Recent Discussions
Unable to open the game
I am unable to open my Sims 4 game. Each time I try to launch it, I receive an error code message saying im unable to start the game and that a specific piece of CC is preventing the game from starting. When I delete that CC, another piece of CC causes the same issue, even though it has never been a problem before. This situation occurs with every folder in my game. I've used mod manager to delete all duplicate CC and remove any conflicting mods, yet my game still won't open. I have repaired the game, uninstalled it, and reinstalled it. I also tried the 50/50 method, but it didn't work. The only way I can launch my game is without any mods. Also I don’t have any gameplay mods downloaded.
Blue boxes making map inaccessible
Hi! I just today downloaded the university and high school pack and these blue boxes have appeared in one of the new locations. All other locations are fine, but on this one I can't click anything. Also, I have no played sims in that area but as you can see it is indicating otherwise I've restarted my computer and repaired it in the EA app with no results. I have no mods installed, just the official sims add ons like mentioned Only started playing the Sims last week so apologies if this is an easy fix. Anyone know how to fix? I'm on a mac and use the EA app to launch the game (not sure if thats helpful, sorry). Really upsetting :( !
Game is Crashing and Glitches randomly during game play
I updated my Sims game today and updated my Mods and I first started getting the error code ec:105 on my EA App and then when i was playing the game, it glitches where i can't click anything anymore or interact with my sims. I don't know what to do and it's really frustrating 😩. I attached screenshots of the issues as well.
Can anyone help?
It started a few days ago, I updated my sims game, and everything was fine, I then updated my mods, as usual. And it was fine. However all of a sudden my laptop after like 10 mins my mac would just shut off? I was confused and thought maybe it was overheating, so I put it on a flat surface, as before I was using my lap. This helped a little bit, but it wouldnt even really get hot before it would shut off again. I went through my mods, cleaning it out, tried it again and still the same problem, it would last a tiny bit longer but would then have the same problem again, eventually it would just freeze occasionally but now it just shuts off with no warning. I did eventually remove my mods folder for the ultimate test, and it is not my mods, it seems to be the sims game itself. I have been playing this game for years with this computer, and I've played for a few hours at a time in the past, with no problem. Im just wondering If anyone could explain this or is experiencing this too? And to add, my computer keeps telling me it needs to update, but then says its up to date? And when my laptop turns back on it seems to loose all it's charge. It's a Macbook Air, Retina 2020. Mac OS Sequoia 15.5. If that helps at all. Please let me know if you all have any solutions, thanks 😊Progress gone
I just went on my game after an update and all my game progress and game history is gone. Is there anyway to recover my game history. I didn’t delete anything or move any files or folders to the trash. I haven’t played in about a month and I wanted to play today and now all my progress is gone.sims 4 wont start with any mods
So my game works perfectly fine with out any mods, but as soon as I put literally 1 file, it doesn't work. I tried downloading a brand new cc and it still does not work. I recently had a problem with this, but somehow fixed it, didn't touch it, went to play and realised my mods just disappeared from my sims 4 folder? and now every time I try to add any, it does not work. See attachment for the message it gives me.Sims 4 old back folder doesn't work
PLEASE HELP!!! I cleaned out my mods folder just to make sure I didn't have duplicate mods in the game. Once I was done, I couldn't find the Electronic Arts folder but my saves and mods were still in game. I ended up searching for the EA folder and two came up. It asked if I wanted to replace, I said yes and my entire game was wiped. I tried to use my back up sims 4 folder to add it back to the game and it's not working. Electronic Arts folder doesn't have the sims 4 folder and when I add it in it still doesn't load. I even renamed the folder so a new one could generate but it does not. The Electronic Arts folder has an "EA app" folder and in that folder an "ARD" folder and "machine. ini". When I click on the ARD folder there is a GEADesktop folder that doesn't open when I click on it. I've tried repairing the game, logging out of the app and restarting so a new The sims 4 folder can appear and nothing. That's the only thing that pops up.
