Re: Sims 4 Keeps Being Temporarily Unable to Launch

@aucqz16dqw4c  Please let me know how full OneDrive is.

@aucqz16dqw4c  The next time this happens, please try playing while your computer is completely offline.  Restart first, then open Origin or the EA App (whichever you're using at the moment), put it in offline mode, and disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable.

In case you're wondering, there are no errors in your dxdiag, I mean none at all, which could be due to your having reinstalled Windows 10.  But please let me know how much time passed between when you reverted to 10 and when you ran the dxdiag, as well as whether you tried to play Sims 4 in between those steps.

@puzzlezaddict I just tried playing it offline during an episode of not being able to play it, and it didn't work.

I'm afraid it's been so long since I went to Windows 11 and back to Windows 10 that I've completely forgotten the exact dates when I ran the dxdiag and re-installed Windows 10.

@aucqz16dqw4c  The dxdiag has a timestamp right at the top, and your second one was run the same day as you posted it.

Do you use a third-party antivirus, and if so, which one?  When you can't play, does it show that Sims 4 has been blocked or quarantined; does it help to disable the antivirus completely?

Additionally, are there any associated errors in the Reliability Monitor?  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day.  Today is on the right.

For any instance you can't play, please look for an error that happened at exactly the time you tried to launch the game.  If you see one, double-click its name, copy the info you see, and paste it here.  If you don't find an error, check back in an hour or so—the RM doesn't always update right away.  If you still don't see an error, that's also useful info: it means the game was likely blocked from running, for example by an antivirus, as opposed to instantly crashing.

I have McAfee Antivirus and I've never gotten a notification that it blocked or quarantined TS4.

I looked at the Reliability Monitor, but it didn't show any errors occurring at the time this un-launching episode began.

@aucqz16dqw4c  Just in case, I did mention restarting before testing offline mode, but are you restarting your computer every time this happens?  If not, that should always be the first troubleshooting step.  As simple as it is, it can fix a lot of weird errors.

The fact that the Reliability Monitor shows no errors makes it likely that something is blocking Sims 4 from running, and perhaps blocking its access to the user folder.  OneDrive would be the first suspect after your antivirus: perhaps OneDrive is trying to sync and taking its time.  If you don't want to unlink it, you could try blocking Documents from automatically syncing:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/choose-which-onedrive-folders-to-sync-to-your-computer-98b8b011-8b94-419b-aa95-a14ff2415e85

You may need to cancel syncing or stop the current sync before changing the settings:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-cancel-or-stop-sync-in-onedrive-4885c27e-3d89-4d69-be75-2646c71367d3

Before you mess with OneDrive, make a backup copy of anything critical inside Documents, including your Sims 4 folder.  When you set OneDrive to no longer sync, it can often remove the local copies of everything, leaving only the cloud copies.  It's easy enough to download the files again, but even better to have a spare copy, and that prevents any data loss from the sync process being interrupted.

If you don't want to mess with OneDrive at all, you can set up a new admin Windows account on your computer.  Make it a local account: no signing into Microsoft means no link to OneDrive.  You don't need to permanently switch over; the point is to test and see if you can get around the error in the moment.