[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Problem With Your Game's Setup
Overview There is a problem with your game's setup. Please reinstall your game. This error has multiple known causes and, at the time of this writing, at least one unknown cause. So if you're not covered by the known triggers, some troubleshooting is in order. jump to: Windows 7 jump to: Windows 10 or 11 N jump to: Other Windows 7 If your computer runs Windows 7, you probably need to run Sims 4 in DirectX 9 mode. The game now defaults to DirectX 11 mode on most systems, but you can force DX9 mode in the EA App or Steam. For an EA App install, open the App, click Sims 4 > Manage > View properties, add -dx9 to the Advanced launch options box, and click Save. For a Steam install, open Steam, right-click Sims 4, select Properties > General, and add -dx9 to the Launch Options box. Windows 10 or 11 N The versions of Windows with N in their names are stripped-down installs, missing some resources that Sims 4 needs in order to run. To find out if this applies to you, click Windows key-R and enter dxdiag in the run box in the lower-left corner of the screen. The dxdiag window will list your version of Windows: If you see N in the name, please install the Media Feature Pack provided by Microsoft. Information and instructions are here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/media-feature-pack-for-windows-n-8622b390-4ce6-43c9-9b42-549e5328e407 Other So far, there have been a few reports of this issue without a definitive cause and where the above categories don't apply. If you're affected, please first confirm that you're running Windows 10 or 11 and not an N version, as described above. The first suggestion I have is to uninstall and reinstall the VC++ runtimes Sims 4 uses. Open Windows Settings > Apps, scroll down to the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, and uninstall all versions from 2015 and newer. Don't touch the others. You can get new versions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 You only need the 2022 x86 and x64 versions, not the older ones and not the ARM version. The 2022 runtimes replace everything from 2015 on, although the older runtimes are standalone. Restart after installing the runtimes and before trying to play. If you're using ReShade or GShade, please remove the associated files and repair the game (EA App > Sims 4 > Manage > Repair OR Steam > Sims 4 > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files). If that doesn't help, close the EA App and kill the EABackgroundService in the Task Manager's background processes list. Delete the Bin folder in [install location]\The Sims 4\Game, then repair as described above. This will redownload the default, unaltered files in Bin, without anything extra. It's possible that the installation of Sims 4 is in fact corrupt or missing some critical files. So you can also try doing a clean uninstall and reinstall, as described here: [PC] How to Clean-uninstall Sims 4 I will add any other known fixes or workarounds here as I find or hear about them. In the interim, if you're affected and nothing in this guide helps, please reply to this thread and provide a dxdiag. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons. ↑
Memory Boost Technical Issues and Feedback Thread
Sul Sul Simmers! With today's base game update, we've announced a new feature called Memory Boost on an opt-in basis for PC/Windows players that will be available starting September 23rd. If you're interested in enabling this feature, please see the patch notes here for instructions. If you're reporting a bug or technical issue you believe is related to Memory Boost, please use the following template: Platform: Which language are you playing the game in? How often does the bug occur? What is your current game version number? What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? What happens when the bug occurs? What do you expect to see? Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? To help us better understand the technical aspects of the issues, we would also appreciate if you could provide additional information to us as well: Press the Windows key and type "Dxdiag" into the search bar. Click on "Dxdiag.exe" or press enter. When the DirectX Diagnostic Tool opens, click on "Save All Information". Save the .txt file to your desktop for easy access. Attach to your post here. And finally, any screenshots, video footage, or save files (please send the link to TheSimsDirect, additional instructions here: [INFORMATION] How to Send User Files to The Sims 4 Team) you can share of issues occurring are of great value to us as well. We look forward to your feedback and working together to enhance your Simming experience!
