Re: Error: Sims 4 Already Running

I have a third-party antivirus run (Sophos), but since the dashboard can only be accessed via the browser, and despite me giving exceptions to Origin and Sims 4, it still wouldn't run. My dxdiag is attached to this thread.

@Scholastic0  Try changing these Sophos settings, if you can reach them:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html/#sophos

If that doesn't help, go through the Task Manager's background processes list and end any service that has the name HP, Omen, or Sonic Studio in it.  Then try to launch the game.  These services should restart with Windows, so there's no harm in shutting them down.

Hi, apparently the features that are allowed for me to change the settings are only available in Premium, and I only have the free version.

Meanwhile, I tried to go to Task Manager and end the tasks, but the game still can't run.

@Scholastic0  Please try playing in a new admin user account on your computer.  (Use only letters and numbers in the name, no special characters or accents.)  Make it a local account, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services.  You can sign into Origin and shouldn't need to redownload anything, but your saves and other content won't be available.

If that doesn't help, please disable Sophos entirely, at least long enough to test, and still within the new user account.

So I tried the former solution, and it worked! Not only that but it works while Sophos is enabled!

So what do you think that means? All of my saves and families are in my usual account in my computer, and I would rather play in my account than in my test one.

@Scholastic0  It means that the issue is something about your main user account.  It could be as simple as the name: games don't always respond well to usernames with special characters or accents.  It could be that you have OneDrive set to sync the contents of Documents and it's interfering with the ability of Sims 4 to write to Documents.  It could be a question of borked permissions.  Or it could be something else I'm not thinking of.

For the first, if your current username doesn't contain special symbols, it's not an issue.  For the second, you could try disabling OneDrive or setting it to not sync Documents; make a backup copy of your Sims 4 user folder in Documents\Electronic Arts before doing this.  For the third, it can be tricky to troubleshoot, and I can't really make suggestions for a problem I'm not thinking of.  But you can try running a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files; this helped a couple other people with the same issue.

• 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

If none of this helps, or if you're tired of troubleshooting, you can always transfer your saves and other content to the new admin account.

Just an update on these solutions:

1. My name doesn't have any special characters

2. For some reason, and probably unrelated to my problem with the program, I can't sign in to my OneDrive in my desktop, and my OneDrive browser isn't synced with my Documents in my computer

3. The Power Shell message is attached to this post

@Scholastic0  It looks like sfc did its job.  Does the game work in your main account now?  If not, it may be easier to transfer your saves and other content to the second account and pick things up from there.  But if you'd still like to troubleshoot in the main account, please let me know.

It still doesn't work, unfortunately. But I'd like to try one more solution, and if that doesn't work I'll just transfer my saves and households into the admin test account (can you teach me how?).

Thanks in advance for all your help!

@Scholastic0  Try resetting the permissions for Documents as well as the Electronic Arts and Sims 4 folders inside.  This tutorial shows your options:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/88246-add-reset-permissions-context-menu-windows.html

Without knowing what the permissions settings are, I can't tell you what you'd need to change, but it's easy to compare the screenshots to what you see on your system.

If that doesn't work, just copy the Sims 4 folder to the Public folder, which you can open by clicking This PC in a File Explorer window and opening your C > Users.  In fact, do that first, just in case changing the permissions in your existing account does something unexpected.

Hi, just an update. I tried to reset my permissions but in the end doesn't seem to work at all. I'm going to transfer all of my saves to my test user isntead.

EDIT:

I've encountered the smiliar problem when I was trying to transfer files from my usual account to my test account. Before I transferred my files from my usual account, when I double-clicked on my admin test folder, it asked me run as administrator since I've already set the user as an administrator in the first place. Once I finished my transfer, I tried to run the game, but to my surprise, the same error came up! I tried to reset permissions, but the same thing happened as last time, it didn't work.

@Scholastic0  Is the same error happening in your existing account or the new one?  If it's in the new one, does it help if you don't use any files from the existing account?  You can drag the Sims 4 folder to the desktop and let the game create a new one.