EA Desktop APP can't detect already installed games

They probably will never fix it. For around 5 houer I've tried to download Mass Effect: LE and it was stuck on preparing exactly 14%, after some time and reinstalling this * app it started downloading and I had around 80% and got error, so now i have to download everything again even if I have * 100 GB of ME: LE on my drive. And this * is giving the same error still on 14% of preparation. The only solution is to * pirate their games cause this * can only screw everything up. Origin was working well and they forced everyone to use this crap that is even worse than Epic Games Store. * EA and their politycs of screwing over people who gave them money. In that case pirating is not a crime, it's the * only way to play those games.

I don't get the option to install my copy of Mass Effect: Andromeda. It just tells me to install it via steam which I already have. I've tried reinstalling the game on steam, reinstalling the EA App, moving installation files around, using Origin (It just forces me to use EA App).

I tried following your steps, which didn't really work since Origin won't allow me to play anything at all. But I want to detail everything I did to get things working for me. Everything related to your steps and Origin, in general, may not have been necessary.

First of all, I never install games to a default folder on C drive. When I used Origin, I had created an "Origin Games" folder on another disk. 3 of my 5 installed games were on that disk, because apparently 2 of them did end up getting installed to the default C drive folder.

When installing the EA app, I renamed my "Origin Games" folder to "EA Games" and selected that as my installation directory, thinking it would detect them. It didn't. It did, however, find the 2 games that were already installed on C. I could not get it to detect these games.

Then I came across TehFuzzyWuzzy's post and decided to try that as best as I could. I installed Origin, but remembered it could no longer find my games since I renamed the folder. So I closed Origin, renamed my "EA Games" folder back to "Origin Games", edited the .xml file (as TehFuzzyWuzzy suggested) then launched Origin again. As usual, it's entirely inaccessible to me because it prompts me to download the EA app.

So, I opened the start menu and entered the names of the games there and attempted to launch them. They wouldn't launch and would just bring the Origin app back up. Tried this with all 3 games, tried running as administrator. Nothing. 

I closed the Origin app and launched the EA app and all of my games are now there and I can launch them. Their playtimes are showing too. What I don't know is how many of those steps helped. Maybe, renaming the "EA Games" folder back to "Origin Games" was enough, since it may have been looking for that since the beginning.  I wish I didn't need to keep that folder name, since I'm not using Origin anymore, but if it works it works. Maybe in the future I'll try renaming it.

I changed my EA ID while I already had the Sims 4 on my computer. I tried to play it today, it said I didn't have it and I had to download it. I tried to redownload it even though I already have on my computer. It doesn't even start downloading.

The joke is EA. * clowns.

Hi,

I know it's an old post but it can help others like me. Because this issue is not fix yet.

There is no easy way to detect already installed games with EA App, this app sucks. End of discussion.

But I managed to use a sh!ty way like Epic Launcher to force it to detect files. Just make sure your actual games folder and EA games folder path are the same.

• click on a game you already have on your computer, it will start to download it anyway.
• stop the download
• go to your game library
• click on the 3 dots to the game's tiles
• click on "repair"

It will now list already installed files and download missing ones if needed

It's not the best way but it's a working way for those that can't download all again

Couldn't have said it better myself. Years of dealing with trying to access my old and new games over and over with countless issues... I'm basically having to redownload them every other month. It's not even worth the trouble anymore, best to just pirate them.