This is a new problem that must have come up within the few latest patches. Game worked fine a few months back and before that. I start up the game everything is fine, everything is loading, all shortcuts are working - except WASD/arrow keys for moving the camera around?! What in the world is going on? I've check everything. I've spent hours uninstalling and reinstalling the game. I have no mods. I've deleted \my documents\blah\the sims 4\ folder multiple times. Same result. The keyboard works fine. I play wow, valheim, la-mulana, surviving mars and games I can't even recall the name of the last few weeks. The keyboard works. The mouse works. It's something with the game. I know the keyboard works FINE because if I open the console(in Sims 4) I can type wasd and I can use the arrow keys to move the thing back and forth, up and down. No problems. It's just that the CAMERA doesn't allow keyboard movement for some bizarre reason. I've seen others have this problem but it appears quite rare. Literally everything else works just like intended in sims 4. Like I said up top the game worked FINE a few months ago so it's one of the patches that broke something. I bet if you let me downgrade the game it would work just fine but I don't have a physical copy of the game so can't test clean non-updated version of the game(or older patches afaik). Edit: I'm using a Swedish keyboard not like that should ever be a problem nor has it ever been. Again, if you just let me downgrade the game I'll be FINE with that solution.

@Avalonica Could you share your solution ? This helps the next person that has the same issue.

@crinrict I found the solution. Its a problem when your keyboard language switches. for me on win 10 its done with alt+shift. By switching back to my original the keys now works as normal

Thank you for sharing this I've been having this problem! It's still a bit annoying, but thanks.

@TiskAmano Many thanks for your sharing. I'm almost crazy about that issue. <3

@Avalonica could be potentially a background program interfering. Try shutting down all unnecessary programs and check if it works.If it doesn't, try a clean boot: https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/If it works in that mode, then it's a background program interfering and you will need to find out which one.

WASD/arrow keys not working for camera since latest few patches.

12 Replies

crinrict
Hero+
5 years ago
@Avalonica could be potentially a background program interfering. Try shutting down all unnecessary programs and check if it works.

If it doesn't, try a clean boot: https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/

If it works in that mode, then it's a background program interfering and you will need to find out which one.
Avalonica
5 years ago
If that was the case I'd see this in every other game which I don't.
However I spent this morning *reinstalling* windows and that means I formatted the drive and did a *clean* install. The first thing I did was running sims 4 after origin was updated. The same problem still remains. It's pretty obvious that the more recent patches does something on certain systems what it could be I have no idea. Like I said this issue started a few months back(when I lasted played sims 4). I really thought the windows reinstall would fix this but it did not.
Edit: After rolling my face over the keyboard I noticed that TAB moves the camera down and BACKSPACE moves the camera to the right. I couldn't find any other movement keys. I'm curious is this normal for everyone else? I also tried another keyboard and same thing.
crinrict
Hero+
5 years ago
@Avalonica Could you post your Computer's DxDiag?

- Press Windows-Key + R
- Type: DxDiag
- Click on Save all Information.
- Attach the Text File to your post

Which camera mode are you using ? Did you invert scrolling ? What happens if you set the keyboard setting to US keyboard layout ?
Avalonica
5 years ago
I've given up for now. The problem, whatever it could be, is obviously hardware related in some way. And since literally *everything* else works just as expected on the computer I'm not even going to bother any more. This issue is only tied to Sims 4 and the camera movement using WASD/arrow keys. Every other hotkey binding works(went through a listing on a site). WASD and the arrows keys(like I stated earlier) works just fine in the sims console.
As for the language things I've been through that multiple times. It was the first thing I suspected to be wrong. I mean let's be honest if a clean install of windows on a formatted drive, clean install of the game doesn't work then the issue is not going to be solved easily.
Edit: Please answer me this before I leave, if you click on TAB or BACKSPACE in the game does it move the camera?
crinrict
Hero+
5 years ago
@Avalonica no it doesn't. Tab enters tab mode, backspace does nothing.
Avalonica
5 years ago
The problem has finally been resolved thanks to reddit.
crinrict
Hero+
5 years ago
@Avalonica Could you share your solution ? This helps the next person that has the same issue.
TiskAmano
4 years ago
@crinrict I found the solution. Its a problem when your keyboard language switches. for me on win 10 its done with alt+shift. By switching back to my original the keys now works as normal
PepperchillliH
4 years ago
Thank you for sharing this I've been having this problem! It's still a bit annoying, but thanks.
ForeverCamp
4 years ago
A similar issue has cropped up for me (as well as other players I know) sometime over the course of the March 2022 patches. It's sporadic and impossible to predict.
For my game (windowed mode) Left and right arrows will not move the camera. Up and down will still work, but the camera WILL NOT move left or right - which is a problem in windowed mode where edge scrolling doesn't work.
Deleting the cache files seems to clear the problem - at least temporarily. I know a few people it's happened to more than once.