[READ FIRST] Cheat console doesn't open
Index Introduction The Cheat Console doesn't open Introduction Cheats are commonly used in the Sims games and as it's a single player game, you can do so at your heart's content. Some cheats are also used to fix issues. To open the Cheat Console, press CTL-SHIFT-C and then type the required cheat into the text console that appears in the upper left corner. There are a few reasons why the cheat console doesn't open as it should. The tips below are for Windows, if you have issues on other platforms, please use the threads below Console: FAQ - Sims 4 Console Cheats Mac: 🛠️ Opening the Sims 4 cheat console on Mac For help with individual cheats, please use this thread: [FAQ] Common Issues with Cheats ↑ The Cheat Console doesn't open A few tips if you can't get the cheat console to open. Please post in the thread if these don't help. Make sure you use the correct key combination (CTL-SHIFT-C). Make sure that no screenshot or other program is running in the back that uses the same key combination like Gyazo. Especially HP computers tend to have pre-installed software that conflict with the cheat shortcut. Make sure to disable those background programs. If you have an AMD graphics Card, check on the settings to check if something else is assigned to the short-cut Make sure that the game is the active window, especially when playing in windowed mode. Try CTL-Shift-(Windows Key)-C instead (Windows Only) When in build/buy mode, make sure your cursor is not in the search field Reset all settings. To do so follow these steps: Close the game. Move this file to the desktop: Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Options(.ini). Start the game. The file will be recreated. Unfortunately this will reset all your graphics settings and similar as well and you need to re-set them. Test if the console appears. ↑[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Failed to Launch Game
Overview Failed to launch game An error on our end caused the launch to fail. Try again a little later. Please ONLY use this thread if your game actually fails to launch. If the game does open, no matter how briefly, and then crashes, and only then do you see the "failed to launch game" error, please create your own thread. Provide a dxdiag and a lastexception with your post. How to do so is covered in this reply: [START HERE] Crashing/Back to Map/Endless loading (Patch 117.221) | EA Forums - 12512130 This is currently something of a catch-all error, caused by a variety of issues. And the game may in fact start but crash immediately after launch. Trying to relaunch the game immediately after it's crashed can cause the error as well. While troubleshooting this issue, each time the game fails to load, make sure the EA App is closed (exit out of it; don't just X out the window), and open the Task Manager and end the EABackgroundServices entry in the background processes list. Alternately, restart your computer. Workarounds jump to: Remove mods jump to: Clean user folder jump to: Set exceptions in antivirus jump to: Change OneDrive settings jump to: Update graphics driver jump to: Perform a clean boot jump to: Uncommon causes jump to: New admin Windows account These workarounds are listed in order of how frequently they cause this issue. So to avoid wasting time on steps that are unlikely to help you, it would be best to try the suggestions in order. Before proceeding, please repair the game. If you've installed through the EA App, open the App library and click Sims 4 > Manage > Repair. For a Steam install, open your Steam library, right-click the Sims 4 tile, and select Properties > Installed files > Verify integrity of the game files. Remove mods The most common cause of this error is a broken mod, and the most efficient way to find out if that's your issue is to remove the entire Mods folder, and delete localthumbcache.package, in the same Sims 4 folder. This doesn't mean playing without mods—if it helps, you can test your mods and cc until you find the broken file or files, then restore the rest. If it doesn't help, move on to the next steps. While testing, use the new Mods folder the game created when you launched it without mods. Transfer individual files or subfolders rather than the entire Mods folder, and use the fresh Resource.cfg file rather than your old one as well. ↑ Clean user folder If removing only the Mods folder doesn't help, remove or rename (these have the same effect) the entire Sims 4 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts. If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, stop here and see the OneDrive section below. Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content. (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you've moved but temporarily unread by the game.) Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play in live mode for a bit. If this works, you can start moving your content from the old Sims 4 folder to the new one. Start by testing your mods and custom content, if you have any. Use the new Mods folder and Resource.cfg file the game creates rather than your old ones. Test your mods and cc in batches, or use the 50/50 method described here if you have a lot of files to sort through: https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Finding_Problem_Custom_Content#The_50.25_Method Once you're done with your Mods folder, you can transfer the contents of saves, Tray (saved households and builds), Screenshots and Recorded Videos if you care about those, and Options.ini if you don't want to redo all your in-game options. The rest can be discarded; the game will regenerate the files and folders as necessary. ↑ Set exceptions in your antivirus Your antivirus blocking the game from starting can cause this issue as well. Look for any recent actions involving Sims 4 or the EA App, and set exceptions/exclusions as necessary. The exceptions should be for TS4_x64, TS4_DX9_x64, and TS4_Launcher_x64, or the Bin folder they're in; set one for EADesktop.exe as well while you're there. If you use Memory Boost (still in beta and opt-in only), set an exception for TS4_x64_fpb.exe. This article has instructions for Windows Defender and a couple of common third-party programs: https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html If your antivirus isn't covered, consult the publisher's online documentation for instructions. A search for "[antivirus name] set exception" will probably find a user manual. ↑ Change OneDrive settings If OneDrive is running on your computer, whether you use it or not, it can block Sims 4's access to Documents and cause this error. First, try pausing syncing. Right-click the cloud icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, or sometimes hidden in the Tray (^ icon), to see the option: If this helps, the underlying issue is OneDrive, and you may want or need to adjust your settings accordingly. You can choose which folders to sync, stop OneDrive from syncing your Sims 4 folder or all of Documents automatically, or get rid of OneDrive entirely. Please see this guide, specifically the "I don't want OneDrive to sync my files" and "I want to get rid of OneDrive" sections, for further