Forum Discussion

Seasoned Newcomer

Re: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running

Hello,

I previously had a cracked version of The Sims 4 installed on my system. I have completely removed it and installed the official licensed version via the EA App.

However, every time I try to launch the game, I get the error:

“Unable to start: The Sims 4 is already running.”

I have already tried the following steps:

Uninstalled and reinstalled the EA App
Terminated all EA-related processes via Task Manager and Command Prompt
Deleted all folders related to EA and The Sims 4 under AppData, ProgramData, Documents, and Prefetch
Cleared all registry entries with CCleaner
Deleted lastsession.lock and cache files under the EA App directories
Performed a clean boot disabling all third-party services and startup programs

Despite all these steps, the EA App still believes the game is running even though it is not. There are no processes like TS4_x64.exe or EALauncher.exe in the background, and nothing appears in Task Manager.

I would appreciate any help or official guidance to resolve this issue. Thank you in advance.

2 Replies

Jpopper07
Rising Rookie
10 months ago
I've had this issue for a while now....I have a seperate link on my desktop for TS4....when I get this error while trying to open through the EA app, I just double-click the desktop TS4 link, and then I will get the error again that the sims is already running (in EA app), and after a few seconds TS4 window usually comes up behind the EA app interface. If it doesn't I just keep trying to open it using the desktop shortcut. Hope this helps you.
Croi10191
Rising Novice
1 month ago
This can be caused if you made an mklink and the folder destination changed. It should be the folder with this symbol under it (normally white square with blue arrow)↗️.
For example if I created a mklink so the folder in my C drive would go to my D drive instead, delete the C drive folder and re-establish the link in the cmd prompt.
If this doesn't work then I'm not sure.