[0:14]Hi everyone, welcome or welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Ashley, also known as Astro Plays. I am back with another tutorial video for you guys. If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that I finally updated my game after four months of playing offline.
[0:29]And let's just say that it has been a journey trying to update all of the mods that I have in my game to be compatible with the most recent patch update.
[0:37]Luckily, this wasn't too much of a struggle because I keep my mods folder organized for the most part, which makes it easy to pinpoint which mods were outdated and needed to be updated.
[0:47]So if you're someone who uses a lot of mods and you're looking for tips and tricks on how to organize your mods folder, how to determine which mods are broken whenever there is a patch update, then this video is for you.
[0:58]Before we get into today's video, I do want to say thank you so much for 90,000 subscribers on this channel.
[1:05]I cannot believe we are so close to 100,000 subscribers. The support is always appreciated and it never goes unnoticed.
[1:12]I also want to announce that I am hosting another giveaway. Thanks to the EA Creator Network, I am giving one lucky winner a free code for the Urban Homage Kits and the Party Essentials Kit for Mac and PC users.
[1:22]To enter, all you need to do is leave an orange heart in the comments as well as a suggestion on what type of videos you want to see on this channel in the future and that is it.
[1:31]On Saturday, April 27th, I will be randomly selecting a winner and responding to your message.
[1:37]So please be sure to have your notifications on for the YouTube app because if you don't respond within 48 hours, I will be selecting a new winner.
[1:43]For the first portion of today's video, we're going to go over how I personally organize my mods folder.
[1:47]This is the method that I've been doing for the past eight or so years. So if you're going to be in the comments being like, well, actually, this is the proper way to do it.
[1:54]I want to reiterate that this is how I organize my folder, okay? And this was heavily influenced by Twisted Maxi's video.
[2:03]I'll have links for all the videos, websites, programs, mods listed into a master post for you guys to check out in the description down below.
[2:10]If you don't know who Twisted Maxi is, he has such an amazing modder in the Sims community.
[2:14]I'm going to be pointing out his better exceptions mods in today's video because it is very crucial for keeping your Sims game free of any broken or outdated mods.
[2:23]And if you're new to the Sims and you want to figure out how to add mods into your game, it is super easy, you'll download the CC that you want.
[2:30]You'll find the path to your mods folder. So if you're on Windows, you'll go to your documents folder, then you'll go to Electronic Arts, the Sims 4, and you should see a folder that says mods.
[2:41]And this is where you'll place all of your mods, all of your CC into this folder. And as you can see here, I have them all organized in their own set of folders.
[2:49]And so the first thing you'll probably notice is that I have explanation points in front of some of the folders. And that's because in these folders, there is a scripted mod file.
[2:57]For scripted mods, these can only go one folder deep in your mods folder. So if we go into like a random folder, let's say the MC Command Center, you'll see that there is a bunch of scripted mods in here, and they're all directly in the MC Command Center folder.
[3:12]Another folder is the UI Cheats mod, again, it has a scripted file in it. And then I have another mod, this is Basemental Drugs. If we click in there, you'll see that I have another script file in here.
[3:22]As you can see here, I have different categories for my folders, and I'll go into more reasoning on why I do this in the next portion of this video.
[3:30]But for the most part, I do this based off of a few criteria. The first one is if the mod is very big and it has multiple files that need to be in one folder.
[3:38]So an example of this would be Basemental Drugs, as you can see here, there's multiple files that goes into here. We even have like a log file.
[3:45]Another one is MC Command Center. A bunch of files are required for this mod. Another folder is Wicked Whims.
[3:51]As you can see here, I have this categorized by the script files as well as different custom animations that I use in this mod.
[3:58]And I recently did a Wicked Whims tutorial video, so you could definitely check that out.
[4:02]Another criteria for a folder is the modder themselves. So if there is a modder that if I have a bunch of their mods, I'll make sure to have a dedicated folder for them.
[4:13]So an example of this would be Bianca. And this is one of my favorite modders. They make a bunch of smaller mods and tweaks for your game. And just this creator alone, I have about 143 mods.
[4:25]So it's very crucial that I have a dedicated folder for them. But I have the same thing for, let's say, Sepzid.
[4:33]Another creator would be Sonic and Severinka. I have like a bunch of their mods in my game and I have it organized into different categories, like functional drinks, objects and their recipes.