Pitch Black Sim
Can anyone help me? My game was working just fine last night when I exited the game. Nothing was wrong. This morning I go to log in and my sim is pitch black. Nothing happened other than me exiting the game last night. I have 0 mods in my game. I just installed everything yesterday on my new Mac. I repaired the game and also reset my sim as recommended. A lot of fixes are for CC but I have no CC in my game. Please help.Unable to launch the game
Hello everyone, For a week now, I haven't been able to launch my game. I cleared the caches, updated my Mac, reinstalled the application and nothing works. I spoke to support, they told me to wait for an update? If anyone has any idea about the problem, I'm interested. Thank you.Game not Launching
Hi, I'm having trouble launching The Sims 4 from the EA App on my Mac. The game appears to load but never actually launches. I’ve already tried repairing the game, uninstalling and reinstalling both The Sims 4 and the EA App, but that didn’t solve the issue. I’ve also cleared up storage on my laptop, restarted and shut it down multiple times, but nothing has worked so far. Here's the details of my Mac Model: MacBook Pro Model A2141 Year: 2019 Memory: 32GB macOS version: Sonoma 14.6.1 Storage: 685.13 GB of 1 TB
May 2025 Update
Since the new update my whole screen has been completely glitching, I play on Mac book and yes I turned off my mods/cc and the game was still glitchy, the glitches literally made the game unplayable. Also the glitch only appears once I load into gameplay, I’ve taken out cc/ mods and went through all my cc to make sure it wasn’t that, and I’m still dealing with this issue, I hope they fix this soon bc I would love to play my game again. Is anyone else having this issue? ( attached is a picture of before and during the glitch)🛠️ Creating a symlink in macOS to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive
➡️ This is not to be confused with installing the actual Sims 4 game on an external drive. The game installation location is determined in EA App and there is no need to use a symlink for this. As internal storage gets smaller we're forced to use cloud based solutions to store files and folders or resort to a trusty external drive. Cloud based only storage is not an option for the Sims 4 folder that contains all your saves, Mods, Library items and other user data because the game only looks in one place for your data: Macintosh HD > Users > [your user account] > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 If there is no Sims 4 folder in that location the game will create a new one. There is no way around this default Sims 4 folder location unfortunately, it is hard coded into the game. Because of this the only option to store the Sims 4 folder on an external drive is to create a symbolic link, otherwise known as a symlink. Creating the symlink is relatively easy provided you understand the concept of what a symlink is and why you are creating it. You should also be familiar with Terminal on your Mac and the security and permission systems in place in whichever version of macOS you are running as these dictate the ability for the game to access the external drive and whether your Mac user account has permission to grant the necessary access. You should also make sure you are using a good quality, fast external drive. You get what you pay for and if you bought a cheap drive, with low quality cables, you will most likely struggle to get the symlink to work because it will be too slow. For help buying an external drive and what to look out for read this guide. I am not going to write step by step instructions here, the post will be far too long. Instead, you can read the detailed and comprehensive guide I wrote several years ago here https://bluebellflora.com/saving-your-sims-4-folder-to-an-external-drive/ If your symlink is not working it is down to user error. It really is that simple. macOS is a Unix based operating system and as such uses Unix commands which are all provided in the above linked guide. This thread is for consolidating all posts related to the Mac symlink process here at Answers HQ. If you're a Windows user read Crinrict's excellent guide here https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-link.html. What I have provided below are a few of the common issues people face as a result of not entering the commands correctly or having the correct permissions in place. Common issues reported and the solution: Always check your external drive has the correct name in Disk Utility: open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities) change View to Show All Devices then click on the drive in the left sidebar the Mount Point shows the name of your drive. If there is a number added to the drive name it means the drive has not been properly ejected multiple times Close Disk Utility and eject the drive In Finder click on Go in the menu bar then Go To Folder. Enter /Volumes in the input field and hit return in the /Volumes location, trash the folder(s) that has the same name as the external drive Close Finder, plug the drive back in, open Disk Utility again to check the drive name in the Mount Point. If it matches try to create the symlink In addition to checking the external drive mount point above, the following may also be helpful: Terminal states my access/permission is denied check your Mac user account is an Administrator account and not a Standard account. check that Terminal