Re: Connect a child/underage account to my account as a family member

So how the issue is marked as Solved if there's not way to add Sims 4 to my child account library? What is the solution?!

@Auffahrend  The post is marked as solved so that the information it contains has increased visibility.  The solution is to contact EA support, as described, and ask that the game be added to the child's account.

Unfortunately, their solution doesn't work.

I tried reaching out to support on Twitter, explaining that I have an adult and a child account and unable to add Sims to the child account, posting them handles for both accounts and asking to add the game to the child account manually. It took them a day to send me an irrelevant link on how to create a child account. No more traction at all.

Howdy!

I ran into the same issue recently and haven't gotten anywhere with EA support via chat.  They kept sending info about redeeming codes from physical boxed copies, creating child accounts, etc and didn't seem to understand the limitations of free to play in this case.  I linked them this thread and quoted the response, but they had nothing to offer with adding it manually.

Would love some help if possible.  

Hi @yungimoto,

Are you able to reach our Twitter help team over at @EAHelp? I've just shared the steps on resolving this issue with them and they should be able to sort this for you now.

Ok, was able to get it working after speaking with twitter help, and then support chat a 2nd time.  Twitter person was aware of the problem/fix, but said contacting support might be quicker since they were having twitter issues.  2nd support chat person at first told me the same thing, that they couldn't manually add a game to a child's account.  After some time, the fix ended up being they transferred the game license from my account to my child's.  That removed it from my library, but then I was able to re-add it through regular means.

The only weird thing was after they transferred, it didn't show up in the ea app.  So, I needed to install origin, and then was able to see that it had transferred successfully, and my child was able to play on their account.  A few days later and it has now showed up in their library on the EA app as well, so seems to just be lag in that case.

Thanks for the help!

@EA_Cade,

I was very happy to stumble upon this thread - my daughter got a laptop for Christmas and was looking to start playing Sims on PC. We already own it on Xbox, and we knew we'd have to buy all the expansion packs anew but were excited to see that the base game for PC is free. But as the OP pointed out, I couldn't find a way to get the game on her underage account using the PC EA launcher app.

I'm curious if you could post the exact steps for how to request EA Support to add Sims 4 to the underage account's library. I don't do twitter and I was trying to submit a "support ticket" or whatever through help.ea.com but I couldn't figure out what options to choose to get me to a place where I could type in my request - maybe because it's Christmas Day and support is understandably limited.

I imagine many others will encounter this same problem and stumble upon this thread as I did - so if there is a step-by-step procedure for reaching out to EA Support for this specific issue, putting it in the forum or the EA Knowledge Base would hopefully save both customers and EA support staff a lot of headaches!

Thanks!

Sorry for replying to my own post before getting a response, but I noticed I'm going to have a similar issue buying the expansion packs for PC.

When I try to buy one of the expansion packs for PC, I choose "EA App for Windows". This asks me to login to my EA account. I can't login as my daughter's underage account because I have to use an account with an e-mail address - her underage account only has an EA ID that is associated with my e-mail address. Logging in with just the EA ID is supported in the EA App but not on the website when buying games. So I can't buy the game for her directly - looks like I'd have to buy it as me and then reach out to EA Support and ask them if they could transfer it just like I need to do with the base game.

I was hoping that when I bought it I would be provided a code that I could then use when she logs in to her underage account using the EA App (as redeeming codes is about the only thing underage accounts can do, it seems). But that doesn't seem possible. Googling "buying sims 4 expansion packs as gifts" returns a bunch of links that make references to Origin gifting options and wishlists that don't appear to exist anymore. Clicking on links in those instructions just takes you back to EA's website.

So if I want to buy expansion packs for my daughter's underage account, is my only option to do it through brick and mortar stores or online places like Amazon where I will presumably get a code? Or is there a way to do it through EA that I'm missing? EA has some great sales on expansion packs that I'd love to take advantage of, but I see no way of getting those purchases to my daughter's underage account.

Thanks again in advance for any help or advice anyone can offer...

I contacted support and they told me that they cannot add SIMS 4 to a child account. "Thank you so much for holding, team informed me that game can only be added through code in child account and we don't provide the codes." 

I went ahead and attempted to contact @ea_help through twitter to see if I can get some assistance.

Hi @EA_Cade,

i have the same problem, i chatted to support and they added The Sims 4 to my child account but i can't see the game in the EA app.

can you help me?