[4:42]My general rule of thumb is if a modder has more than like three or four mods, they get their own dedicated folder so that it makes it easier whenever a patch update happens, I can just go onto the modder's website and see if they have any updated mods, and then go into their mods folder, and then update accordingly.
[5:00]For modders that I only have like one or two mods from, I'll put their mods into kind of like a catch all file, and this is labeled as miscellaneous mods.
[5:08]Right now, it's pretty empty and that's because I'm still in the process of updating my mods folder.
[5:16]I've been updating my mods folder for like the past four days now.
[5:19]And that's because I have like 80 GB worth of memory in my mods folder and it's just a lot to go through, y'all.
[5:25]And that's why I've been voting off on updating my mods folder, because I knew how much of a headache it was to do.
[5:30]But again, because I have my mods folder organized, it could have been so much worse. Honestly, this could have been a loss cause.
[5:35]I do have a dedicated folder for all of my overrides, because you can only have one mod for each item that you want override.
[5:43]So if I have a loading screen, I want to override, any castroom overrides, they all go into this folder right here.
[5:51]And this makes it so much easier for me to figure out what has an override in my game.
[5:54]So I have my custom content broken down into several folders. The first one is build by items, then CAS, clothing, and then packs.
[6:01]Going into the build by items, you'll see that I have sub folders for different creators. This just makes cleaning out my mods folder whenever there's some CC that I don't want, so much easier to find as well.
[6:14]Because if you're like me and you're such a CC fanatic, you'll recognize CC by the creator. And it's just so easy to be like, oh, I definitely know that's a Harry item. So I can go into Harry's folder and then determine which collection that CC is from.
[6:28]But I highly suggest making a dedicated folder for all of your build by items and then organizing it by the creator.
[6:34]In the CAS items, I have sub folders for this as well. I have it broken down by accessories, eyebrows, hair, makeup, miscellaneous hair.
[6:43]And I think in this category I go even more in depth. I do. So in the miscellaneous hairs, I have baby hairs, body hair, eyelashes, facial hair.
[6:50]Going back to the sub folder, we have pets CC, presets and sliders. We have school uniforms, shoes, skin details, and tattoos.
[6:59]And I think in skin details, I go into more depth. So we have like blush contour highlight, eyelids, freckles, moles, nose mask, and skin blends and overlays.
[7:09]If you don't play with much CC, you might not even need to do all of this, but it just makes it easier when I'm going CC shopping.
[7:14]If I need more makeup in my game, I can go into this sub category, and then maybe go into eyeliner. I can see whether or not I already have that item in my game.
[7:22]But this is definitely not all the makeup I have in my game. I have a throwaway folder where I throw all of my unorganized CC into a folder and I would highly suggest doing this to keep your mods folder clean.
[7:32]I'll show you that folder later on. As you can see here, clothing is definitely CAS CC. However, because this folder is so huge, I had to make my own dedicated folder for this.
[7:42]I have this categorized by the different life stages in the game. So we have child, infant, toddler, and then for teen through elder Sims, I have feminine frame and then masculine frame.
[7:51]So if we go into my feminine frame Sims, I go into more depth and go by creator. And if I have more than three or four clothing items made by a creator, they get their own folder for all of their clothing CC in my game.
[8:03]And if they don't, I have like a little catch all folder for that. If I have a catch all folder in my mods folder, it's always going to be in brackets so that I know that it's a catch all folder.
[8:13]And this is labeled miscellaneous, and all of my miscellaneous clothing items where I don't have more than three or four items for that creator, they go into this folder.
[8:21]The same goes for masculine frame Sims. I have this categorized by the creators. And then going to the packs folder.
[8:27]So the reason why this has its own dedicated folder is that whenever a creator makes their own little CC pack, they'll have CAS items from different categories in here, like shoes, hairs, clothing.
[8:39]And because I already organized my CAS folder by these items, it's kind of hard to figure out where to put the pack collections.
[8:46]So it makes it easy on myself, I just made a dedicated packs folder, so that one, I know these are all merged files, and two, I know that these files have CC from multiple categories.
[8:56]So if we go into Sentate, you'll see that we have different collections in here. This is a male CAS collection that they recently made. And I know for a fact, in this collection they have shoes, as well as clothing items.
