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Mariposa0722's avatar
Mariposa0722
3 years ago
Solved

Unable to start: The Sims 4 is already running

I'm having issues starting my game. Every time I go start I receive the error "Unable to start: The Sims 4 is already open" I've uninstalled and reinstalled both the sims and origin, I've tried changing the sharing properties as everyone on the EA file, I've tried running as admin, I've restarted multiple times, I updated my computer (it's brand new, literally just bought it a couple of days ago) and I've tried repairing the files within Origin but no luck with any of it. I feel I've run out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated! I'm also running on Windows 11

pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    3 years ago

    @Mariposa0722  Please create a new admin Windows account and try playing in that.  Make it a local account, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  You won't have yoru saves or other user content available, but that can be addressed later.

9 Replies

  • Mariposa0722's avatar
    Mariposa0722
    3 years ago

    Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately none of this worked for me. I’m not sure where the error is coming from. 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @Mariposa0722  Please create a new admin Windows account and try playing in that.  Make it a local account, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  You won't have yoru saves or other user content available, but that can be addressed later.

  • Mariposa0722's avatar
    Mariposa0722
    3 years ago

    This worked! Thank you so much! Does it have to do with my one drive or something? Also for the files I’m assuming I can just save to an external drive and transfer them over to the new account?

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @Mariposa0722  The issue could be related to OneDrive, or the Documents folder (or a subfolder) in your older Windows account could have borked permissions.  It can be difficult to figure out the cause at times, but the new account bypasses the problem.

    You don't actually need an external drive.  If you open a File Explorer window and click This PC, then Users, you'll see a Public folder.  This is accessible from any Windows account on your computer.  Just drop the files you want to transfer into that folder, then login to the new account and grab them from there.

  • princefielder84's avatar
    princefielder84
    2 years ago

    Hi, I had a similar problem where the game was running in the background, but would not open. I had copied the Folder that was in documents (Electronic Arts -> The Sims 4) into the desktop. So when I opened Sims 4 it made a new folder in the documents. To get my mods and save files back, I had to copy the files back into the Documents folder ("C:\Users\User_name\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4"). Then when I launched the game I had my progress and my mods.

  • SonestaLee's avatar
    SonestaLee
    2 years ago

    How does this work?  If you can't save your game progress, then what's the point?  Thanks for any help.

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