help: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 saves/user content disappearing (PC) | EA Forums - 11838402 ↑ Update your graphics driver Some users have fixed this issue by updating an old graphics driver. If you know how to do this on your own, go right ahead. To find the current driver version and date, click Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, expand Display adapters, right-click the name of your GPU (the dedicated card, usually Nvidia/AMD, if your computer has two), and select Properties > Driver. If you update through the Device Manager, which has an Update button in the menu, you will probably get a slightly older driver than the most current one. This is fine for testing purposes, and this driver may still fix the issue; just understand that you won't necessarily be up-to-date, and you may be told you already have the current version when you do not. To get the most current version, go to the driver downloads page hosted by the manufacturer of your GPU. If you don't know how to do this, or you'd like help or confirmation before proceeding, or trying to install the driver you've downloaded throws an error, please reply to this thread. Include a dxdiag. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons. ↑ Clean Boot A clean boot is the process of temporarily disabling all nonessential services on your computer, including some that may start with Windows and perpetually run silently in the background. (It is NOT a clean install of Windows; I am not suggesting you erase your data.) The idea is to see whether any background process is interfering with Sims 4. Here's how to perform a clean boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run. Disable the rest as described. When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled. If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again. Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window. If this helps, you can selectively reenable services until you find the culprit, then either leave that disabled or (if it belongs to an app you want to keep using) let me know what it is so we can try to fix the underlying issue. If the game freezes or crashes in a clean boot, please try again, except with your computer offline. You can sign into the EA App and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before pressing Play. Uncommon causes These have been the underlying cause for a few uses but don't appear to be major contributors. Still, if any apply to you, try the suggestions. Disable Game Mode and Game Bar: Both of these settings are under Windows Settings > Gaming. DirectX 9 mode: Sims 4 now defaults to DirectX 11 mode on most computers. To force DX9 mode in the EA App, open the App game library, click Sims 4 > Manage > View properties, add -dx9 to the box, and save. If you play through Steam, open your library, right-click Sims 4, select Properties > General, and add -dx9 to the Launch Options box. Windows insider build: For certain other EA games, a couple of updates to the Windows beta build can trigger this error. I haven't seen this apply to Sims 4 yet, but if you're running the insider build, please see the accepted solution of this thread. Conflicting software: For other games (not Sims 4 as far as I've seen), MSI Afterburner or RivaTuner Statistics Server can trigger the error. You can close all unnecessary apps in the Task Manager; be sure to check the background processes list as well. ↑ New admin Windows account It's possible that the problem is caused by a setting or broken permissions in your main Windows account, and the fastest way to test this theory is to create a new account. It must have admin rights (not a standard user account), and it must be local, as in, not connected to your Microsoft account. The account name can only contain letters from the Roman alphabet and numbers, no special characters, accents, or anything else that isn't standard. To create a new account, open Windows Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click "Add someone else to this PC" (under Other users, not Your family), click "I don't have this person's sign-in information," then "Add a user without a Microsoft account." Choose the username and password, answer some security questions, and you'll see the new account. Click it and select "Change account type" to make it an Administrator account if it's not already. It should say "Administrator - Local account" when you're done: Click ctrl-alt-delete, select Switch user, and sign into the new account. Then open the EA App (and Steam or the Epic launcher if applicable) and try to launch Sims 4. You shouldn't need to reinstall anything. Your saves and other user data won't be available, but that's fine for the purpose of this test. If Sims 4 works in the new account, it means the problem is contained to your old account. You can simply continue playing in the new account if you want. For any saves or other user data you'd like to transfer to the new account, sign into the old account again and copy the relevant files to C:\Users\Public. This folder is accessible from all user accounts; you can grab the files from there once you're in the new account. If you'd like help fixing your old account, please see below. ↑ If nothing else in this guide helps or applies to you, OR if Sims 4 only works the new admin Windows account but you'd like to play in your old account, try the other steps listed in this thread, which is for a distinct but sometimes related issue: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running | EA Forums - 11818313 If those don't help either, please reply to this thread. Let me know whether the new Windows account worked. If it did not, please provide a dxdiag. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons. ↑[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running
Overview jump to: Workarounds This is a common error that is usually caused when Sims 4 cannot access the user folder in Documents > Electronic Arts. It can also be triggered by outdated or otherwise broken mods or custom content. This guide is only for this specific error in Windows. If you're seeing the error on a Mac, please use this dedicated Mac thread. If you have a different problem, please create your own thread in the appropriate tech (PC, Mac, Console) forum, or the Gameplay or Mods & CC forum, depending on the nature of your issue. Workarounds These workarounds are listed in order from simplest to most complicated, to avoid anyone doing more work than is necessary. If you've already tried one, or it doesn't apply to you, move on to the next step. jump to: Pause Onedrive syncing jump to: Remove mods jump to: Clean user folder jump to: Reset date and time jump to: Temporarily disable antivirus jump to: New Windows account jump to: Move/restore location of Documents jump to: Reset permissions for Documents jump to: Virus scan Pause OneDrive syncing OneDrive can lock up the Sims 4 user folder, or any folder it's automatically syncing, for various reasons. The easiest way to diagnose this is to temporarily pause syncing. Right-click the cloud icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to see the option: If this helps, the underlying issue is OneDrive, and you may want or need