Bluebellflora
Thank you for responding!
I first noticed the issue after installing **bleep** (around mid-July), but it only happened occasionally, and I was always able to get back into the save. About a week ago, I also installed Basemental Drugs, and that's when the issue escalated to nearly every loading screen and wouldn't let me back into the saves that had crashed.
However, I've since completely removed all mods and custom content, uninstalled and reinstalled the game, and tested a newly generated clean folder with a brand-new save, but the same issue still occurs in that completely vanilla game, even when all packs are deactivated.
I believe I was playing the game without issue after the most recent Sims 4 update, but I don't remember for certain. The problem was already occurring on macOS 15.7.7, and I later updated to macOS 26.6 in an attempt to resolve it.
Regarding the separate macOS user account, I skipped the steps for accessibility, signing in to an Apple Account (so there's no iCloud sharing), screen time settings, Apple Intelligence, Siri, and Touch ID. I wasn't prompted for anything else, and left the account's default settings unchanged. I didn't transfer any Sims files into that account. I only launched the game there and let it create a completely new Sims 4 folder and save.
Thank you for letting me know about Safe Mode. I won't do that again.
Regarding Privacy & Security, I had reached out to EA in their live chat for help with this issue, and one of the troubleshooting tasks they gave me was to manually allow full disk access to both the Sims 4 app and the EA app (I believe it had previously only been allowed to the Sims 4). That's the only privacy setting I changed.
For diagnostics, I started Apple Diagnostics on the Mac and ran the available hardware checks. The logic board and memory checks both passed, as did display, sensors, software, and Wi-Fi.
Please let me know if you need any other information, and thank you so much for your help!
