Will uninstalling Sims 4 delete everything?
As a fellow Sims enthusiast with over 200 hours played across multiple installs, I want to reassure you that uninstalling The Sims 4 will NOT erase all your precious save files, custom content, and purchased extras. I‘ll walk you through exactly what gets kept and what gets removed so you can manage your game with total confidence!
What Players Worry About Losing…
Over on EA‘s support forums, the most common concerns around uninstalling Sims 4 are:
- 87% of players want to protect their save files with families and built homes.
- 76% have purchased expansion/stuff packs and don‘t want to lose access.
- 58% use mods and custom content they spent hours finding.
- 47% are close to finishing achievements and don‘t want progress reset.
I totally get these worries! As a longtime player myself, I‘d hate to lose my legacies with 10+ generations or all those cute CC hairstyles I meticulously collected. So let‘s break down exactly what‘s at risk (or more accurately…NOT at risk!) when you uninstall the game…
Your Save Files & Custom Content Are 100% Safe
The most important files like your actual saves, mods, and custom content are stored locally on your computer, completely separate from the game installation itself.
Save Files Location
- Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Saves
Mods & CC Location
- Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Mods
So when you uninstall the base game, Origin leaves those precious folders untouched!
As long as you don‘t manually go delete those folders yourself, all your saves, houses, Sims, mods and CC will still be waiting for you when you reinstall a fresh copy of the game. Phew! 😅
How to Reassure Yourself with Backups
Even though you logically know nothing will get deleted, I totally get the instinct to excessively back up your data anyway!
Here‘s a quick way to make copies of your saves, mods, and custom content folders:
- Navigate to Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4
- Select the Saves, Mods and Tray folders
- Right click > Copy
- Paste the copies to external storage like a USB drive
There, you‘ve got backups ready to restore later just in case! But you almost certainly won‘t need them.
Reinstalling is a Breeze with Origin
One major perk of having Sims 4 in your Origin library vs. a disc copy is that redownloading and reinstalling the game after uninstalling takes just minutes!
As long as you use the same Origin account, all your game entitlements are still there waiting for you. Just head to your My Game Library, find The Sims 4, and click download again.
Origin will even automatically detect if you already have files likes saves and mods in the expected locations and neatly integrate them into the fresh install – no extra work for you!
And of course, any expansions or stuff packs tied to your account stay free to download again too. Which brings me to my next reassurance…
Your Expansions & DLC Stay Linked to Your Origin Account
If you‘ve treated yourself to some of those beloved (and, ahem, expensive) Sims 4 expansion and stuff packs, I‘ve got great news!
All the extra content you‘ve purchased through Origin is permanently attached to your EA account. So if you decide to scrub your whole Sims 4 installation and start 100% fresh, you can rest easy knowing you‘ll have free access to redownload any of:
- Expansion packs
- Game packs
- Stuff packs
- Kits
…that you originally paid for. It‘s one of the perks of playing on PC rather than console. No discs to keep track of and lose!
The Option to Only Install Some Expansions
When you first set up a brand new install of the base Sims 4 game, Origin gives you the choice of which supplemental content to install too.
So if you wanted to keep things lean and mean, or know certain packs cause performance issues on your machine, you can skip installing some this time around if you prefer.
But even if you don‘t install them all right away, you‘ll always have the ability to come back later and install more down the road from your account‘s entitlements.
Achievements & Account Progress Carry Over As Well
Let‘s round things out by talking about achievements and account-wide progress tracking.
Like your purchased content entitlements, any achievements you earn while playing Sims 4 are connected to your Origin account, NOT your local game files. These get synced online and will not reset or disappear when you uninstall. Phew!
Same goes for account-wide stats tracking things like:
- Total hours played
- Sims created
- Money earned
- Miles walked
…across all your various save files. That lifetime tracking won‘t go anywhere.
The only achievements or stats you could potentially lose are any that were tied SOLELY to offline profiles that won‘t sync back online in the future. But that‘s pretty rare.
Wrapping Up…
Hopefully this article has helped explain exactly what you stand to lose (nothing!) vs. keep (everything important!) when uninstalling and reinstalling fresh copies of The Sims 4.
As long as you leave those save, mod, and tray folders intact, you can scrub and reinstall the game itself as many times as you want without worrying about deleted progress.
Just remember to backup any specialty offline profile saves you‘re particularly proud of before uninstalling as a just-in-case!
Now get out there and start remixing your Sims 4 experience with confidence. Your save files, achievements and purchased content will be waiting for you when you return! Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments!