to adjust your settings accordingly. You can choose which folders to sync, stop OneDrive from syncing your Sims 4 folder or all of Documents automatically, or get rid of OneDrive entirely. Please see this guide, specifically the "I don't want OneDrive to sync my files" and "I want to get rid of OneDrive" sections, for further help: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 saves/user content disappearing (PC) | EA Forums - 11838402 ↑ Remove mods It's as simple as that: Move the Mods folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto the desktop, and delete localthumbcache.package. If this works, something in the Mods folder is the problem. Look for updates to your mods, especially after a patch; or use the 50/50 method to sort through the files in the Mods folder. https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Finding_Problem_Custom_Content#The_50.25_Method Keep in mind you may have more than one broken mod or cc item, so be sure to test every file at least once. ↑ Clean user folder Testing with a clean user folder, otherwise known as a factory reset, means temporarily removing all user data. This ensures that nothing from your existing folder is preventing Sims 4 from loading. Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, please see the OneDrive section above. Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game. Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save. If this works, you can start moving your content from the old Sims 4 folder to the new one, testing each time to make sure the game still loads. In each case, please move the files only, not the folder they're in, for example move the individual Tray files, not the entire Tray folder. Where the game has created a new file or folder, it's best to use that rather than your old copy. For further reading about the contents of the user folder and what you might want to preserve, please see this: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/user-files-explained/ While moving over your data, if and when you see the "already running" error again, you'll know that one of the files you just moved is the problem, and you can split and retest that batch until you find out which one. For mods and custom content, the 50/50 method can make the process much more efficient. A single file or folder that prevents the game from launching is not recoverable; you'll need to delete it, or in the case of mods or cc, find an updated, compatible version. ↑ Reset your computer's date and time An occasional cause of this error is your computer having the wrong time and date. So try changing it to something else, then telling the system to use internet time again. ↑ Disable antivirus (TEMPORARILY) An overzealous third-party antivirus or even Windows Defender can block Sims 4's access to its user folder. To test this theory, temporarily disable any third-party antivirus, just long enough to try to open Sims 4. As long as you're not doing anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe. If this helps, set exceptions for TS4_DX9_x64.exe (if using DirectX 9) and/or TS4_x64.exe (if using DX11) as well as EADesktop.exe. You can find a more detailed guide for your specific antivirus in the online documentation provided by the publisher of the software. For Windows Defender, the only potential problem is with Controlled Folder Access. Please see this post for instructions on changing its settings or disabling the feature entirely: https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/03/windows-10-defender-controlled-folder-access.html ↑ New admin Windows account It's possible that the problem is caused by a setting or broken permissions in your main Windows account, and the fastest way to test this theory is to create a new account. It must have admin rights (not a standard user account), and it must be local, as in, not connected to your Microsoft account. To create a new account, open Windows Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click "Add someone else to this PC" (under Other users, not Your family), click "I don't have this person's sign-in information," then "Add a user without a Microsoft account." Choose the username and password, answer some security questions, and you'll see the new account. Click it and select "Change account type" to make it an Administrator account if it's not already. It should say "Administrator - Local account" when you're done: Click ctrl-alt-delete, select Switch user, and sign into the new account. Then open the EA App (and Steam or the Epic launcher if applicable) and try to launch Sims 4. You shouldn't need to reinstall anything. Your saves and other user data won't be available, but that's fine for the purpose of this test. If Sims 4 works in the new account, it means the problem is contained to your old account. You can simply continue playing in the new account if you want. For any saves or other user data you'd like to transfer to the new account, sign into the old account again and copy the relevant files to C:\Users\Public. This folder is accessible from all user accounts; you can grab the files from there once you're in the new account. If you'd like to try to fix your old account, please see the next two sections. ↑ Move or restore location of Documents If Windows has placed the location of Documents somewhere Sims 4 can't access properly, you may need to move the folder. To find the current location, search in Windows for Command Prompt, open it, and enter this command: reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal" This will return the full file path to Documents. Unless you've chosen a custom location, it should be one of these, depending on whether OneDrive is involved: C:\Users\[username]\Documents C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive\Documents If you see a different location, one you didn't intend to use, changing it may help. If Documents is in OneDrive and you don't want it there, the best course of action is to tell OneDrive to stop syncing your files, as described here: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 saves/user content disappearing (PC) | EA Forums - 11838402 If this doesn't successfully change the location, or your Documents directory is in a different unintended location, you can change it by editing your computer's registry. Be very careful when editing the registry—an error can cause problems up to and including preventing your computer from working at all. So please follow these instructions exactly, and don't touch anything other than the Personal value: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720 Important: This process is only for moving Documents to another location on an internal drive. DO NOT move Documents to an external drive. If you would like to store your Sims 4 user folder externally, please use this guide instead. Important: Please also keep in mind that when you change the location of Documents, you also change the location where Sims 4 looks for its user folder. You will therefore need to move your saves and other user files to the new location. ↑ Reset permissions on Documents folder When Sims 4 works in a new Windows account but not your existing one, the problem may be