I’ve spoken with two different support members and the second said since it’s an age restriction, they won’t add it to his account. I’m very disappointed. I’ve been on chat for two hours with different members, and no one will assist.

That seems pretty inconsistent. Hoping someone from EA chimes in. It's possible that different support centers have been told different information on how to handle these requests.

I did follow up with EA support about buying expansion packs for the underage account if you are ever able to get it added to their library - according to the rep I spoke with this time, there's no way to buy games directly from EA and get a code that you can redeem on the underage account. So underage accounts can only buy games from other retailers that provide digital codes. Which means I guess EA also has no way of gifting games to other people when you buy directly through them. Weird.

I just contacted EA support, using the Live Chat at help.ea.com, and they told me that they cannot manually grant access to content for a linked child account. So it seems that there is currently no way to allow a child to play The Sims 4.

I've attached the transcript from my Live Chat.

Update: I also contacted @EAHelp on Twitter and got a similar message: due to an "issue going on", they can't grant access to games without product codes.

It does seem like it's pot-luck as to whether or not support are able to assist with this issue.  My attempt was successful.  I started a chat session at https://help.ea.com/ and they were able to transfer the SIM4 product from my account (which I had just downloaded for free) to my child's account.  The whole process took about 30 minutes. 

Unfortunately I have a second child so we'll see if I get lucky twice...

This is very much based on who wants to do it or not. Now all the sudden it can't be done at all because of the cursing in Sims4 (which we know is not the case) and this was told to me by a support rep "It is a company policy to protect the kids from rational language usage in the online world". So letting it be known that EA is not transferring Sims4 anymore to Child Accounts linked to the parent account. I was actually told to create a Tenn account for an underage child and then purchase the game. I should not have to go this route for a game that is FREE. EA you all have to do better for the amount of money spent on Sims4. 

Has this been fixed yet or is it still an issue?  My daughter wants to play sims 4 on her own computer and I would buy the packs if the base game works.

Your best bet is to login to the EA app with your account and download SIMS4.  Then contact EA support and ask for them to transfer it to your child's account.  Worst that can happen is they say no (plus the upset child of course). . hakihea and others obviously didn't get a good result but I was successful one both attempts. 

Yeah,, problem s not solved.

You would think EA would have realised that this is going to be a problem.

Makes you wonder what their strategy is because annoying future users isn't a good one

I've just contacted support through help.ea.com and been told that adding the sims to my daughter's account manually is not possible by support and that my only option is to BUY the game from a retailer so that I can get a code to add the game to the account. Absolutely ridiculous.

I even quoted your message @EA_Cade and still got nowhere. So either you've given out false info here or your support staff don't know what they're doing.

Edit: Posted this before reading the last couple of pages. My bad...clearly it's very hit and miss with support. They appear to now be doing a transfer of the game from my account to my daughters after asking me a string of questions.

Maybe I'm just blind but I can't figure out how to "reach out to an advisor". I tried "start a new case" but it just takes me back to https://help.ea.com/en/help-home/

@NanoCyto  Try this link:

https://help.ea.com/en/help-contact-us/?product=the-sims-4&platform=&topic=missing-game&category=manage-my-account&subCategory=find-missing-game

Make sure you're signed into an EA site (this one is fine) before clicking the link and that the location in the lower-right corner of the browser window is set to U.S. or U.K.

This is ridiculous! From a chat session on help.ea.com just now...

"I would like to inform you that Sims for is free for an adult users and in order to access on the child account you need to redeem the code on the child EA account."

"but how do I get a code?"

"For the child account you need to purchase it"

after a bit more toing and froing including verifying my ownership of the account i'm then told
 
"Unfortunately due to the age restriction policy we can not transfer the game on your child account sadly I have to denied the request.
"The minimum age required to access the game is 13 years old and your daughter age is 12 which is below the minimum age require, unfortunately I could not proceed with your request."

How many parents are simply falsifying DOBs to get round this ridiculous unnecessary roadblock to obtaining the game for an under 13s account?

Edit to add: Really does show luck of the draw with the advisors... tried again a little after that attempt having found proof the game is rated 12, and another advisor happily transferred the game over, still at the moment appears to be listed within my account but no biggy if i have to re acquire


This has been close to 2 hours of my time to sort this, should be much much more straight forward, hopefully the process for Sims 5 will be much improved and likely the reason it's such a ballache for Sims4 is cos more resources are going into dev of the new version.