Spore crashes at startup - macOS Sierra 10.12.6

[Proteus-846]

It seems like all Spore has ever done since I bought it was cause me trouble.

I have Spore on my MacBook Pro, running macOS 10.12.6 (Sierra). I can start the game and I'll get the splash screen, but it immediately crashes... I've checked a bunch of places, including elsewhere on these forums, but I can't figure out how to get it running again.

I checked in Origin and for some reason it says I don't even own the game... which is insane because I definitely do and have played it quite a bit in the past. (I'm pretty sure all my other posts on the EA forums are about this game, aside from a one-time issue with another game) I can't find the email or product code anymore, so I'm afraid to delete it but I don't think there's any other way to do it. Origin says I can buy it for $4.99 but I don't want to spend any more money on a game I bought years ago that likely wouldn't even work anyway through Origin because... well... you know... EA. Yeah.

Any help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Does my EA Account have an online list of past purchases, since Origin is worthless and I can't find the email? Is there another way to recover my product key and get Origin to recognize it?

[Freggi-Liz]

Hi @Proteus-846

Please click here for more assistance and contact a gane advisor
https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/

I can't help in  account problems

[GrimApachexx]

@Proteus-846 
Hey, you can try the following link and clear the origin cache for your mac and that should fix the issue of "Buy the game"
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/origin-my-games-list-is-blank/

Also, the game was launched back in 2008 and iOS is the latest. So compatibility issues will be there. But trying the above instructions should fix the issue for you.

[Armand_Swinton]

Hi! So, have you fixed the issue? I'm trying to launch the game on macOS Sierra as well and I'm having the same problem

[Freggi-Liz]

Hi together

we have a ton of tips here. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Spore/Spore-Account-Creation-or-Login-Issues-FAQ/m-p/1428048#M1865

Refresh login.prop on mac, this is the direct path

~/Library/Preferences/SPORE Preferences/p_drive/User/Application Data/Spore/Preferences/login.prop

More tips can be found here (Below are some compatibility tips)

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Spore/Read-before-posting-Spore-MASTER-FAQ-for-PC-amp-MAC/m-p/4802582#M596...

~Liz

[Armand_Swinton]

Hi! I think I've tried all of your tips already and they don't seem to work. I still can't launch the game via Origin.

The only thing is that I managed to launch Spore via cider_noui (it is a file in Spore.app -> Contents -> MacOS -> cider_noui). This way I don't interact with Origin and the game seems to work fine.

But this won't work for Galactic Adentures: when I try launching Galactic Adventures with cider_noui (which is in the Galactic Adventures.app), it launches the vanilla Spore (not Galactic Adventures).

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!

[Freggi-Liz]

Nope, no further ideas.

Contact a game advisor, maybe they have another solution

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new

http://answers.ea.com/t5/Origin/How-to-contact-an-Advisor-via-EA-Help/td-p/5650100

~Liz

[AtLeast4char13]

after trying different things for an hour, I double clicked on cider_noui and the game started up.  I was amazed.  I had actually tried running ./cider_noui from the command line and that failed a couple times.  I also tried "disabling origin" from the Origin:Spore:Properties, then when I double clicked cider_noui it worked...

[Freggi-Liz]

It's great to hear that it runs ..