[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Game Data Missing or Damaged
Overview
jump to: Workarounds
Unable to start:
Cannot start because game data is missing or damaged. If you have Mods installed please remove them and try again. If not, please repair or reinstall the game via Origin.
[de4ee14f:29f00e76:00000000:4b0d852b]
[Ignore the mention of Origin; this error message has not been updated.]
This error can be caused by outdated or incompatible mods or custom content, as indicated in the text. So the first and simplest step is to remove your Mods folder and try again. If this works, great, you can now sort through your mods and cc to find the source of the error. You may want to use the 50/50 method if you have a lot of content to test. You can also check out @luthienrising's current "Broken/Obsolete and Updated Sims 4 Mods" thread, pinned to the top of the Game and Mod/CC Issues forum.
This error can also be caused by a corrupt install of Sims 4, or the game being blocked from accessing the user folder. If the problem is not mods or cc, some testing may be required to identify the cause.
The idea here is to first narrow down the source of the problem, then identify and fix it. Please try these workarounds in order—they're listed from least to most time-consuming.
jump to: Repair the game
jump to: Pause OneDrive syncing
jump to: Clean user folder
jump to: New admin Windows account
jump to: Reinstalling the game
Some of these may be not be a convenient fix given your current setup. Where applicable, these sections also list alternate approaches, for example how to try to resolve a problem in your current Windows account when Sims 4 will only work in the new account. However, it's important to test each workaround as written in order to confirm or eliminate each potential source of error.
If the game's program files become corrupted, a repair may fix the problem. First, clear the EA App's cache:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
If you've installed through the EA App, open its game library, click Sims 4, and select Manage > Repair.
For a Steam install, open your Steam library, right-click the Sims 4 tile, and select Properties > Local files > Verify the integrity of the game files.
OneDrive can lock up the Sims 4 user folder, or any folder it's automatically syncing, for various reasons. The easiest way to diagnose this is to temporarily pause syncing. Right-click the cloud icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to see the option:
If this helps, the underlying issue is OneDrive, and you may want or need to adjust your settings accordingly. You can choose which folders to sync, stop OneDrive from syncing your Sims 4 folder or all of Documents automatically, or get rid of OneDrive entirely. Please see this guide, specifically the "I don't want OneDrive to sync my files" and "I want to get rid of OneDrive" sections, for further help:
Testing with a clean user folder, otherwise known as a factory reset, means temporarily removing all user data. This ensures that nothing from your existing folder is preventing Sims 4 from loading. Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, please see the OneDrive section above.
Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game. Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save.
If this works, you can start moving your content from the old Sims 4 folder to the new one, testing each time to make sure the game still loads. In each case, please move the files only, not the folder they're in, for example move the individual Tray files, not the entire Tray folder. Where the game has created a new file or folder, it's best to use that rather than your old copy. For further reading about the contents of the user folder and what you might want to preserve, please see this:
https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/user-files-explained/
While moving over your data, if and when you see the "already running" error again, you'll know that one of the files you just moved is the problem, and you can split and retest that batch until you find out which one. For mods and custom content, the 50/50 method can make the process much more efficient. A single file or folder that prevents the game from launching is not recoverable; you'll need to delete it, or in the case of mods or cc, find an updated, compatible version.
It's possible that the problem is caused by a setting or broken permissions in your main Windows account, and the fastest way to test this theory is to create a new account. It must have admin rights (not a standard user account), and it must be local, as in, not connected to your Microsoft account.
To create a new account, open Windows Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click "Add someone else to this PC" (under Other users, not Your family), click "I don't have this person's sign-in information," then "Add a user without a Microsoft account." Choose the username and password, answer some security questions, and you'll see the new account. Click it and select "Change account type" to make it an Administrator account if it's not already. It should say "Administrator - Local account" when you're done:
Click ctrl-alt-delete, select Switch user, and sign into the new account. Then open the EA App (and Steam or the Epic launcher if applicable) and try to launch Sims 4. You shouldn't need to reinstall anything. Your saves and other user data won't be available, but that's fine for the purpose of this test.
If Sims 4 works in the new account, it means the problem is contained to your old account. You can simply continue playing in the new account if you want. For any saves or other user data you'd like to transfer to the new account, sign into the old account again and copy the relevant files to C:\Users\Public. This folder is accessible from all user accounts; you can grab the files from there once you're in the new account.
If you would like to continue playing in the old account, here are additional steps you can take:
Confirm that the Documents directory is in the correct location
If the above workarounds don't help, a simple uninstall/reinstall may not fix the problem either. Instead, please clean-uninstall Sims 4 and the EA App. (It should not be necessary to uninstall Steam or the Epic launcher if you happen to use either one, but the EA App should be removed in any case.) You will not lose access to any DLC you own. For Sims 4:
- Put aside your Sims 4 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts and rename it to something that doesn't include the words "Sims 4."
- Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here.
- Launch Revo, select Sims 4 from the list, and click Uninstall.
- Cancel the system restore point; you don't need it and it occupies extra space.
- Once the game is uninstalled, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan.
- Review the list, in case there's something you want to save; otherwise, click Select All, and then Delete.
- Close Revo, and restart your computer.
For the EA App:
- Launch Revo, select the App, and click Uninstall.
- Cancel the system restore point.
- The EA App may open a window. Click Uninstall, then in the Revo window, click Moderate under Scanning modes, and click Scan.
- Revo will present a list of registry entries. Click Select All, then Delete: you don't need or want to preserve these entries.
- For the leftover files and folders, click Select All, review the list and deselect anything you'd like to keep (this is unlikely, but it's worth checking), click Delete, and you're done.
- Close Revo, and restart your computer.
Install the EA App, then create a new folder into which you'll install Sims 4. The folder should be on the root level of the drive of your choice, for example C:\Games is fine, but not C:\Program Files\Games.
If you use a third-party antivirus, disable it before reinstalling the EA App, and don't reenable it until you've tried to launch Sims 4 at least once. As long as you don't do anything else while reinstalling, your computer should be safe. If the game works, set exceptions for TS4_DX9_x64.exe (if you've set Sims 4 to use DirectX 9) and/or TS4_x64.exe (for DX11) as well as EADesktop.exe.
Test the game once before restoring any user data as well. If it works, you can slowly add back your saves and other data from the old Sims 4 folder, the one you renamed prior to uninstalling the game. If and when Sims 4 stops loading again, remove the last group of files you added, and split and test progressively smaller batches until you find the culprit.
Where the game has created a new file or folder, it's best to use that rather than your old copy. For further reading about the content of the user folder and what you might want to preserve, please see this:
https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/user-files-explained/
If none of these workarounds fixes the problem, please post in this thread asking for further help. Let me know whether Sims 4 ever ran in the new Windows account, even temporarily.
Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post. Hit 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 in this thread. Be sure to use Reply, not Quick Reply, to enable the option to attach files.
