Unable to start: The Sims 4 is already running - Mac only
If you're experiencing this error message it doesn't mean your game is already running, the actual message itself is incorrect. It means The Sims 4 cannot access the Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder to load your user data when you attempt to launch the game. This is essentially a permissions issue which can be resolved based on your setup: - If you have just installed or reinstalled the game - If you have iCloud Drive enabled and it is syncing your Desktop & Documents folders - If you have recently updated your Mac or the game - If you have moved your Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder to an external drive and created a symlink in your Documents folder ______________________________________________________________ If you have just installed or reinstalled the game: You would have been prompted to allow The Sims 4 permission to access the Documents folder, this is security built into macOS. This is so it can access the Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder in your Documents folder, if one already exists, or create a new one if it doesn't exist. If you clicked Don't Allow when prompted the game cannot read and write to the Documents folder, resulting in the error message. Fix - Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files and Folders (you will need to use an Mac Administrator account to access this) and enable access to the Documents folder by clicking the toggle on: If you do not see this option open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access (you will need to use a Mac Administrator account to access this). Click the + in the bottom left corner, below the list of apps. A Finder window will open to the Applications folder. Navigate to where your game is installed, by default this is Applications > EA Games, click on it and then click Open. It will now be added to the Full Disk Access list. Make sure it is toggled on. Whilst giving the game Full Disk Access isn't ideal, and shouldn't be necessary, it is a quick and easy solution to fixing the error message and the game is signed and notarised by Apple. ______________________________________________________________ If you have iCloud Drive enabled and it is syncing your Desktop & Documents folders: This is a really common cause of this error message and is as a result of your Mac storage being full resulting in iCloud pushing the entire Documents folder to the cloud. The game cannot see the Documents folder and its contents because it is not local on your machine, therefore it cannot access the Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder to load user data at launch. Fix - Open System Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > Drive and disable the Desktop & Documents folders syncing. Be aware of the effect this will have if you use multiple Apple devices to access these folders: ______________________________________________________________ If you have recently updated your Mac or the game: Sometimes permissions can go awry after updating the OS or you have been prompted to change settings after updating and inadvertently clicked the wrong thing. Fix - check all of the applicable settings in the instructions above ______________________________________________________________ If you have moved your Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder to an external drive and created a symlink in your Documents folder: There can be multiple reasons for the error message when a symlink has been set up but they are all caused by the game not being able to access the Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 folder: your external drive is not plugged in and properly mounted. Check the drive is plugged in and showing in Finder/on your Desktop. your symlink is broken. This can be checked by looking at the symlinked folder in your Documents folder. If the icon is a white file and not a folder it is broken. Trash it and recreate the symlink in Terminal. If you have further issues refer to the dedicated symlink thread opening post. the game does not have access to Removable Volumes (external drives) in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files and Folders. You would have been prompted to give permission when launching the game for the first time after successfully creating the symlink and maybe denied it. Give the game access: you have iCloud Drive syncing your Desktop & Documents folders to the cloud which does not work well with the symlink. Disable it (see above for further instruction). your external drive has not been ejected properly multiple times resulting in the OS changing the mount point. Check Disk Utility and rectify, see the dedicated symlink thread opening post for further instruction. ______________________________________________________________ If you're still stuck a really quick and easy way to resolve this is to create a new Administrator account on your Mac and play the game in that account. When you first launch the game in that account you will be prompted to give all the necessary permissions for the game to access the Documents folder - make sure you allow it 😊
Update Won't Load My Save Files
I've not opened my game since last week. Upon hearing the noise surrounding the marketplace release, I open my game to find NONE of my sims where accessible in the gallery. All my Save files have been located on my desktop, so why aren't I able to play my sims as normal?
