Sims 4 crashing and freezing on Mac (no cc, mods, etc.)

This has been happening to me but on Mac, the CAS part too! I read on a diff thread (https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/FAQ-Sims-4-Crashes/td-p/3586547) that an issue could be related to origin being online. I had realized I switched back to being online during play recently and that's kind of when the issues began. I've repaired the game several times, and I don't know why going online would be such an issue.

Hello! I have a Macbook 2017 with macOS Monterey 12.4 and play the Sims on that via Origin. I had made a post about this on the Technical Issues - PC server but after publishing it I cannot find it, I think the post got marked as spam. My game has no cc, no mods. I have not upgraded to macOS Ventura 13.

Long Explanation of Issue: A few days ago I was playing with Nova Curious from the computer scenario (which btw all my tasks have checkmarks but the scenario won't update or resolve and I don't want to delete it bc I've made so much progress and want to see the end result but I digress) for quite a few hours and then decided to make a new family on the sims. I spent maybe an hour and a half in CAS and had switched to online during the making of the family to upload a sim to use for genetics and then deleted them. Shortly after exiting case and beginning gameplay, my game froze and wouldn't get rid of the little spinning rainbow circle. I had to force quit the game. I was so upset about having lost the family I just spent so long making I didn't re-enter the game. Two days later, I reopened the game to play during a road trip, so my game was offline. I played with Nova Curious for a good three hours. No crashes. 

Then today, I decided to make a new family in sims, so I spent about 2 hours making them. During CAS, I went back online to upload the family to the gallery. Again, shortly after beginning gameplay my game froze with the spinning rainbow circle as my mouse again, and I was forced to force quit the game. More upset now that I had potentially lost another family I spent a lot of time on (I didn't thankfully but besides the point), I repaired the game and reopened it. After a longer than usual loading screen, I was doing the gameplay again for less than a minute and the game crashed. I restarted my computer and repaired the game again. Once again, after a long loading screen, game crashed after less than a minute of gameplay. I tried opening the game one more time, but the same thing happened. I went looking for answers, and didn't really find any. I read this thread: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/FAQ-Sims-4-Crashes/td-p/3586547 where I read about Startup crashes, defined as "These crashes either occur right away on loading or within the first 5 minutes." Under that area, a few possible causes were listed, and one of them was "Server Hiccups --> Put Origin/Game in offline mode."

I decided to play again offline. This time, the loading screen was about as long as it usually is, and I made it through the first minute of gameplay without the game crashing. Then, after about twenty minutes, the spinning rainbow circle was back and I was once again forced to force quit. I'm glad I got further without having an issue, but it's still making the game unplayable. I think this might be an issue with the servers, maybe related to the fact that windows are moving to the EA app instead of origin and that somehow impacting origin servers for mac players, or it could be unrelated to the move but I still think it's an issue with the servers. I will put two of my crash reports below (to prevent being marked as spam), one from being online and the most recent one that happened after I went offline. Any help is greatly appreciated!

TLDR: I have an issue of the game crashing after gameplay or freezing so I'd have to force quit it. After reading this thread: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/FAQ-Sims-4-Crashes/td-p/3586547 I read about Startup crashes ("These crashes either occur right away on loading or within the first 5 minutes"). Under it a few possible causes were listed, and one of them was "Server Hiccups --> Put Origin/Game in offline mode". I realized the freezing and game crashes during gameplay were occuring after I'd gone online in CAS for gallery reasons. I couldn't figure out the issue, and played offline. For about 20 minutes the game didn't crash, which had been happening within a minute of gameplay every time I re-entered the game, but then it froze and I had to force quit. I'm not sure how to resolve this, I think it's a server issue for sure because I saw a few ppl were having this issue as well.

The crash report from my last play today before I went offline (aka was online):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><report><version>2</version><sessionid>15a6ee6e091ab32363856a21</sessionid><type>crash</type><sku>ea.maxis.sims4.15.mac</sku><createtime>2022-11-29 02:18:42</createtime><buildsignature>Local.Unknown.Unknown.1.93.146.1220-1.300.000.149.Release</buildsignature><systemconfig></systemconfig><categoryid> 0xfe1f40</categoryid><stack> 0xfe1f40 0x3dfd</stack><threads></threads><screenshot></screenshot><memdump></memdump><contextdata>Client Session Time: 481.32<br />Num Save Errors: 0<br />Num Load Errors: 0<br />Current Game State: 0xbe7da869<br />Game Sub-state: 0x1020b807<br />LoadingScreenActiveFlag: 0<br />Origin Version: 10,5,116,52122<br />Modded: False<br />SystemInfo: Mac OS X Version 10.16 (Build 21F79) GPU: Intel HD Graphics 615 macOS Metal driver 0.0.0.0<br />(baseaddr) 0x10da49000,'The Sims 4' 0x7ff81496e000,'libsystem_platform.dylib'(/baseaddr)</contextdata></report>

