Stuck on 2% 'preparing' while downloading

I'm currently having this issue too. Have you gotten yours to work?

Unfortunately not. It's been so frustrating but hopefully there'll be a fix

I hope so I just bought an external drive so my game would actually function and I run into this I'm very frustrated as well

Same here! I've got a brand new external SSD with plenty of free storage.

I also have to delete the folder that the download makes for the game that's 109GB that it's allocated, but nothing inside other than empty folders

evinxe 

1. Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.  
2. Enter or copy and paste "%temp%" (without the quotation marks) in the new window > press "ENTER”.  
3. Now Windows Explorer should take you to the “C:\Users\>Yoursername<\AppData\Local\Temp" folder.
4. Delete all files and folders in this folder.  
   (If some files or folders cannot be deleted, restart the PC and try again).  

Then:  

1. Make sure that EA app and Steam are closed.  
2. Go here and download "Revo Uninstaller". (The Freeware version, Portable version also works.)  
3. Run "Revo" > Uninstall EA app. (All games remain installed!)
4. At the end of the main uninstall, Revo will ask you which cleaning method you want to use. > Select "Advanced" > Browse.  
5. If "Remaining registration contracts were found" is displayed > Select all > Delete > Next.
6. If "Remaining data and folders" is displayed > Select all (make sure that the "Origin Games" or “EA Games” folder is not in the list.) > Delete.  
7. Restart the PC.  
8. Download EA app from here. (Even if you already have the exe.)  
9. Run the "EAappInstaller.exe" as administrator. (Right-click on the "EAappInstaller.exe" > Run as administrator).  
10. Right-click on the "EAapp.exe" shortcut on the desktop > Run as administrator.  
11. Test the download. 

I was hoping for an easy dumb fix like I’m pressing the wrong button or something

Bunnychi20 

I am afraid that, if you have enough space on your hard drive, there is no easy fix here.