[9:07]Another one of my favorite CC creators is A Harris of Britney. Their collections mainly have like hairs in their collection, as well as clothing, so that's why they're in the packs folder. I hope this makes sense.
[9:16]But back to the catch all folder where if I download new CC into my game, it goes into this bracket folder right here, that's labeled 2024 April 23.
[9:25]And the reason why I name this catch all folder this is because this lets me know the last time I updated all the mods in my mods folder.
[9:33]So that next time that there is a patch update or there's a time where I want to refresh my mods folder, I know that the last time I did that was on April 23rd, 2024.
[9:43]So if I go to let's say Bianchian's website and I want to download any of their recently updated mods, I know that I can look for any mods that were updated after this date and I can add them to the folder.
[9:54]Clicking on this bracket folder, you'll see that there's different sub categories. I'm going to let y'all know right now. I haven't organized this folder since I created my YouTube channel.
[10:01]This folder is deep. It is deep. It looks cute and organized, but if I actually click on one of these folders, it is a tragedy, y'all. It is a tragedy.
[10:12]Like do y'all see this? Oh my gosh, I can't. I desperately need to go through this folder to organize everything, but this is something that would take me like at least a month to go through and carefully organize everything.
[10:25]And that's why I've been holding off on it, y'all. She might look cute and organized on the surface, but girl is not organized at all.
[10:30]And I think that's pretty much it. I can't go over every single folder I have in my game, we'll be here all day. But if you want like a more in-depth tutorial on this, or if you want more tips and tricks on this, I'll have Twisted Maxi's video linked in the description down below.
[10:43]So let's say that EA just dropped a patch update for The Sims 4. If you play with CC and mods, how do you go about tackling this?
[10:49]The very first thing that I personally do is I take a look at the patch update notes. I always make sure to go through the notes and see what The Sims team has updated in the game.
[10:58]Just to familiarize myself with all what's been fixed and also to see what mods I have in my folder that are pretty much obsolete.
[11:05]A great example of this would be from the For Rent patch updates. And in that update, you're able to assign which sinks are dedicated for bathroom or kitchen use.
[11:16]If you've watched my very first mods video on my channel, I went over a mod made by Scumbo called Don't Wash Dishes Where You Angry Poop.
[11:24]And this mod did the exact same function as this. However, because The Sims team incorporated this feature into their game, that mod was no longer needed, it was obsolete.
[11:31]It's also nice to familiarize yourself with patch updates not just for The Sims 4, but for large mods that you have in your folder as well.
[11:38]A great example of this would be if you play with Wonderful Whims or Wicked Whims, just so that you're not surprised if you go into the game and see any new interesting features.
[11:47]This brings me back to the importance of having a dedicated folder for a modder that you have a bunch of mods for.
[11:53]A great example of this would be Bianca. They have their own dedicated website for all the mods that they've created.
[11:58]You can organize it by the last time it's been updated. And that is why that catch all folder with the date is so important, because I can look at that date and see which mods in Bianchian's folder needs to be updated.
[12:10]So let's say that the catch all folder had the date March 23rd, 2024. Then I know that I can update all these mods here if I have them in my folder, up until it says here March 3rd.
[12:19]Another creator that has a dedicated website for their mods folder is Little Miss Sam. Again, they make it super easy to determine what needs to be updated by having a category called updated and having all the most recently updated mods at the top.
[12:31]Some modders even go the extra mile and make spreadsheets to show you the patch status of every single mod they have in their game.
[12:37]This is an Excel spreadsheet made by Kia Sims 4 mods. Currently, I am in the traits sub folder. And so I have a bunch of their lot traits in my game. And so I'll scroll down until we see lot traits.
[12:48]And in here, I can see which lot traits are compatible with the most recent patch update. And it also shows the last time they've been updated.
[12:55]And it also provides a link for the mod where you can directly download them from. Same thing from Zuriaki as well. They have all their mods compiled into a spreadsheet, then have a status category where they'll show you what mods are compatible, which ones have been updated so that you'll need to replace them, and then which ones are just straight up broken, and they won't work with the most recent update.
[13:14]Speaking of master posts, this might be the most important one, and I would definitely bookmark this in your web browser. This master post can be found on Scarlet's Realm, and it's like the ultimate mods list.
