to the main save file. - The most current backup is .ver0. The .ver files are usually safe to delete.
However if you're concerned, you can rename them to have a look at them in game.
For example, let's take a look at Save 44. (Slot_00000044.save)
It has 5 backups. You can delete those, as they are backup copies of 44.save. But if you'd rather have a look at them first. You must rename them so the game recognizes them in-game.
I usually make sure my saves folder is cleared out other saved games are safely backed up.
Copy the .ver files into the saves folder and rename them like this:
You will get a warning message of: If you change a file name extension the file might become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it? Click Yes. In this case you want to change the filename, so the game can recognize the file.
Slot_00000044.save.ver0 would be renamed to: Slot_00000002.save
Slot_00000044.save.ver1 would be renamed to: Slot_00000003.save
Slot_00000044.save.ver2 would be renamed to: Slot_00000004.save
Slot_00000044.save.ver3 would be renamed to: Slot_00000005.save
Slot_00000044.save.ver4 would be renamed to: Slot_00000006.save
Here's what the saves look like after being renamed -
Then load game to check those saves out.
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With knowing the .ver files are backups and are safe to delete. I am going to do that for the June folder to help organize it better.
8. Do the same with January's folder. - Check the backups if you'd like, or delete them. Your choice. I'll delete them for this tutorial.
If you find you still have a Slot_00000001.save file in your folder it will definitely need to be renamed so that the game will recognize it. This use to be the auto save file, which the game no longer uses.
9. Follow the steps above for each folder of saves you have.
It may be a good idea to keep a backup of your saved games in organized folders and rename them when you want to play them. This is so they don't conflict with each other or overwrite each other. As you can't have two Slot_00000002.save files in the saves folder. It won't allow it, the computer will try to overwrite it.
Note: This post has been locked as it's for informational purposes.
