How-To: Organize the Files in the Tray Folder

[MrsFlynn]

How-To: Organize the Files in the Tray Folder

Important Notes
How-To: Save and Backup Items in Tray Folder
Useful Key-combos
File Structure for Households, Lots and Rooms
How-To: Organize Game Saves
How-To: Remove Flying Llama Items From the Library


Important Notes:

Easiest way to save household or lots from your Tray folder is to basically re-save the files in-game, so they have all the same date and/or timestamp so they're easier to find in the Tray folder.

Note: Make a back up copy of your tray folder. For safe keeping, just in case it's needed later. -- This can be deleted after we're sure we've got all the files we want to save.

If you have a lot of files in your Tray folder, create some folders in your backup Tray folder and separate the files by month - for example all files from January 2016 might go in a Jan.16 folder. Once these are separated, you can then copy just a month's worth of folders into your working Tray folder.

Also, make sure File Explorer is set to Detailed view and that file extensions are not hidden. A number of tutorials are available on the internet for doing these steps.

It may be easier for the player to organize their own Tray folder or this could change the owner of the object or change what lot the item is saved on.

Once a lot or household is placed in-game you are free to delete it from the library or tray folder.

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How-To: Save and Backup Items in Tray Folder:

1.  Open Tray folder in Explorer and sort by Date Modified v (make sure the triangle is pointed down) - This will show newest files up top. **Leave this folder open - we'll be using Alt+Tab to get back here often.

2.  Open the game and load a save or create a new game.

3.  Change to Manage Worlds.

4.  Go to your Library, make sure Include Custom Content is checked under Advanced, select the first item in the list and import it into the game.
4a. If a Household, use the TestingCheats on cheat to edit the household in Create a Sim and save them to the Library.
4b. If a Lot or Room, use Build Mode to save to the Library.

5.  Alt+Tab back to your Tray folder and check the newest items in your folder (they should be the top files in the list).

6.  Using the examples below, highlight the files for the object. While highlighted, right-click on the files and select "Send to -> Compressed (zipped) folder" from the menu.

7.  Rename the resulting .zip folder and give it a descriptive name (such as Francios Household.zip for a sim family named Francios).

8.  Move the resulting .zip file to a backup folder.
8a. After that you can delete those particular files from the Tray folder.

9.  Continue from step 4 for each item in your Library.

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Useful Key-combos:

Ctrl-A pressed together - to help with copying many files together.
Right-click and Ctrl - for selecting only a few files.
-or-
Right-click first file, hold Shift, and Right-click last file - to just select a certain amount of files.

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File Structure for Households, Lots and Rooms:

Household

0x00000000!0x001302d262860048.householdbinary
0x00000001!0x001302d262860048.trayitem
0x8dd86402!0x001302d262860048.hhi
0x8dd86403!0x001302d262860048.hhi
0x00000013!0x041302d262860049.sgi   <-- 1 .sgi file per Sim

So, for a household with six sims, you will have:
 1 .householdbinary file
 1 .trayitem file
 2 .hhi files
 6 .sgi files

NOTE: Deleting the household from your Library does not delete the .sgi files!

=========================
Lots

0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.blueprint
0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.trayitem
0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.bpi
0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.bpi
0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.bpi
0x00000000!0x022702cf7aca0049.bpi   <-- 4 .bpi files + 1 per additional floor

So, for a four story house, you will have:

 1 .blueprint file
 1 .trayitem file
 8 .bpi files

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Rooms

0x00000000!0x044403b22b520046.room
0x00000002!0x044403b22b520046.rmi
0x00000003!0x044403b22b520046.rmi
0x00000003!0x044403b22b520046.trayitem

So, for any saved room, you will have:

 1 .room file
 1. trayitem file
 2 .midi files (older rooms may have this extension)
   -or-
 2 .rmi files

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How-To: Remove Flying Llama Items From the Library:

When you see the flying llama image (Click image to enlarge)



like the one above in your library that means that some files maybe missing or corrupt. Therefore the game can't read them. You'll either need to recreate the item or re-download it if you want the item.

It's a little tricky to remove the missing/corrupt files from your library. But it's doable.

1. Load the game and go to the library.
2. Click on a llama photo and note the date of the item.
3. Close out of the game.
4. Open File Explorer and go to your Electronic Arts\Sim 4 Folder
5. Open the Tray folder and sort by date.
6. Find the items with the same date as noted above.
7. Copy items to a temporary folder.
8. Launch Sims 4.
9. Llama items should be gone.

*If there are a lot of llama images, dates will need to be noted on each photo. It may be best to do this one at a time. To lessen the confusion.

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