Sim4 not loading.

I have the same issue, i've tried everyting even that link from EA it doesn't work because the sims 4 isn't on the list.

Detailed Troubleshooting Steps

1. Run and Repair EA Anti-Cheat Installer

• Download the EA Anti-Cheat installer
• Run EAAntiCheat.Installer.exe as Administrator (right-click > Run as administrator).
• In the dropdown menu, select your game (e.g., Battlefield 2042, FC25, etc.).
• Click Repair to uninstall and reinstall the anti-cheat service for the game.
• Wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC and try launching the game again.

If repair doesn't fix the issue, proceed to uninstall/reinstall:

• Run the installer again.
• Select your game and choose Uninstall.
• Once uninstalled, reboot your PC and run the installer again.
• Select Install to reinstall a fresh copy of the anti-cheat.
• Restart your PC and launch the game.

Nicisoxx​  The EA App icon on your desktop changed because it's a shortcut to the actual executable (the file that runs the program), and the shortcut broke.  I don't know why, but it happens and isn't a big deal.  You can create a new shortcut if you like by right-clicking the EADesktop.exe and selecting Send to > Desktop (shortcut).

To be clear, now you can open the EA App, and it loads properly, as in, you see your library, friend list, etc., but launching Sims 4 from there doesn't work?  And is this still true if you restart your computer immediately before you try to play, without opening anything else?  If so, let me know what happens in this instance (the "already running" error, a different error, nothing).  Sometimes the second attempt to launch the game fails in a different way than the first, and in a way that's not indicative of the underlying problem.

The "already running" error has a master thread with suggestions here:

[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running | EA Forums - 11818313

Naomie2003​  Anti-cheat has nothing to do with Sims 4, and someone only playing (or having trouble with) Sims 4 shouldn't be installing it.

Thanks for your reply.

I've been trying all day to sort it, so far nothing has worked.

Why would the desktop shortcut stop working? Either way, I just made a new one. Just thought it might be linked to this issue somehow.

I can open the EA app, once open I click "play", sometimes nothing at all happens, sometimes I get the "preparing game" box but nothing after, and if it's the 2nd or 3rd time of me trying then I get the box telling me the game is already open/playing, the hours played even increases, yet nothing. I do have a fair amount of mods/cc so it can be slow to load up sometimes, no more than a minute or so, but I left it for an hour earlier, still nothing. I have probably restarted my laptop a good 15 times today to see if anything has helped, still nothing.

I have a fair few CC items on Curseforge, I've tried loading up the game from there too, I get the blue loading icon and then nothing.

So far I've tried - repairing the EA app, repairing the sims4 via the EA app, I've tried uninstalling the EA app, the usual box pops up asking for my permission for the app to make the changes/uninstall, I click yes and nothing. I followed a tutorial on how to uninstall something that maybe stuck using the "Winget" prompt, that said something along the lines of it not being able to find the package I was searching for. I read that maybe the app was stuck, so I went to task manager and ended all EA and EA background things that I could see running. I've tried reinstalling the EA app and I just get a pop-up telling me I already have the app, do I want to launch it or repair.....and round and round in circles I go.

I don't know if this is any help, but I did run out of space on my C drive, so my "documents" folder was properly moved to my new D drive that I installed internally. Program files are still in C, everything else is in D...... but I just go back to the fact that it was working fine in the morning, so the D drive/documents can't be the issue, can they?

I have NVIDIA on my laptop and that did some updates, could that be an issue? Not that I really know what NVIDIA is lol, but I'm trying everything and anything I can think of that may be related to the game/app. Oh, I've also checked that my Windows and drivers are all up to date.

I can't open the game, I can't play the game, I can't delete the app.

okeyyy thank you :)

Nicisoxx​  I don't know why the EA App shortcut breaks so often, but it does, and it's not necessarily a sign of a larger problem.  I don't know that you'd need to uninstall the App at all, but if you still want to, try using Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine).  It's generally very good at removing the EA App, but be sure to try it after you've repaired the App, not immediately after you've tried to uninstall the normal way.

For Sims 4, it's unlikely that moving the user folder to D is a problem if the game previously worked with the data there.  It's very possible though that something in your user folder is preventing the game from loading.  So please rename the folder (to whatever you like), which will force the game to generate a new one with no content, that is if it can load at all.  Try this right after restarting the computer.

If you still can't play, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

Thank you so much for your reply, again!

Uninstalling the app was a last resort after trying all the things I could think of.

Great minds think alike! I have literally just finished doing the process via Revo Uninstaller, deleted everything EA related (also made sure to stop all background EA things running via task manager), once it, and The Sims, were uninstalled I downloaded the EA app to start again and I got a pop up box telling me I already had the app installed, did I want to launch it?! lol how?! just how?! 

Ill do the renaming thing now, fingers crossed!!

Hey, 

Just wanted to confirm, you mean rename the user file in my C drive, right?

Because if so, how do I do that? I thought it would just be as simple as right clicking and renaming, but thats not the case.

Nicisoxx​  I mean rename the Sims 4 folder that contains your user data (saves, mods, etc.), which is on D since you moved Documents there.  The idea is, renaming the folder prevents the game from reading its contents (your user data) without deleting the files, so you can see whether everything works with none of your previous content.  If it does, the problem is in the folder you renamed.  If not, the problem is elsewhere, in which case I'd like to look over a dxdiag.

Hey, 

So I did the renaming thing and the game loaded first time. I moved all my mods over to the new mod folder, and it's been kinda hit-and-miss. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes the game loads but freezes on the plumb bob loading screen, sometimes it just white-outs, but I never get far enough to play the game.

I do have a lot of CC, but It's all the same CC that I was using the morning that the game last worked. Is there a quick way to check mods? I have like, 20,000 CC items, I'm losing the will to cyber live with this game as it is, going through each mod is going to finish me off lol.

Nicisoxx​  The 50/50 method is the fastest way to test, by which I mean it (technically a binary sort) is mathematically the most efficient.  Even 20,000 files can be sorted through in 15 tests total provided only one is broken, although that's not an assumption I'd make after a major update.

https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Finding_Problem_Custom_Content#The_50.25_Method

I haven't seen a whole lot of posts about broken mods and cc after this patch, so it's possible that your cc is fine and the problem is a mod.  So I'd either start with mods, or test all your cc at once in case it is in fact all still compatible.