[13:25]In this list, it'll show you a bunch of mods that are created by miscellaneous modders in the community, and it'll also give you a patch status on said mods.
[13:33]So if there's any mods in particular that you're not sure have been compatible with the most recent patch updates, you can type them in the search bar and then you can see whether or not they've been updated.
[13:44]Let's do the Ask to Clean mod made by MLS to determine the patch update on that. It looks like the Ask to Clean mod made by Miles is compatible with the most recent patch updates. And then we can confirm that by looking at the last time it's been updated. It says here April 18th, 2024.
[14:02]If I do the research and I still am not able to find out whether or not a mod is compatible, I'll take it out of my mods folder just to be on the safe side.
[14:09]So here's a folder that I have with all the outdated mods in my game, and that's because I'm still in the process of updating my mods folder.
[14:16]But if I want to do the 50/50 method, I'll select about half the mods, add them to my folder, open up The Sims game, and I'll see if I get a last exception report.
[14:26]And if you're not familiar with the last exception report, this is going to lead me to the next portion of the video.
[14:31]If you play with mods, even if it's just the most smallest amount of mods, having the better exceptions tool made by Twisted Maxi is so important to have in your game.
[14:40]This mod detects any broken or outdated script mods that you have in your game, as well as any conflicting mods.
[14:46]As soon as I loaded my save file up, we already got a better exceptions report, but that's because I purposely put an outdated mod in my game, just to show you guys how the last exception reports work.
[14:57]And depending on the size of your mods folder, this might take a little minute. As you can see here, we got an exception alert.
[15:01]And like I said before, I purposely added an outdated mod. The mod that I added was the Relationship and Pregnancy mod made by Lumpinou.
[15:08]If you click on a view for report, your web browser will automatically pop up with the report. And again, as expected, the relationship of pregnancy overhaul mod is outdated.
[15:18]But it also looks like I have a few duplicate mods in my game that I thought I got rid of, but I guess I didn't.
[15:23]With that being said, this mod also can find duplicate mods in your game. So if you have more than one of the same files, this mod is able to detect that for you.
[15:31]But other than that, it looks like my mods folder is looking pretty healthy. When you first open up your game, you should see a pop-up that says welcome to Better Exceptions.
[15:38]If you scroll down, you should see open Better Exceptions menu. And in this menu, we're able to check for conflicted mods.
[15:43]We can also check for outfit CC on a certain Sim. Whenever there is a new patch update, you can run the patch compatibility scanner and this can let you know which mods that you have in your game that are more than likely broken or outdated from the patch updates.
[15:57]And again, you'll get another report on your web browser. But it's important to note that the patch compatibility results is not an exception report.
[16:04]It is only recommended that you move these mods on the list and wait to see if the modder will create a more compatible version of the mod.
[16:11]My general rule of thumb is if I don't get a last exception report for it, I keep it in my game, but that is just personally my choice to do.
[16:18]But I would suggest going through the list and determine which mods you want to keep in your mods folder, and then which ones you want to take out and wait to see if there's an updated version of it.
[16:27]All right, we made it to the final part of today's video and that is cleaning your mods folder. So Sims 4 Tray Importer is one of the main mods I use whenever I need to see which CC I'm using on a Sim or a custom content build.
[16:40]If you want to share your tray files, for let's say like a Sim dump or for a CC build, this is the program that you'll need to install into your computer.
[16:48]And it's fairly easy to download it. I'll have the link to this program in the description down below, but you'll click on download this file here, and then you'll follow the instructions on how to install the program into your computer.
[17:00]If you need a more in-depth tutorial on this, there is plenty of videos on YouTube. Once you have the program installed, you'll see a list of Sims that you have in your personal library.
[17:09]If there is a gray wrench next to your Sims or builds, this means that it contains custom content. So if you click on myself, and then click on the CC category, the program will compile a list of all of the CC and mods that my Sim self is currently using.
[17:24]If you're wondering, the outfit that Ashley is wearing is from the most recent collab with Sentate and Serenity. It is the sophomore collection.
[17:31]And with this program, I'm able to show you guys which items that I used from this collection.
[17:36]If you want to share your Sim or your builds with The Sims community, it is super easy to do with this program.
[17:40]What you'll do is you'll go to the top right corner and you should see a save icon. You'll select this, and you have the option to also include the CC.
