I, too, am curious as to the cause of this problem,
so YES, I have tried completely closing Steam and EA App in the Task Manager,
and then waiting a few minutes and re-launching as you described.
But it didn't work, as I recall.
Why restarting the computer works, that is the thing I would like to understand.
But it doesn't matter in the long run, as long as I can get it working eventually.
Mine also does this issue, with game purchased through steam and running through EA.
I've noticed i have to "Verify integrity of the game files", through steam on Sims 4 - THEN go to the EA app and clear the cache there.
Sometimes the game will open doing this, but i've run into a new error of the game saying it's already running..
I do not use a VPN and this issue just happened recently as I never had issues before. Only other thing to fix this issue is to completely RESTART the computer each time..
I've run into multiple people now who have had this issue and i'm convinced this is some Steam / EA compatibility issue, as people who just run the game through EA do not encounter this issue.
People who have contacted EA about this issue are told to get a new PC, but that is clearly not the issue.
@milkypopp Rather than restarting your computer, try force-closing the EA App and the EABackgroundService in the Task Manager. The latter is under background processes.
If that doesn't help, there's a suggestion here that might be relevant:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-already-running/m-p/13785451#M277450
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