broken permissions in the old account. You can use the takeown command to reset the permissions on the Documents folder if necessary. First, move the Electronic Arts folder out of Documents, or delete it if it's empty. Search in Windows for "Command Prompt," open it, and enter this command: reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal" The location you see is what you'll use for the command. The command itself is this: takeown /F "[file path to Documents folder]" So it will probably be one of these, but double-check anyway: takeown /F "C:\Users\username\Documents" or takeown /F "C:\Users\username\OneDrive\Documents" Write your actual username for this Windows account (your main one) instead of username. Since the syntax needs to be exactly right, please copy this command to a Notepad file, substitute in your username, and then copy that string when you're ready to use it. Hit Windows key-X and choose either "PowerShell (Administrator)" or "Windows Terminal (Administrator)," whichever option is offered, paste the command into the window, and enter. Then restart your computer and try again to play. If that doesn't help, please see the accepted solution of this thread for further troubleshooting: "A problem occured while saving the game. No game session data was preserved." | EA Forums - 9150501 You'll of course apply these steps to the Documents folder your account is using, wherever Command Prompt told you that was. ↑ Virus scan If none of the other troubleshooting steps help, or one of them helps temporarily but Sims 4 stops working again, before you've added back any content or made any other changes that would account for this, your computer may have a virus or other malware. So it's worth running a virus scan. Download Malwarebytes (the free trial is fine) from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download Open it, click Scan > Custom Scan > Configure Scan, check all the boxes both for all scan types and for all your drives, and let it do its job. This could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the amount of data and whether the scan finds anything, so you may want to set it to run while you're doing something else. The Malwarebytes report is simple to understand if it doesn't find anything, but if you'd like me to take a look, feel free to reply to this post and attach the report. ↑ If none of this makes a difference, please post in this thread asking for further help. Let me know whether you can play in the new admin Windows account or not: this is important diagnostic information.[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 saves/user content disappearing (PC)
Overview jump to: Restoring missing saves jump to: I want OneDrive to keep syncing my files jump to: I don't want OneDrive to sync my files jump to: I want to get rid of OneDrive jump to: My saves aren't in OneDrive jump to: My saves still aren't appearing in-game In Windows, the most common cause of Sims 4 saves or other user files disappearing is OneDrive. User files are stored in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, and if no Sims 4 folder is present there, the game will make a new one with no content. It won't look elsewhere for saves or other user content. OneDrive syncs the contents of Documents to cloud storage by default. This syncing may have worked fine for some time, but it can fail for one reason or another, and the result is that the user files are removed from local storage. Then when Sims 4 is loaded, saves, Tray files, and mods and custom content are missing, with the only option being to start a new save. If you have a Mac, please use this thread instead: [READ FIRST] Saves, CC/Mods or Library items disappeared? iCloud issues | EA Forums - 10979712 ↑ Restoring missing saves The first place to look for missing files is within OneDrive's cloud storage. Go to onedrive.com, click Sign in in the upper-right corner, and enter the email address and password associated with your Microsoft account. Please check both My files and the Recyle bin for your missing content. OneDrive does only preserve data in the Recycle bin for 30 days for a free basic account, or 93 days for some premium accounts. If that time has passed, the files may be permanently deleted. If you find your missing files, click them to select, then right-click and select Restore: Once you've downloaded the files from OneDrive, you may need to rename them or move them to the correct folder, as in, the one Sims 4 is reading. If you need more help with this process, please read this. To prevent this in the future, you can change OneDrive's settings. Or you can stop syncing or get rid of OneDrive entirely. If you've never used OneDrive, or it doesn't have your saves, please see this. ↑ I want OneDrive to keep syncing my files If your OneDrive has enough space for all your files, the simplest workaround is to tell OneDrive to keep the Sims 4 user folder on your computer. Right-click the folder and select "Always keep on this device." Please double-check that OneDrive has enough storage, or you may run into more trouble. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of your screen and select Settings: Under Account, you'll see the current and total storage: If your OneDrive is full, or your "The Sims 4" folder is larger than the storage you have, you can choose to stop automatically syncing Documents overall, or the Sims 4 folder, or some subfolder, for example the Mods folder. (Please see the next section below.) You can still manually upload files to OneDrive as you choose. Or you can buy a subscription for more OneDrive storage. However, an external drive or USB stick is a one-time purchase and a cheaper long-term solution than a subscription, so consider your options before subscribing. ↑ I don't want OneDrive to sync my files The first step is to make a backup of your "The Sims 4" folder, the one in Documents > Electronic Arts. Right-click it and select Copy, then right-click the location where you want your backup to go and select Paste. If you don't have an external drive or USB stick handy, you can paste the folder into your computer's Downloads folder, which OneDrive doesn't sync. The simplest change is to tell OneDrive not to sync the contents of Documents at all. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, select Settings > Backup, click Manage Backup, and under Documents, click Stop backup, then confirm the choice. Now you can restore the backup version of your Sims 4 folder to Documents > Electronic Arts, and the game should read your data. If you're not seeing your saves in-game, please read this. If you want to get more granular, you can choose to not sync the contents of the Electronic Arts folder, the Sims 4 folder, or any folder inside. First, make a backup of this folder; as above, you can store it on an external device, or in Downloads. