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Meraidd's avatar
Meraidd
4 years ago

Playing offline without updating and have access to all my packs?

This has bugged me for many months, and I'm finally just going to ask since I can't find exactly what I'm looking for anywhere else. Everytime the game updates, I keep Origin offline and play in offline mode for about a month, sometimes two. I have auto-updates off. I do this because I have a LOT of mods that I have to update and I like to give the mod creators some time before I go and update them, plus it's a task and a half so I put it off for as long as I can.

But every now and then, somehow, I get dinged. I'll open Origin, set it to offline, launch Sims 4, load.... only to find my packs are not being recognized as installed (I have all of them except Batuu and now most of the kits). This has been said a lot, but it really does suck not to be able to play a game I spent hundreds on, offline. I really don't like that it seems my only option is to update my game in order to access my packs.

Anyway, I have tried clearing my caches through ProgramData and AppData, I can launch the game online, restart, and launch it offline. I can't launch the game directly through the Sims4.exe file without it opening Origin (which prompts me to update the game). Is it even possible now for me to play offline, without updating the game, and have all my packs working ingame? Even if I have to go into some technical stuff and mess with the files, I'd really rather do that than do the mod-update process.

I hope my problem was clear. I couldn't find other threads that had the exact issue with the packs not being recognized, just a lot of discussions about logging in online once, restarting, and then using it offline. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

pc

1 Reply

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Meraidd  This is, unfortunately, something Origin does from time to time.  I don't actually know whether it's a small glitch, perhaps due to a file getting corrupted, or a deliberate anti-piracy measure.  (Imagine installing the game on a friend's computer and then letting them play indefinitely.  EA definitely doesn't want that.)  Either way, once this has happened, all you can do is sign in again and let Origin verify your ownership of your content.

    One thing you can try, the next time this happens, is telling Origin to repair the game.  I don't know whether this requires it to update as well, but it's possible you'd get the repair first, and the update would follow afterwards, which you could cancel.

    If you launch the game from its exe while your computer is offline, Origin should recognize the lack of connection and put itself in offline mode.  This worked fine the last time I tried it.  Origin might not load properly, but to play Sims 4, you'd only need to sign in before the game started to load.  This does not work, however, if you've cleared Origin's cache: your login data is stored there, so you'd need to go online at least once after that to allow Origin to retrieve that info.

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