Forever loading
Help! Yesterday, my game went onto a load page and hasn't gone back. I'm not able to shut off the game, and I'm relatively new to Sims and using a Mac, so I'm not 100% sure on how everything works. I hope not to lose my progress on things. I've also recently had problems with Sims freezing, but time progressed, I ignored it as I thought it was my wifi or something. I cannot find the repair button in the EA app. Even pressing quit in the dock won't work. Please help :(sims 4 won't launch (Mac)
so I was just having my daily game Time, until I closed my game. And later that day when I tried to open/launch it it just wouldn't. moved away all my mods (even tho I didn't download anything) and even tried repairing like 5 times already. it won't open launch but says I "played " the game...(the counting minutes/hours number did not rise) haven't played since 23th. playing on Mac, haven't tried re-downloading the game cuz it takes like 2 days. does anybody have any tips or solutions I would be BEYOND grateful I have a about 3 weeks till I need to leave the country would like to play on the plane. ea app normally opens.Loading Screen Hanging
I have just installed Sims 4. I haven't gotten to the point of playing the game because the loading screen keeps getting stuck. This can happen after I exit CAS or Building Mode or anywhere where I am switching modes/screens. The game doesn't not respond, it just hangs. To get out of it, I have to force quit the game via the 'Apple > Force Quit' menu. Here are my specs: Operating System: Sequoia 15.6 Mac Model: MacBook Pro 14-Inch, Nov 2024 Processor/Chip: Apple M4 Max Memory: 36GB Storage Space: 420.9 GB available of 994.66 GB No antivirus or cleaning apps Thus far I have: 1. Repaired the game. 2. Renamed the game in 'Documents > Electronic Arts' to 'The Sims 4 Old' and restarted the game. 3. Uninstalled the game and the EA app and reinstalled. 4. Set the graphics quality for 'Sims', 'Objects', and 'Lighting' to 'Low' and set 'Edge Smoothing' to 'Off' in 'Game Options > Graphics' 5. Set the 'Display Type' in 'Game Options > Graphics' to 'Windowed'. 6. Set to 'Go Offline' in the EA app under 'Account > Go Offline'. 7. Checked the 'Vertical Sync' in 'Game Options > Graphics'. 8. Checked that my iCloud is not syncing with my 'Documents' folder. 9. Closed every app other than the game. 10. Granted permissions under 'System Settings > Privacy and Security' for 'Sims 4' and 'EA App'. I edited the text file in EA Games > The Sims 4 > Contents > res > Camera.ini to set the value for ClickDragEnabled to true under '[advanced]'. However, I can't see how this would create the issues I'm experiencing. The repair function sets the file back to the original and the problem occurs whether the edited file is running or not. Other than that I have no mods, official game extensions/packs, or cc installed. This is a strictly vanilla brand new and never played install. When I first start a new save, I get the 'Unrecognized Video Card' error (see attached screenshot). After seeing the message, I exit and then restart. From research, though, I understand this shouldn't be causing the error. If anyone has any suggestions on what else I could try, I would be grateful to hear it. According to the requirements for the game, my machine is well within them, but maybe it is just unplayable on my machine/setup.Lost All Saves / Video Card Issue
First issue that happened was after going into EA like normal to open sims 4 I got the message that the game was already running (which it did not seem like it was) and then got a pop up with something like “do you want sims 4 to access a folder on this computer” (I can’t remember the exact wording) and I accidentally clicked no. After that, when opening sims I get the message “UNRECOGNIZED VIDEO CARD Your video card is not recognized in our database. We have optimized your graphics settings for improved performance.” Along with this message none of my saved games show up and the main home screen opens prompting me to create a household as if I've never played before. After searching around online I tried what I thought was a simple fix to rename the sims folder “sims_old” and reopen the game and then copy the saves folder from “old” over to the new sims folder that is created. When I did this weirdly the only game that loaded was one from 2018. I have no mods installed and I checked my I cloud storage to set it to not save my game to the cloud. Compared to any actual gamer I am not great with computers and this is really the only game I play so I wanted to get advice before I mess things up any further. I’m so mad at myself because I’ve spent over a year on the current house / family I have and don’t want to lose everything. Let me know if there is any additional information that I can provide to try and fix this, any help is very appreciated! Edit: I also have now made sure to allow The Sims 4 permission to access the Documents folder, still having the same issue of only seeing the very old saved game === Graphics device info === Number: 0 Name (driver): Intel HD Graphics 615 Name (database): [Found: 0, Supported: 1] Vendor: Intel Chipset: Vendor: 8086, Device: 591e, Board: 00000178, Chipset: 0002 Driver: Intel(R) HD Graphics 615, Version: 0.10.32.48 Driver version: 48 Monitor: 00000000 Texture memory: 1536MB Vertex program: 4.10 Pixel program: 4.10 Hardware TnL: 0 Opt. features: +sab +a8l8 -rgba16f +r32f -bc4 -bc5 -rawz -intz