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of the screen, open Settings > Account, select Choose folders, deselect the folders you don't want OneDrive to sync, and click Okay. Once you deselect the given folder, it will be removed from your computer and stored only in the cloud. You can now restore the backup copy you made, and OneDrive won't sync it. If you forgot to back up this folder, you can still download it from onedrive.com. If you're not seeing your saves in-game, please read this. ↑ I want to get rid of OneDrive If you want to get rid of OneDrive entirely, first make a backup of any synced folders you want to keep. You can right-click the folders and select Copy, then right-click where you want the backups to be and select Paste. An external drive or USB stick is ideal, but if you don't have one handy, you can use your computer's Downloads folder, which OneDrive doesn't sync. You can also find your files later by signing into your Microsoft account at onedrive.com. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of your screen, select Settings > Backup, click Manage Backup, and click Stop backup for all three categories, then confirm the choice. The reason to do this is to move the default locations of these folders out of the OneDrive folder on your computer, which might otherwise be a more complicated process. Next, right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of your screen and select Settings > Account, then click Unlink this PC. It's unnecessary to uninstall OneDrive—without a link to a Microsoft account, it has nothing to do. After the above and before you do anything else, please double-check that your Documents folder is no longer in OneDrive. Type "command" in the Windows search box, open Command Prompt, and enter this command: reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal" This will spit out the location of the Documents directory for this Windows account. The file path should no longer include OneDrive, but if it does, as here: Then you'll need to change the location manually. The simple way is to right-click Documents in the left panel of a File Explorer window and choose Properties > Location, then Move, then click This PC, then choose this: C:\Users\[your username]\Documents Click Apply, then Yes. You may get an error that says "Can't move the folder because there is a folder in the same location that can't be redirected." The normal workaround is to stop OneDrive from backing up the location of Documents, as described above. If this hasn't helped, you can change the location of Documents by editing the relevant registry entry: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720 Please be very careful when editing your computer's registry. One simple typo can have significant consequences. Make a backup before you do anything: click File > Export, and save a copy of the entire registry. If you mess up the edit, just restore the backup by double-clicking the saved file. You can check your work with the same Command Prompt command as above. This also applies to the Desktop and Pictures folders if they've previously been directed to OneDrive. ↑ My saves aren't in OneDrive If you don't use OneDrive, or you can't find your saves there, you can search your computer for the saves. Open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter Slot_ in the search field in the upper-right corner. When the scan finishes, if it's found any saves, click one and select the "Open file location" menu button (or right-click the file and select "Open file location"), and you'll jump to wherever the save is, which will hopefully be where the rest of your user files are. Move the saves and any other files you'd like to keep to the relevant subfolders within the Sims 4 folder the game is reading, as it appears in-game: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/ If your saves still aren't appearing in-game, please read this. If your content has disappeared, and it's not hidden on your computer and not in OneDrive, it's worth doing a virus scan. This is not to say you definitely have a virus, only that it's a good idea to check. Download Malwarebytes (the free trial is fine) from here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download Open it, click Scan > Custom Scan > Configure Scan, check all the boxes for all scans and for all your drives, and let it do its job. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, so you may want to set the scan to run while you're doing something else. If you'd like someone to take a look at the results, please start your own thread and attach the report. ↑ My saves still aren't appearing in-game The two common reasons your saves and other user files might not load in-game is that they're in the wrong folder or they're named improperly. To make sure the files are in the correct folder, load the game and find the full file path to that folder, as described here: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/ To see the full file path of a given file or folder, right-click it and select Properties > General, then look for the Location. If you're having trouble opening the correct folder, click This PC in a File Explorer window instead, then double-click the correct drive (probably C), and open the corresponding folders from there. OneDrive may also have renamed the saves to avoid duplicate files or folders. For example, after changing some settings back and forth, I wound up with this in my saves folder: Saves need to be named in a specific format: Slot_ followed by an eight-digit hexidecimal (base-16, so numbers 0 to 9, letters a to f) number followed by .save , with no extra characters. Each save needs to have a unique number as well. All of these are valid save names: Slot_00000006.save Slot_0000000c.save Slot_00000012.save In the above screenshot, for the affected saves (red arrows), I would delete the - Copy and the space and also renumber the saves, as other saves already have those same numbers. The order in which you number the saves doesn't matter. Choose whatever names are convenient for you, although Sims 4 has occasionally been unable to read saves that start with a digit other than 0. Saves with a .verx on the end are backups of your main saves: the game saves the data from the last five times you saved your progress before the current one. These can be renamed in the same way; once the .verx extension is deleted, the game will read these files as well. The same principles apply to Tray files: they need to be named properly and in the correct Tray folder. But because Tray file names can be more difficult to work with than saves, please start your own thread asking for help if you need it. In that case, include a screenshot or two of the contents of Tray so that the person helping you can identify the problem. Include the address bar, above the list of files, in the screenshot, as in my saves screenshot above. ↑
Wasn’t sure which forum to ask
This is more of a standard issue… my laptop LOVES to do this every now & then & it irritates me badly. So my laptop isn’t really recognizing that the game is open so when I walk away from my screen for too long it’ll turn dark then turn off completely. Like how when you’re actually only on your home screen doing nothing & it shuts off for inactivity. That’s what it’s currently doing even with the game open which it’s not supposed to do. Hate when this happens, even tried uninstalling the game completely & it didn’t make a difference. First it opened up as a small window, after i changed the settings in game so it’ll open up full screen but it’s like it’s still not recognized. Idk if anyone has any advice or if I’m stuck with it like this until it magically goes back to normal.[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Initialization Error
