Sims 3 won't launch, Origin says membership expired but I never had one.

@nycbigl  Do you have two-factor authentication on your account?  If you had it as of October 31st of last year, you were automatically given a free month of Origin Access Basic through an EA promotion.  People didn't have a choice to opt in; it just appeared on their accounts.  It's possible that Origin also "upgraded" your copy of Sims 3 to the Access version automatically, without asking you.  (This feature could have been designed better.)

You can try to fix the issue yourself.  Open your Origin library, right-click on the Sims 3 icon, and select Uninstall.  Among the choices, you should see the option to revert your game to the non-Access version.  This works at least some of the time, although it's more reliable for newer games.  Be sure to back up your Sims 3 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts before trying this, just in case something weird happens.

If reverting your game doesn't work, or you don't have the option, you'll need to contact EA customer support to get this sorted out.  Fortunately, since this is an annoyingly common issue, a support rep should have no trouble fixing it for you.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

Hello puzzleaddict and Happy New Year!

I am the only person on my Origin EA account. Plus I use only one email for this very same account.

My jaw and heart just dropped when you suggested to uninstall and reinstall my Sims game. That would mean I would also have to install all of my stuff packs, world and expansion packs plus all of the store items I have purchased over the 7 years and all of the CCs. Last time I reinstalled my game it took me one full day to reinstall the game with the expansion, stuff pack and worlds. Then the next day was spent downloading the store contents. And then the following few days was the CCs. No fun. LOL!

Anyway, I am in DM with EA Help on Facebook right now. They said, "This is an unusual one." So lets see if they can help.

@nycbigl  I didn't mean to actually uninstall the game; among the options is a simple "revert" that doesn't require truly uninstalling anything.  And by the way, the point of moving your game folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts is that if you do ever need to uninstall, you can just put the folder back after a reinstall.  All your saves, installed worlds, custom content, etc. would be right back where they were before you uninstalled.  But like I said, a real uninstall isn't necessary here.

I hope support can sort this out for you.  It's not unusual at all for someone who's had Access on their account to have a game blocked.  And having two-factor authentication is pretty common these days.

Happy New Year to you too.

EA Facebook Help is working with me right now. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it will all be OK. 🙂

It they still have issues on their end then I will seriously take your advice to mind. Glad to hear that I wouldn't have to reinstall everything all over again. That would save me from pulling my hair out of my head. LOL! 😉

YES! EA Help on Facebook helped me to fix it. My game is up and running again! WOOHOO!

After he checked out my account and worked on it on his end for quite a while, he then told me to not only clean out the caches and restart the PC like I usually do but this time to go to...

"Origin game repair and see if that helps. You can do this by going to your game library, right-clicking on The Sims 3 and selecting the repair option."

And that did it! It's finally up and running. YEAH! 🙌

I had no idea that repair option even existed. You learn something new everyday. LOL! 😉

Thank you EA Help on Facebook!!! You Rock!