Docs/Your First Scan

Your First Scan

This is the main thing. SimSweep reads every file in your Mods folder and builds a complete picture of your CC library. Here's how to get it rolling.

This is the main thing. SimSweep reads every file in your Mods folder and builds a complete picture of your CC library. Here's how to get it rolling.

Setting Up Your Paths

After signing in, SimSweep tries to auto-detect your Sims 4 folders:

  • Game folder - Where The Sims 4 is installed (for EA App, Origin, or Steam)
  • Mods folder - Where your CC and mods live (usually Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods)
  • Tray folder - Where your saved sims, lots, and rooms are stored

If auto-detection works, you're good to go. If it picks the wrong folder or can't find anything (common with non-standard installs or network drives), you can set them manually:

  • Browse Sims 4 Dir - Pick the folder that contains both your "Mods" and "Tray" folders
  • Browse Mods Folder - Pick your mods folder directly (it needs to have .package or .ts4script files in it, the app checks)
  • Reset Paths - Re-runs auto-detection if you want to start over

Network drives: SimSweep works with network and NAS mods folders. If you see issues with disk space detection on mapped drives, that's been fixed in recent versions.

Running the Scan

Hit the Scan button. You'll find it on the Home dashboard and in the header on every other page.

During the scan, you'll see:

  • How many files have been processed so far
  • A weighted progress bar (different phases take different amounts of time)
  • Estimated time remaining

What happens during a scan

SimSweep goes through several phases:

  1. Discovery - Finds every .package and .ts4script in your Mods folder (including subfolders)
  2. Indexing - Opens each package file, reads the binary data inside, extracts resource types, CAS metadata, thumbnails, and computes file hashes
  3. Analysis - Cross-references everything. Finds conflicts (two files modifying the same resource), broken CC (missing meshes), duplicates, and dependency chains
  4. Classification - Auto-labels each file by type (hair, clothing, build/buy, script mod, animation, etc.) based on what's actually inside it
  5. Save matching - Reads your save files and tray data to figure out which CC your sims are actually using
  6. Community sync - If sharing is enabled, sends anonymous metadata to the CC Hub so other users can benefit from your scan data

The whole thing runs in parallel across multiple threads. A typical folder of 5,000 files takes about 30-60 seconds. 30,000+ files might take a few minutes.

Your computer stays usable. SimSweep runs its scan threads at below-normal priority so it won't pin your CPU or make your system sluggish.

What You Get After a Scan

Once the scan finishes, the Home dashboard fills in:

  • Library stats - Total files, CC count, mod count, storage used, and reclaimable space
  • Health score - An overall rating of your mods folder health based on conflicts, broken files, and threats
  • Issues summary - Broken files, conflicts, duplicates, and any threats detected
  • Quick actions - Jump to your mods folder, quarantine, or backups
  • Scan history - Every scan you've run, so you can compare over time

The My CC page is now fully populated. Every file in your Mods folder shows up with thumbnails, metadata, and status information.

Scan Caching

SimSweep saves your scan results to a local database. That means:

  • Browse works on startup. You don't need to re-scan every time you open the app. Last scan's data loads instantly.
  • Only new files get scanned. If you re-scan and nothing has changed, it finishes in seconds because it skips files it's already indexed.
  • No memory pressure. Large mod folders used to eat a lot of RAM because everything was held in memory. Now the data lives in SQLite and gets paginated as needed.

Scan indices (the in-memory hash maps used during analysis) get freed automatically 5 minutes after the scan finishes to save memory.

The Guided Tour

After your first scan, SimSweep offers a quick guided tour that highlights the main parts of the app. Spotlights walk you through the sidebar, scan button, filters, and key features.

  • Let's go / Next - Move through the steps
  • Back - Previous step
  • Skip tour - Exit whenever you want
  • Keyboard: Right arrow or Enter to advance, Left arrow to go back, Escape to exit

It's short and you can skip it if you already know your way around.

Next up

You've got data. Now go explore it:

Previous← Creating Your AccountNextNavigation →