I have been trying to play The Sims 4 now after a few months of being absent. I updated my game and when trying to launch, it brings up a bar saying "unable to launch game, Sims 4 is already running. I'm not tech savvy but the game is not running in the background. I've tried reinstalling Origin but nothing has helped, I don't want to uninstall my games because I have yet to find a place where I can reinstall them. Can someone please help??
Hmm, normally when I see that message, it usually means the game tried to load, but failed to do so on the first try. It usually means the game's .exe file is stuck in memory.
First step here would be to run a reboot on your computer, which will force all programs to close and only re-open system-specific ones on startup.
Second step thereafter would be to open the Task Manager and attempt to locate any running instances of "TS4.exe" or "TS4_x64.exe" in the background to close those.
If you're still not finding any resolution beyond that, my next suggestion would be to try closing Origin from the Task Manager and re-opening it as a Windows Administrator. (Right-Click, Run As Administrator.)
(If this option works, it could be an issue of changed/damaged Windows permissions.)
If you're still having issues, or something odd occurs, let me know here.
- B
@TJmorris23
1. Open windows task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and see if there are any Sims 4 process running on the background (check the process tab), and finish them. then start the game again.
2. The reason can also be your Windows Defender like here - you must add TS4 to the exception in it
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Already-running-issue/m-p/7345341#M132894
How to add TS4 to exceptions in Windows Defender
Open Windows Defender
Click Virus & Threat protection
Click Virus & Threat protection settings
Scroll down to controlled folder access
You will see "Turn off"
But you don't want to turn it off so :
Click Allow an app through controlled folder access
Click Add an allowed app
Browse to your Program Files(x86) Origin games\The sims 4\game\bin folder
select TS4.exe click "open"
if you're running 64 bit
select also TS4_x64.exe click "open"
So on 64 bit Windows, you will add both.
Startup origin and try running the game again.
