❗️ [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 does not launch in macOS Sierra
After the November 12 update, I cannot get Sims 4 to launch on my Mac. Specs:
MacBook Pro 14,3 (15-inch, 2017)
macOS Sierra (version 10.12.6)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-7820HQ)
16 GB RAM 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB
AMD Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB
512 GB SSD; 67.5 GB available
With a clean game folder or otherwise fresh options.ini in place, the right half of my screen would go dark, and the left half would show an enlarged version of what the right half of the desktop would normally look like. With options.ini set to open the game in windowed mode, the TS4 window hung on a white screen indefinitely. In either case, the computer did not respond to cmd-optn-esc, and if I tried to tab or click on something else, it eventually restarted itself. When I once left my laptop alone for 12 minutes, it was still frozen trying to load TS4, and I had to hold down the power button to shut down.
I tried these troubleshooting steps, none of which worked:
- Removing the Sims 4 game folder from Documents\Electronic Arts
- Running the Origin reset tool
- Doing a clean uninstall/reinstall of Origin
- Disabling Origin in-game both globally and for TS4
- Turning off every single accessible option in Origin (various notifications, web helper, etc.)
- Launching while the laptop was not connected to the internet
- Editing options.ini to match the settings from when TS4 worked last week
- Resetting NVRAM via key command during startup (not convinced it worked)
- Resetting NVRAM via Terminal command
- Forcing the laptop to only use the AMD card via energy settings (thanks to @Bluebellflora for this and the NVRAM suggestions)
- Installing into a new admin user account that had never seen the game
- I also booted into safe mode, which produced this fun error:
That was probably just because the Metal driver didn't load in safe mode, but still not what I wanted to see.
Every time I checked, the game did spawn a clean folder, but the Origin last played date never updated to reflect my attempts to load the game.
For what it's worth, my graphics card itself is likely not defective: This Mac is Bootcamped, the game loaded normally in Windows, and GPU-Z says the card performed as expected.
- Marking this as solution for visibility, we are NOT considering this issue fixed - Edited:
Thanks for the detailed reports and the information you have been sharing here so far, knowing what you have tried and what systems it's happening on is very helpful!
At the moment, if you are experiencing this issue, a solution would be upgrading your macOS version to High Sierra or newer:
- High Sierra - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208969
- Mojave - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210190
- Catalina - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
- Big Sur - through the App Store if compatible with your computer
SpoilerHi everyone,Thanks for the detailed reports and the information you have been sharing here so far, knowing what you have tried so far and what systems it's happening on is very helpful! Thanks also for trying different troubleshooting steps, and for sharing that updating your macOS helps.We are investigating this, if you are still experiencing this issue, would you share Origin logs with us to help with the investigation? If so, please, follow these steps to get them:SpoilerIf you have been using Origin since you last experienced this freeze, please, open Origin and try to open the game (I know this is going to make you have to shut down your computer, sorry about that)Turn on your computer again and open a Finder windowHit Cmd+Shift+G in the Finder and enter ~/Library/Navigate to Application Support/Origin/Logs to find the Origin logsRight click on the Logs folder and select CompressUpload the file to a file sharing website like Google Drive or OneDriveSend me a direct message with the link to the file. Please, also let me know what issue the error logs are for (especially if you haven't posted in this thread!)
For anyone who hasn't already, if you are getting that exact error, the following information would also be helpful:Have you installed The Sims 4 Legacy Edition?:Your Mac:macOS:Graphics card:Processor:
Thanks once again!-Mai
