Hey everyone,
Just before the most recent Quality of Life update, my arrow keys and WASD stopped working to control the camera. I've tried repairing the game, removing all mods, and switching the camera from Sims 3 to Sims 4 and back again with no luck. The only thing I haven't tried is a complete uninstall.
Also, no LEs or UI errors have popped up at all.
If anyone has any suggestions, it'd be much appreciated!
chugpug30 Do all the other keys work? Do other keys appear to have the WASD functions, as in, the game might be reading the wrong keys? And does it help to play in windowed mode rather than fullscreen? Please restart the game after switching modes and before testing.
Additionally, if you use any apps that come with overlays—Steam, Discord, that kind of thing—disable the app(s) before you play. Disable the EA App in-game overlay as well, under Settings > Application.
All of the other keys are working appropriately, and it doesn't appear that any other keys have the WASD functions. I tried switching from windowed mode to fullscreen with restarts in between, with no luck. I also made sure to disable any overlays from EA and Discord (I don't have Steam). No change after everything
chugpug30 Is it possible your graphics driver's control software uses these keys for something? You wouldn't necessarily see an overlay, although it might be useful to disable the overlay anyway. And regardless, check the key bindings within the software and reassign as necessary.
If that's not the issue, try playing in a clean boot. This isn't a clean install of Windows, just a way to disable background services that might be interfering, in this case capturing the keystrokes. Here's how:
The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run. Disable the rest as described.
When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled. If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.
Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.
If this helps, you can selectively reenable services until you find the culprit, then either leave that disabled or (if it belongs to an app you want to keep using) let me know what it is so we can try to fix the underlying issue.
I gave both of your suggestions a try, checking the key bindings and the clean boot, but neither seemed to work. No key bindings with those keys were found, but I did find a driver that needed to be updated. But even with that, no luck so far.
(Also, thank you for your help so far, I really appreciate it)
chugpug30 Do you happen to have any files in ConfigOverride, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4? If so, please remove them.
If that's not the issue, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of Sims 4, as described here:
📓[GUIDE] [PC] How to Clean-uninstall Sims 4 | EA Forums - 12636503
You might as well uninstall and reinstall the EA App the same way, since it doesn't take much extra time.
My camera's been acting incredibly wonky in game. My arrow keys and WASD keys can no longer control it, and the free camera is more sensitive to the movement of my mousepad than ever. This issue has been going on since the new update. I usually use the arrow and (<) (>) keys to control my camera, so not having access to them has made it very hard to enjoy playing the game.
I did have a variety of mods added into the game, but I've since removed them. The issue still persists with no mods in the game.
I've tried repairing the game, removing and resetting mods, clearing the game's cache, changing the camera settings from Sims 3 to Sims 4., and even playing in different saves to make sure mine aren't corrupted. No matter what, it's still there, and it's extremely frustrating to play around.
cloudiewaffles I've merged your post with another thread about the same issue. Please try the suggestions earlier in the thread.
I'd also like to see a dxdiag, in case there's any relevant similarity between your system and the other player's. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.
chugpug30 If the clean uninstall/reinstall doesn't help, please post a dxdiag as well.
Very sorry for the late reply- here is the dxdiag. I performed a hard reset on my game and the issue has persisted. My arrow keys DID work for a very short time in game when I opened it, but the issue returned.
It seems as if the functions are working, but only if I press the two correlating buttons at the same time (ie: pressing the < and > keys at the same time allows for the camera to be turned but not when each key is pressed separately). I'll have to do more testing on this.
cloudiewaffles That is strange for sure. Does this laptop have a touchscreen or support for a pen or stylus? If so, try disabling the feature(s), either in Windows settings or in the Device Manager (Windows key-X to open it). The latter is more invasive, for worse and often for better.
