Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. SimSweep reads your files, it doesn't inject anything into your game. The entire source code is public on GitHub so you can verify exactly what it does. Windows SmartScreen will flag it on first run because it's an indie app without a code signing certificate. That happens with every small developer's software. Click "More info" then "Run anyway" and you're good.

Scanning is completely read-only. SimSweep never moves, renames, or deletes anything on its own. Every action requires you to click a button manually. When you do remove files, they go to quarantine first. Nothing is permanently deleted unless you explicitly empty the quarantine yourself.

Not unless you tell it to. Scanning is read-only. SimSweep looks at your files and reports back. When you choose to remove something, it moves to quarantine, not the trash. You can restore anything with one click. The only way files get permanently deleted is if you manually empty the quarantine.

Yes. SimSweep has a gameplay mod protection system that auto-detects script mods like MCCC, WickedWhims, UI Cheats, Basemental, and others. These get flagged as protected so they don't show up in cleanup suggestions. Your gameplay mods stay untouched while you clean up CC.

Depends on your collection size and drive speed:

• •Under 5,000 files: about 30 seconds to a minute
• •5,000 to 15,000 files: one to three minutes
• •15,000+ files: three to five minutes, sometimes longer on external or mechanical drives

The app stays responsive the whole time. You can watch it work through each scan phase.

Yes. SimSweep runs on both Windows (10/11) and macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon). The Mac version uses a universal binary, so it works on both older Intel Macs and newer M-series chips. Grab the DMG from the download page.

The free tier (Public) gives you the full scan, health score, broken CC detection, conflict reports, save health analysis, and the 50/50 method. You can see everything that's going on in your folder.

Decrypt unlocks the management side: mod profiles (swap entire loadouts with one click), auto-backup before patches, scan history, save comparison, growth tracking, scheduled backups, and exclusive themes. It's for players who want to actively manage a big collection, not just diagnose it.

If you quarantined files and something broke, open SimSweep and go to the quarantine tab. Everything you removed is still there. Find the file you need and hit restore. It goes right back where it came from.

Most post-cleanup crashes happen when a recolor gets kept but the mesh it depends on gets quarantined. SimSweep flags mesh dependencies, but if something slips through, the restore is instant.

After every game patch, for sure. Patches break CC, and the sooner you find what's broken the less time you spend staring at black squares in CAS.

Beyond that, scan after any big CC download session. If you just grabbed 200 new hairs from Patreon, it's worth checking for conflicts and duplicates before they pile up.

No. SimSweep scans the files on your drive directly. The game doesn't need to be open. In fact, it's better to close the game before scanning so no files are locked.

Quarantined files move to a .simsweep-quarantine folder right next to your Mods folder. They're out of the Mods folder (so the game won't load them), but they're not deleted. They sit there until you decide to restore them or permanently remove them.

You can see everything in quarantine from the app. Each file shows when it was quarantined and where it originally lived, so restoring is always one click.

They do different things with a little overlap in the basics.

S4MM is a file manager. You use it to browse, organize, rename, and enable/disable your CC. SimSweep doesn't do any of that.

PlumbBuddy is a passive health monitor. It runs in the background catching installation mistakes, unextracted zips, and cache issues. It also has a manifest system where creators can register dependencies and conflicts.

SimSweep goes deeper on diagnostics. It reads every .package file and cross-references your saves and tray data to figure out which CC your sims actually use vs what's dead weight. It finds CC with missing meshes and orphaned recolors, automates the entire 50/50 method, detects conflicts by reading overlapping instance IDs automatically (no creator registration needed), reads Python bytecode to flag which script mods are most likely to break after a patch, and parses crash logs to tell you which specific mod caused a crash.

You can run all three and they won't step on each other. PlumbBuddy watches for problems as they happen. S4MM helps you organize. SimSweep digs into your folder and tells you what's already wrong.

When SimSweep flags a file as broken, it means the CC references a 3D mesh that doesn't exist anywhere in your Mods folder or in the base game files. Without that mesh, the item can't render properly in-game.

The two most common causes:

• •Missing mesh pack. A lot of creators make sets where you need the base mesh file plus the recolors. If you downloaded the recolors but not the mesh, every recolor shows up as broken. Check the creator's page for the mesh download.
• •Requires a pack you don't own. Some CC builds on meshes from expansion packs. If you don't have that pack installed, the mesh doesn't exist on your system and the file shows as broken.

Files flagged as "corrupt" are different. That means SimSweep couldn't even read the file. Usually a bad download. Those are safe to remove.

Not yet, but it's on the list. SimSweep is built with Tauri, which supports Linux, so it's more of a "when" than an "if." For now it's Windows and Mac only. If you want to be notified when the Linux build drops, join the Discord.

SimSweep auto-detects your Mods folder in the default Documents location. If your folder is on a different drive or partition, you can manually set the path in Settings. Just point it to wherever your Mods folder actually lives and SimSweep will use that from then on.

Symlinked or junctioned folders can sometimes cause issues. If SimSweep keeps looking at the wrong path after you change it, try pointing it directly to the physical location instead of the symlink.