[17:48]If I choose not to include the CC, I'll make sure that I leave links for all the CC that I'm using on my Sim or my builds on the download page.
[17:56]Once you hit save, a compressed file will automatically save into your downloads folder. And the same exact thing for builds.
[18:02]So if we click on this build right here, we will see a list of CC that this build contains.
[18:08]In the compressed folder, you'll see these files right here. These are your tray files. And if you don't know how to save tray files into your Sims game, what you'll do is you'll copy the tray files.
[18:17]You'll go to Electronic Arts, The Sims 4, and then you'll look for the folder that says tray, and then paste the tray files here.
[18:25]I also love using this Sims 4 Tray Importer to deep clean my mods folder. So whenever I just want to get rid of a bunch of CC that I no longer am using, what I'll do is I'll create a new Sim, and then I will toggle on custom content.
[18:40]Then I'll go through all the custom content that I have in my game and select the items that I no longer want to use.
[18:46]So I'm just going to be randomly selecting a few items here, just to show an example. I'll even do a few hairs.
[18:53]Once you put all the CC that you no longer want in your game onto this Sim, what you'll do is you'll save this Sim into the library.
[19:00]Select the Sim in The Sims 4 Tray Importer, go to the CC category, and then you can delete the CC accordingly, which is easy because all you need to do is double click on the CC, and it'll automatically pop up in the file explorer.
[19:14]I also use this method whenever I want to clean out build by CC. I'll create a blank room, put all the build by items that I no longer use, save it to the library, and then do the same exact process of deleting the CC that way.
[19:28]Because I recently updated my mods folder, I don't have any broken CC to show you guys.
[19:33]But if there's any CC that you see that's missing like a mesh or it's glitching on your Sim, this is the perfect method to determine what the CC is and remove it out of your game.
[19:43]But this is the method that I've been doing since I've literally started using CC in The Sims 4. And personally, I find it to be the most effective way to clean your mods folder.
[19:52]So let's say that there's a few custom content that you find yourself no longer using, or you even want to see if you have a duplicate of. The Sims 4 Mod Manager made by Game Time Dev is the perfect program for this.
[20:03]If we click on my catch all folder with all of my unorganized CC, as you can see here, a bunch of CC with its associated thumbnail will pop up.
[20:11]And this makes it very easy to click on the CC that you find yourself no longer needing, and then you can easily remove them from your mods folder this way.
[20:18]I know that a lot of people use this program to clean your mods folder, to select on which mods they want to keep, which ones they want to remove. The main reason why I like this mod is that it can detect duplicate files in your game.
[20:31]Now, better exceptions is able to do this as well. But I like this program because it also gives you the option to delete all the duplicate files in your folder.
[20:39]On the left hand side of the program, you should see problems. Click on that, and then you should see two categories. We have weird files, and this reads that these are mods and CC shown here that are not necessarily broken.
[20:50]However, the program could not read them correctly. And then you have another category, and this is duplications. And this will show you all the duplicated files that you have in your folder.
[20:59]So this is something I didn't know, but thanks to a mutual on Twitter, you're able to delete all your duplicates with one single click.
[21:04]So if you see here, it says delete all duplicates, and then it'll remove all the duplicated files out of your mods folder instantly.
[21:11]Now, because I have The Sims 4 running right now, I'm not able to do this, but knowing that this option is available with this program is going to be very useful in the future.
[21:20]So whenever I do end up having duplicate files in my game, I know that I can use this program to easily remove them. But that's going to be pretty much it for today's video.
[21:25]I hope you found it helpful, especially organizing and updating your mods folder because I know how much of a headache that can be whenever there is a patch update for The Sims.
[21:36]As stated before, all the links to the programs that I've talked about, all the links to the modders master post that I covered, and just other helpful links that I've covered in today's video, will be linked in the description down below and a master post over on Tumblr.
[21:49]Another reminder that I am hosting a giveaway for the Urban Homage and Party Essentials kits. Make sure to leave your video suggestion as well as an orange heart in the comments down below for a chance to win a free code to these kits.
[21:59]If you found this video to be helpful, please be sure to leave a like and comment. I'd very much appreciate it. Please don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next tutorial video that I do on my channel, and I'll see you guys in my next video.