has access to external drives, also known as Removable Volumes, and your Documents folder. I'm constantly getting "Unable to start... Cannot start because the below file appears to be corrupted" error message make sure the external drive is correctly formatted as either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If it isn't, reverse the symlink, reformat the drive in Disk Utility and start again. check your Mods actually aren't corrupted by downloading a compatible version from the creator. I keep getting the error message "Unable to start... The Sims 4 is already running" make sure the external drive is correctly plugged in and mounted. check EA App has access to the external drive in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Give it Full Disk Access if necessary. disable iCloud Drive if the symlink folder in Documents is a white page instead of a folder with the little arrow the symlink has broken. Trash it and attempt to recreate the symlink. Check the Mount Point in Disk Utility shows your exact external drive name and doesn’t have a number added to the drive name. If it does this means your drive has not been properly ejected multiple times. To fix it: eject the drive in Finder click on Go in the menu bar then Go To Folder enter /Volumes in the text field and hit Enter/Return in the Finder window that appears you should see a folder, not a drive icon, with the same name as your external drive. Trash it. plug the drive back in, check the mount point in Disk Utility is the exact drive name with no appended numbers, then try to create the symlink again. if the mount point is still showing a number you have problems with your drive. Consider reformatting it, trying different connector cables, or getting a better drive. Terminal tells me No such file or directory did you copy and paste the command from the guide and correctly substitute the name of your external drive? If you didn't copy and paste you may have used the wrong letters in the command. Copy and paste from the guide. Does the folder you are trying to move or create a symlink to exist in the location you are stipulating in the command? Terminal tells me Directory not empty in Step 1 Is there already a folder on the external with the same name as the folder you're moving? i.e. have you already copied over the Electronic Arts folder? If there is already a folder with the same name as the folder you're moving, Terminal will return this result. Terminal tells me File already exists in Step 2 of the guide Did you correctly complete step 1 or is there still an Electronic Arts or Sims 4 folder in your Documents folder? If the folder is still there you have not correctly moved it in Step 1. If you have iCloud Drive enabled to store your Documents folder in the cloud and Optimise Storage enabled, it will cause issues with the symlink. I strongly advise to disable this iCloud feature otherwise you will have issues, especially if you use Mods. As a reminder, creating this symlink is aimed at people storing their Electronic Arts/Sims 4 folder locally. Using iCloud Drive stores your folder in the cloud and locally. For help with iCloud see this thread https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/READ-FIRST-Saves-CC-Mods-or-Library-items-disappeared/m-p/10242133Sims 4 is suddenly really laggy on my MacBook Air M2
I've been playing Sims 4 on my MacBook for a while now and have never had a problem. Game always ran smoothly. Around 2 weeks ago my game started lagging a lot and has been doing so ever since. Every time I try loading a save it takes years, and it does the same when I try saving and exiting the game. The actual gameplay is so laggy that I sometimes can't even move my camera. I play with mods and CCs and I've checked numerous times if some are outdated or colliding with each other, but it all checks out. I've tried lowering all of my graphics but it doesn't help at all. I saw someone say that enabling retina display could potentially fix the issue, but no luck. I don't really think storage is the problem either. It was completely fine up until 2 weeks ago and my storage capacity hasn't really changed. I'm not the most tech savvy person out there, so I'm really hoping someone else knows how to fix this. The game is barely playable.Can't play after a few hours
Every time I open a new save, I can play in that save for a few hours, and then it stops working. My sims are unable to interact with objects, and just say they can't get to them. I've tried resetting them, deleting my mods, reloading the game, everything I can think of. What should I do?
Computer and External Drive
Any ideas????????????? I've been playing my game on an external drive. I recently had an issue with my iCloud was seen by Apple. We ended up turning it off. I go to play, plug in my drive, and nothing was loaded in the game however, all the information is still on the drive. I was able to see that I have another electronics arts folder. When I looked in there, everything was empty. I moved my mods and saves in that folder, then everything was working again. So now it only recognizes my saves and mods on the computer and not the drive how it was originally. I have repaired the game multiple times. I have took out the mods and placed them back I made sure the installer location on the EA app has my external listed I've run out of ideas. I hope this made sense. Basically, I have the game in two locations, but I only want it to recognize one.
