How I find lost Sims content through the Wayback Machine
This post is absotively-posilutely massive due to all of the very chunky images, so viewer be warned.
NOTE: I only tested this on Dropbox links, I have not tested if this method works for SimFileShare, Mediafire, etc. I will update if possible.
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I know it might sound quite silly, but I realize that something that is instinctual for me, well it might be difficult to a stranger, someone who’s never done it before. The Sims 4 modding community is very elusive, it’s hard to keep a grip on it. Content creators come and go, dropping like flies. And for whatever their reasons might be, they have a tendency to PURGE ABOSOLUTELY EVERYTHING when they turn tail and run.
So we, the consumers, are left to pick up the pieces and put their catalogue back together like a digital puzzle. When Mr. Average comes along, desperately eyeing up a pretty pixelated dress to put his Sim in, only to find that there’s seemingly no trace left of it’s existence save for a single image and a Pinterest post from four years ago, he is left mildly disappointed, and that artwork could potentially be forever lost to the sands of time.
That, my good lad, is where I come in.
Let’s say you’re browsing the Google image results for a specific piece of content in mind- for the example I’m using Hayny’s Spiked Headband. You click on it, and you are brought to a Pinterest post.
Within this Pinterest post, is a link to Hayny’s Tumblr, to where the Custom Content supposedly is, so you click it, and...
There’s fucking nothing. You have been trolled.
HOWEVER! DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOODNIGHT! Click that bastard link, click him where it hurts. And by that I mean, snag the link before Tumblr boots you back to the front page.
Take this link, and input it into the Wayback Machine.
For this particular link, anything beyond 2018 appears to be a dud. I suggest picking a date with the largest amount of captures, though most of the time you’ll be lucky to have a single working capture at all. From what I have expierenced, Simblrs tend to have a 50/50 chance of being documented properly, if at all.
Now that we’re surfing the sands of time, it’s time to get that content we’ve been lusting after. Most people who create Custom Content for the sims will use websites like Dropbox, Mediafire, SimFileShare, and even their Google Drive to store their files.
Once clicking on the link in the Wayback Machine, you’ll be met with this. Do not fret! Select every character, including the dashes, that comes before the ‘www.’ in the URL, and remove them.
Paste the edited link into a fresh tab, and open the gates.
It should lead you to a page like this ⤵
And here is the fruit of our labour, modeled by a lovely(?) pre-made Sim. It’s a cute hairband, though it leaves a noticeable gap between the hair and the band, so I would only really use it on large hair that’ll be clipping into it.
And then there’s... this. I can tolerate a small gap if it’s a normally unnoticeable spot, but the headband is just straight unfinished.
But, here she is at last! A once lost item has been raised from the dead, and it only took me like two hours to figure out!
I’m running off the assumption that this will work for most things, I have been able to recover more than one item this way. If anyone else tests out the method and finds what works/what doesn’t, please message me privately so I can edit my post with the new information.
Happy Simming! Stay safe, and for the love of all that is holy, never click an AdF.ly link if you value your computer.
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