Re: Downloads from gallery not working

@roberta591 I am on PC, how would I know if I am using a legacy edition? I usually launch from Steam but I also have Origin.

@sydneyc111  You're clearly not running the Legacy Edition, otherwise you wouldn't even have the option to open the Gallery in-game, much less start a download that then errors out.  What antivirus do you use?  Even with exceptions, a few of them are aggressive enough to block elements of Sims 4, and it's possible that some protection on your user folder is blocking any modifications.  As an experiment, you could try turning off your antivirus completely; as long as you only open Origin and Sims 4 and reenable it after you're done testing, your computer should be safe.

The other thing to try is using a different internet connection, for example setting up your phone as a mobile hotspot.  (Make sure it's using data, not your home wifi.)  If that works, you'll know the issue is something about your usual connection.

I just attempted turning off my antivirus (just the one that comes with Windows), switching my computer to a data hotspot from my phone, and tried opening through Steam and Origin. Still the same result

Do you have your game linked to Origin? Is Origin running when you try to download?

@sydneyc111  Please try running both Steam and Origin as an admin: right-click each one and select "Run as administrator."

If that doesn't help, try downloading into a new Windows user account.  Make it an admin account; the username should contain only letters and numbers, no special characters or accents.  Don't sync with Microsoft or any other services you normally use either.

If that doesn't help either, please post a screenshot of the error you get, as well as a dxdiag; you can attach both directly to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

I can't get a screenshot of the error message, but it only says "Gallery item failed to download. Please try again later."

I'll attach the dxdiag.

@sydneyc111  Your dxdiag lists a few Windows errors, so it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.  If anything installs, restart again.

Did the new user account work?  And I should have asked this before, but have you tried a number of different Gallery items?  If only some produce the issue, then the cause is likely those downloads rather than anything on your computer.

@sydneyc111  You absolutely do not need to install Windows 11, and frankly there's a good argument to be made against doing so, since it could complicate the troubleshooting process further.  If it did end up helping, that would likely be because your current OS is corrupted in some way, but you can address that with a repair install of Windows 10 insteaad.  It's not at that point yet though; creating a new user account is easier and less drastic and takes less time.

Let me know how it goes.

I opened it in another Windows account and it worked! Is there any way for me to make it work on my account? Or am I just doomed to always have to use another account haha

@sydneyc111  This strongly suggests that some user setting is the problem, whether it's one you set deliberately or something like restricted permissions imposed by an antivirus.  We could go through the possibilities on your normal account if you wanted; the place to start is with the Documents directory.  Here's how to reset permissions:

https://winaero.com/reset-ntfs-permissions-windows-10/

In this case, the full path of the Documents folder is this:

C:\Users\[your username]\Documents

and you'd want to reset permissions for its subfolders as well.

There are other ways to troubleshoot too, so if this doesn't work, you still have options.  But at some point, it may be easier to switch to the new user account.  You can move your data there, whether only your Sims 4 content or everything else too; there's no harm in having multiple accounts or in switching to a new one.

It says "Access denied" :/ Any idea how to fix that?

@sydneyc111  That's a bit unusual, but one possibility is that OneDrive is running and blocking access for... reasons.  You can pause or cancel a sync easily enough:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-pause-and-resume-sync-in-onedrive-2152bfa4-a2a5-4d3a-ace8-92912fb4421e

If that doesn't help, or you don't use OneDrive, you should be able to use the takeown command to give yourself full permissions:

• Restart your computer, and don't open any applications
• Hit Windows key-X and choose either "PowerShell (Administrator)" or "Command Prompt (Administrator)," whichever option is offered
• In the window, write this command:  takeown /F "[full file path]"  with the quotes.  In this case, you'd write "C:\Users\[your username]\Documents" except with your actual username inserted.
• Double-check the command (take note of the two spaces in the command line), and when you're satisfied, hit Enter
• Restart your computer again

If you get an error message, please post a screenshot.