Re: Sims 4 only runs in the background and won’t open! PLEASE HELP

@SecretDino  I've moved your post to its own thread.  In the future, you can find a New Topic button in the upper-right corner when you're viewing a single thread or the forum overall.

Your dxdiag shows that the EA App is throwing errors.  So please clear its cache, as described here:

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

Then uninstall the App, restart your computer, and reinstall it.  If you can't uninstall, open the Task Manager and kill the EABackgroundService.exe, then try again.

Your dxdiag also lists a couple of errors related to the Windows USB 3 driver.  These can be simple to fix: unplug all devices that use USB 3, or just every peripheral other than your keyboard and mouse, and restart your computer before plugging them back in.

If you still can't play Sims 4, please let me know what antivirus you use.  Let me know whether OneDrive is running as well, even if you never use it, and how full it is.

I've just finished reinstalling after restarting and sadly there is no change. I don't think I use an antivirus, my computer came with one but I'm pretty sure (like 90%) that it expired a while ago.

OneDrive always seems to be running in the background, but I am not signed into it. I cannot actually find the program on my computer so I may have tried to uninstall it (It annoyed me when it would pop up when I restarted my computer)

@SecretDino  Please check the Task Manager, including the background processes list, for any antivirus-related entries.  If you find one, let me know which one is present, or you can just google uninstall instructions for that antivirus.  Some, for example McAfee, have their own uninstallers that are more thorough than merely uninstalling using one of the standard Windows options.

The reason I ask is because if an antivirus is causing problems, that needs to be addressed first, or else any other troubleshooting might be completely ineffective.

If you don't in fact have a third-party antivirus running, please find out whether Windows Defender's Controlled Folder Access is active.  If it is, either disable it or set exceptions for TS4_x64.exe and EADesktop.exe, as described here:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/03/windows-10-defender-controlled-folder-access.html

I checked the task manager, and the only antivirus related entries I found was what I believe in windows defender. I'll include some pictures so you can see it yourself, as I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I checked if the Windows Defender's Controlled folder access is active, and it is not. It was disabled. Thank you <3

It worked! I made an unconnected profile on my computer and The game launched no problem. I haven't played any yet, but it's running in the foreground and that's the important thing!
I also remembered something: My problems started when I was trying to install mods for the first time since I started playing again. I was using Curse Forge. I downloaded a few mods (mccc, don't auto grab food, quality of life stuff) and then restarted the game to enable custom content. It was only when I changed the setting to allow use of custom content that I started having any issues at all. (Thanks for the help <3)

@SecretDino  That's interesting.  If you enable mods and cc in the new account, but don't install anything, does the game work?  I'm guessing it will, but please test anyway.  Then download one mod or cc item, not from CurseForge but just from a creator's site, and see whether the game still works with that installed.  Make sure the item is confirmed compatible with patch 1.97.

Turns out Mods and CC were still inabled, and I installed a small mod. Everything is still on the up and up in the 2nd account. Everything on there it working fantastically

@SecretDino  Great to hear.  Let me know if you need any more help.