it takes two stuck on preparing (cant download)

my friend's got it takes two copy on steam (she purchased it and i try to join via friends pass). first i downloaded friends pass through steam like she did, and the invite link she sent to me did not work on ea play (cannot join her game, the game does not start, basically nothing happens even though we tried the invite several times). then i uninstalled the game from steam and tried to download it via ea play but it is stuck on preparing and the download never starts. so far, i attempted re-installing ea play app, clearing cache, and running as adminstrator, neither of the steps fixed the problem. what should we do to initate the download process? please help.🙌

P.S. tried to download a way out friends pass and it immediately started downloading, so the problem is entirely about it takes two.