Hello. I recently got a new flash drive for more storage for the sims 4. I uninstalled and reinstalled the sims 4 so I could move the download folder, but every single time, no matter what I tried, it always got stuck at 53 or 54 percentage on prepairing. I'm wondering if the drive has something to do with it? Can anyone help? I spent countless of hours and money on this game and it would be so sad to lose it now, due to a stupid bug.What I have tried:-Restarting EA app-Uninstalling and reinstalling EA app-Repairing EA app- Uninstalling and reinstalling the sims 4-Restarting my laptop(Keep in mind, the new storage I bought has 990 GB so far, so storage should not be a problem.)

@stormymind Hopefully you're formatting the external drive, not the internal one. If so, that's a good suggestion, and make sure it's using NTFS. If you have any trouble formatting the drive, or you still can't download Sims 4, format it as something else, disconnect it (the proper way), then format it again as NTFS.

Sims 4 Download - Stuck on Prepairing

11 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@stormymind Can you currently download Sims 4 to your internal drive? Please test just to make sure this isn't a more generic downloading issue and a matter of timing. Let me know either way, and if you still have the space for it, please download the base game; you can skip the packs if you want.

Please also let me know how this external drive is formatted. You can see it by clicking Windows key-X and selecting Disk Management.
stormymind
2 years ago
so i let it download overnight and it actually made it to 63 percent, still on preparing, so i guess its working but i let it download ALL night, and it only went from 54 to 63? it'll take me days to download the sims if the actual downloading process is like this to. Is this a problem? Also i literally do not have enough space on my internal drive to try to re download the sims 4, im sorry. I asked my boyfriend what to do because he is a engineer in this stuff and he said to format my drive to my computer so thats what im doing now.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@stormymind Hopefully you're formatting the external drive, not the internal one. If so, that's a good suggestion, and make sure it's using NTFS. If you have any trouble formatting the drive, or you still can't download Sims 4, format it as something else, disconnect it (the proper way), then format it again as NTFS.
stormymind
2 years ago
A little bit after I formatted it, it started downloading! Im not on preparing anymore and im on the actual download thing but it is still taking forever but ill be patient, thanks!
vesperiiah
2 years ago
I am having the exact same issue. Do you have any suggestions or links on how to format the hard drive?
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@vesperiiah Here you go:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition-bbb8e185-1bda-ecd1-3465-c9728f7d7d2e#
NovaUndone
2 years ago
Im having the exact same issues. I can't download it at all, I've tried everything, even going as far as resetting my computer. I've tried downloading other games, and they work fine, just not the Sims
EA_Solaire
Community Manager
2 years ago
Hey there @NovaUndone,

This sounds like you may have some issues with your base game entitlement for your account- live support will need to look over your account details and check this entitlement for you and potentially replace your version of the base game so you can access and play The Sims again.

Please contact live support from the help site here so they can investigate into this a bit further with you, I'd also recommend you link this AHQ conversation when you reach out there so the team does have something further to reference. You can let me know if you have any issues getting through the help site.
NovaUndone
2 years ago
That worked! They replaced the base game and now I'm having no issues!
tshughesss
2 years ago
@stormymind the solution is very simple. go into EA app settings, go to downloads, scroll down and you’ll see two options that say “update games automatically” and “enable background downloads”. enable both of these and it should work.