Overview This error is almost always related to permissions: the game cannot access or create the Sims 4 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts. This, in turn, is typically due to an overprotective antivirus. This guide is only for this specific error in Windows. Workarounds jump to: Change antivirus settings jump to: New Windows account jump to: Other suggestions Change antivirus settings The first step to try is to set exceptions/exclusions for Sims 4 and the EA App in your antivirus. Do so for all of these executables, or for the Bin folder that contains the Sims 4 .exe files: TS4_x64.exe TS4_DX9_x64.exe [only necessary if you want to use the DirectX 9 version] TS4_Launcher_x64.exe EADesktop.exe This guide covers setting exceptions for Windows Defender, Avast/AVG, and Sophos: https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html Other antivirus programs may work similarly, but if you're not sure how to set the exceptions, consult the online documentation from the publisher. Most offer instructions for this subject. Once you've set the exceptions, clear the EA App's cache and repair the game (EA App > Sims 4 > Manage > Repair OR Steam > Sims 4 > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of the game files). Then try again to play. If this doesn't help, disable your antivirus, temporarily of course; as long as you don't do anything else while it's disabled, your computer should be safe. Repair the game again, and try to play. If this works, you've confirmed that the AV is the issue, and you'll need to dig further into its settings to find what's blocking the game. If you can't play even with the AV disabled, please see below. Either way, be sure to reenable your antivirus when you're done testing. ↑ New admin Windows account It's possible that the problem is caused by a setting or broken permissions in your main Windows account, and the fastest way to test this theory is to create a new account. It must have admin rights (not a standard user account), and it must be local, as in, not connected to your Microsoft account. To create a new account, open Windows Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click "Add someone else to this PC" (under Other users, not Your family), click "I don't have this person's sign-in information," then "Add a user without a Microsoft account." Choose the username and password, answer some security questions, and you'll see the new account. Click it and select "Change account type" to make it an Administrator account if it's not already. It should say "Administrator - Local account" when you're done: Click ctrl-alt-delete, select Switch user, and sign into the new account. Then open the EA App (and Steam or the Epic launcher if applicable) and try to launch Sims 4. You shouldn't need to reinstall anything. Your saves and other user data won't be available, but that's fine for the purpose of this test. If Sims 4 works in the new account, it means the problem is contained to your old account. You can simply continue playing in the new account if you want. For any saves or other user data you'd like to transfer to the new account, sign into the old account again and copy the relevant files to C:\Users\Public. This folder is accessible from all user accounts; you can grab the files from there once you're in the new account. If you'd like to fix your old account, please try the suggestions in this thread after the "new Windows account" section: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running | EA Forums - 11818313 ↑ Other suggestions If the above suggestions didn't help, please try everything else in this thread, which is for a distinct but related error: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Already Running | EA Forums - 11818313 If those don't help either, please post in this thread asking for further help. Let me know whether you can play in the new admin Windows account or not: this is important diagnostic information. ↑[CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 Unable to Start, Game Data Missing or Damaged
Overview jump to: Workarounds Unable to start: Cannot start because game data is missing or damaged. If you have Mods installed please remove them and try again. If not, please repair or reinstall the game via Origin. [de4ee14f:29f00e76:00000000:4b0d852b] [Ignore the mention of Origin; this error message has not been updated.] This error can be caused by outdated or incompatible mods or custom content, as indicated in the text. So the first and simplest step is to remove your Mods folder and try again. If this works, great, you can now sort through your mods and cc to find the source of the error. You may want to use the 50/50 method if you have a lot of content to test. You can also check out @luthienrising's current "Broken/Obsolete and Updated Sims 4 Mods" thread, pinned to the top of the Game and Mod/CC Issues forum. This error can also be caused by a corrupt install of Sims 4, or the game being blocked from accessing the user folder. If the problem is not mods or cc, some testing may be required to identify the cause. Workarounds The idea here is to first narrow down the source of the problem, then identify and fix it. Please try these workarounds in order—they're listed from least to most time-consuming. jump to: Repair the game jump to: Pause OneDrive syncing jump to: Clean user folder jump to: New admin Windows account jump to: Reinstalling the game Some of these may be not be a convenient fix given your current setup. Where applicable, these sections also list alternate approaches, for example how to try to resolve a problem in your current Windows account when Sims 4 will only work in the new account. However, it's important to test each workaround as written in order to confirm or eliminate each potential source of error. Repair the game If the game's program files become corrupted, a repair may fix the problem. First, clear the EA App's cache: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/ If you've installed through the EA App, open its game library, click Sims 4, and select Manage > Repair. For a Steam install, open your Steam library, right-click the Sims 4 tile, and select Properties > Local files > Verify the integrity of the game files. ↑ Pause OneDrive syncing OneDrive can lock up the Sims 4 user folder, or any folder it's automatically syncing, for various reasons. The easiest way to diagnose this is to temporarily pause syncing. Right-click the cloud icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to see the option: If this helps, the underlying issue is OneDrive, and you may want or need to adjust your settings accordingly. You can choose which folders to sync, stop OneDrive from syncing your Sims 4 folder or all of Documents automatically, or get rid of OneDrive entirely. Please see this guide, specifically the "I don't want OneDrive to sync my files" and "I want to get rid of OneDrive" sections, for further help: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/m-p/12475370 ↑ Clean user folder Testing with a clean user folder, otherwise known as a factory reset, means temporarily removing all user data. This ensures that nothing from your existing folder is preventing Sims 4 from loading. Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, please see the OneDrive section above. Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game. Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just see whether you can get far enough to start a new save. If this works, you can start moving your content from the old Sims 4 folder to the new one, testing each time to make sure the game still loads. In each case, please move the files only, not the folder they're in, for example move the individual Tray files, not the entire Tray folder. Where the game has created a new file or folder, it's best to use that rather than your old copy. For further reading about the contents of the user folder and what you might want to preserve, please see this: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/user-files-explained/ While moving over your data, if and when you see the "already running" error again, you'll know that one of the files you just moved is the problem, and you can split and retest that batch until you find out which one. For mods and custom content, the 50/50 method can make the process much more efficient. A single file or folder that prevents the game from launching is not recoverable; you'll need to delete it, or in the case of mods or cc, find an updated, compatible version. ↑ New admin Windows account It's possible that the problem is caused by a setting or broken permissions in your main Windows account, and the fastest way to test this theory is to create a new account. It must have admin rights (not a standard user account), and it must be local, as in, not connected to your Microsoft account. To create a new account, open Windows Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click "Add someone else to this PC" (under Other users, not Your family), click "I don't have this person's sign-in information," then "Add a user without a Microsoft account." Choose the username and password, answer some security questions, and you'll see the new account. Click it and select "Change account type" to make it an Administrator account if it's not already. It should say "Administrator - Local account" when you're done: Click ctrl-alt-delete, select Switch user, and sign into the new account. Then open the EA App (and Steam or the Epic launcher if applicable) and try to launch Sims 4. You shouldn't need to reinstall anything. Your saves and other user data won't be available, but that's fine for the purpose of this test. If Sims 4 works in the new account, it means the problem is contained to your old account. You can simply continue playing in the new account if you want. For any saves or other user data you'd like to transfer to the new account, sign into the old account again and copy the relevant files to C:\Users\Public. This folder is accessible from all user accounts; you can grab the files from there once you're in the new account. If you would like to continue playing in the old account, here are additional steps you can take: Confirm that the Documents directory is in the correct location Reset permissons on Documents Run a malware scan ↑ Reinstalling the game If the above workarounds don't help, a simple uninstall/reinstall may not fix the problem either. Instead, please clean-uninstall Sims 4 and the EA App. (It should not be necessary to uninstall Steam or the Epic launcher if you happen to use either one, but the EA App should be removed in any case.) You will not lose access to any DLC you own. For Sims 4: Put aside your Sims 4 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts and rename it to something that doesn't include the words "Sims 4." Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here. Launch Revo, select Sims 4 from the list, and click Uninstall. Cancel the system restore point; you don't need it and it occupies extra space. Once the game is uninstalled, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan. Review the list, in case there's something you want to save; otherwise, click Select All, and then Delete. Close Revo, and restart your computer. For the EA App: Launch Revo, select the App, and click Uninstall. Cancel the system restore point. The EA App may open a window. Click Uninstall, then in the Revo window, click Moderate under Scanning modes, and click Scan. Revo will present a list of registry entries. Click Select All, then Delete: you don't need or want to preserve these entries. For the leftover files and folders, click Select All, review the list and deselect anything you'd like to keep (this is unlikely, but it's worth checking), click Delete, and you're done. Close Revo, and restart your computer. Install the EA App, then create a new folder into which you'll install Sims 4. The folder should be on the root level of the drive of your choice, for example C:\Games is fine, but not C:\Program Files\Games. If you use a third-party antivirus, disable it before reinstalling the EA App, and don't reenable it until you've tried to launch Sims 4 at least once. As long as you don't do anything else while reinstalling, your computer should be safe. If the game works, set exceptions for TS4_DX9_x64.exe (if you've set Sims 4 to use DirectX 9) and/or TS4_x64.exe (for DX11) as well as EADesktop.exe. Test the game once before restoring any user data as well. If it works, you can slowly add back your saves and other data from the old Sims 4 folder, the one you renamed prior to uninstalling the game. If and when Sims 4 stops loading again, remove the last group of files you added, and split and test progressively smaller batches until you find the culprit. Where the game has created a new file or folder, it's best to use that rather than your old copy. For further reading about the content of the user folder and what you might want to preserve, please see this: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/user-files-explained/ ↑ If none of these workarounds fixes the problem, try the suggestions in this thread for a distinct but related error: [CURRENT ISSUE] Sims 4 already running | EA Forums - 11818313 If nothing there helps either, please post in this thread asking for further help. Let me know whether Sims 4 ever ran in the new Windows account, even temporarily. Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to your post. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.HELP PLEASE
I have a laptop 5060 gpu and i start up sims and the game is so tectonically slow it’s actually depressing. I can run GTA 5 with ultra settings and full graphics mods and my pc doesn’t even break a sweat. But with sims 4 i cant even move my mouse around without it lagging like crazy, before i get suggestions on lowering graphics. I have. I looked into the GPU config to find there’s no listed laptop 5060 gpu. I then went into my documents and sims 4, went into config and my device isn’t listed there either. What do i do because i don’t even want to play the game it’s for some else using my laptop and it’s frustrating us both.