The crash report from my last play today AFTER I went offline:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><report><version>2</version><sessionid>6fba1bf1aa5a73fc638566b4</sessionid><type>crash</type><sku>ea.maxis.sims4.15.mac</sku><createtime>2022-11-29 01:59:27</createtime><buildsignature>Local.Unknown.Unknown.1.93.146.1220-1.300.000.149.Release</buildsignature><systemconfig></systemconfig><categoryid> 0xfe1f40</categoryid><stack> 0xfe1f40 0x3dfd</stack><threads></threads><screenshot></screenshot><memdump></memdump><contextdata>Client Session Time: 203.20<br />Num Save Errors: 0<br />Num Load Errors: 0<br />Current Game State: 0xbe7da869<br />Game Sub-state: 0x1020b807<br />LoadingScreenActiveFlag: 0<br />Origin Version: 10,5,116,52122<br />Modded: False<br />SystemInfo: Mac OS X Version 10.16 (Build 21F79) GPU: Intel HD Graphics 615 macOS Metal driver 0.0.0.0<br />(baseaddr) 0x10c7cc000,'The Sims 4' 0x7ff81496e000,'libsystem_platform.dylib'(/baseaddr)</contextdata></report>

@smolxbeanx 

Current version of Monterey is 12.6.1. Please update via System Preferences.

Please can you provide more information about your Mac. Instructions on how to do so and what to provide here - http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-4-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4612396/highlight/true#M162

Try a new clean Sims 4 folder and play in that new save for a while to see if the issue persists - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-4-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4612394#M163

There have been on and off reports of crashing and freezing from users with your Intel HD Graphics 615. This is most probably down to the weak performance of the chip after adding more content to the game, whether it be packs/kits or just more households and worlds. Ttry the above two suggestions first though and see how you get on.

@Bluebellflora I've updated to Monterey 12.6.1 

Here are my Mac specifics (attached). I just had my laptop sent to AppleCare about a lil over a month ago for aesthetic clean-up (keyboard, screen) and it came back beginning of November working just fine. I can tell they replaced the entire keyboard, audio, screen, back cover of the screen, but not the bottom of my computer that's screwed in because that's the only part that still has dents.

I already play the game on the lowest available graphic settings. I haven't added any new content since August of this year. Haven't bought any packs, kits, nothing since August. This problem just started. 

I've tried playing on a clean sims 4 folder but it won't really load well past the tutorial stage, and I'm not sure if it's my saves that are the issue. They haven't had any mods or CC in them for over 6 months and I cleared my cache folder. I don't know how any of my save files could get corrupted. I really hope they aren't because I love the saves I have and my last 5 saves of my most recent game file were all when the crashing was occurring.

@smolxbeanx

Ah you have one of the fanless MacBooks. It’s most probably getting far too hot due to the strains the game is putting on the hardware. Over time the parts degrade but this can happen much more quickly if using this model for something as intense as running the game as it has no fan to cool itself down. Instead the operating system throttles power to prevent overheating. This would account for the freezing and crashing. The dual core Intel chip is very underpowered and not designed for any form of gaming.

Why do you think the saves are a problem if you started with a new clean folder? The idea is that none of your user content such as saves etc is loaded. The game should be like new. Did you move your saves into the new folder and try to play those rather than a new clean save?

@Bluebellflora 

Yeah, I usually have a fan i use under it anyways, and it has helped. If the parts are damaged like you're saying, it's weird is now it's like overfrying quickly when I just got it repaired versus over the last 2-3 years I've had this laptop. To be clear, I don't mean that I think the saves are the issue, moreso I meant I don't think they should be corrupted. What also doesn't make sense to me is that this freezing and crashing is just starting after I just got my laptop repaired and they should've inspected the parts inside for damage and replaced those as well, and that in the last few weeks I've had periods where this wasn't an issue. Truly this issue started after I exited the household I was playing and tried to start a new scenario.