I having troubles with Origin on the Mac

[Keira_bruh]

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@Bluebellflora wrote:
@Keira_bruh

It may be because of the new security updates in Catalina preventing your Mac from opening an application on an external drive. Can you move the game to your Applications folder, update the location in Origin, and see if you can load it?

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No, I can't, my laptop doesn't have enough in it for me to move the game to the Applications folder

[dzm06]

@Keira_bruhJust to make sure I've followed you so far:

In the Origin client what do you see "Game library location" field at: "Origin menu -> Preferences -> Installs & Saves"? The default path there is something like "/Users/Kaira/Applications". What happens if you select and copy that path, then switch to the Finder, pres Command+Shift+G to open the "Go to folder" box, paste that path into the box, and click "Go"? Does Finder open the folder?

If Finder opens the folder but Origin does not, let's see if Origin has all the access it needs. Go to AppleMenu -> System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy. Scroll down the list on the left until you see the "Full Disk Access" option and select it. Does teh Origin client appear in the list on the right? Make sure the check box next to it is ticked (you may need to "unlock" the padlock on the bottom left of the window to do this). Does that make any difference?

[Keira_bruh]

@dzm06 Yes, Finder opened the folder and Origin has full access but I still can't click the "change folder" option to switch the location of the game back to my external drive. When I click the option, Origin freezes but nothing happens.

[Foreman2188]

I’m having the same problem. I try to click “change location” button but I get a spinning wheel then nothing happens.

[dzm06]

Rather than clicking the button, are you able to directly edit the path currently there? Something like

/Volumes/ExternalDD/Folder

where “ExternalDD” is the name of your mounted drive and “Folder” is the name of the Folder on that drive where you want things stored.

[Keira_bruh]

@dzm06 I can't edit the path either. When I try to I get the spinning wheel.

[Foreman2188]

Same issue here. I’ve been trying to follow the path on my computer and try to manipulate it that way but that seems a bit pointless.

[Keira_bruh]

@Foreman2188 I'm talking to someone with EA right now if tell they anything that works I'll come here and update you guys.

[Foreman2188]

Thank you so much @Keira_bruh I’ve been trying to get a hold of someone from EA for like two days. Chat keeps getting disconnected and I fell asleep waiting for a call back from them. I really appreciate any help.

[dzm06]

@Keira_bruh @Foreman2188 - Good news: I've reproduced the problem you guys are seeing about not being able to change paths. No GUI from the "change folder" button, spinning beachball-o'-doom for a second or so, no other action. I used the AppleScipt utility at https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/origin/origin/how-to-reset-origin-on-mac/ to reset Origin. That didn't improve anything. The paths are still unchangable. But! I MIGHT have a workaround. Maybe.

I haven't reproduced your "folder not found" error so I don't know if this will actually fix that problem, but I HAVE proven locally that this process will allow Origin to see a folder that is not in the default location.

1. Quit Origin
2. Open a terminal window from /Applications/Utilities
3. Move your local Applications folder to a new spot, then create a symlink from the new location to the original location. In my example I move my local Applications folder to the Desktop, then create a symlink back to the original location:

mv ~/Applications ~/Desktop ; ln -s ~/Desktop/Applications ~/Applications

4. Relaunch Origin
5. Try to launch TS4. In my local test I saw Origin want to verify the game and packages; I saw Catalina ask for permission for TS4 to access files/folders from the Desktop; and then TS4 launch

Things important to keep in mind here:

* You shouldn't copy/paste commands from the Internet to your command line and run them unless you're confident you know what they're doing. Ask me if any of the commands are unclear to you.
* The command line above is combining two commands to be run in rapid succession. This is important because macOS will create a new, empty Applications folder in your home directory if it doesn't find one there. This gets in the way of the symlink, so do it as noted above to prevent that from happening.
* Since I am unable to recreate your "can't find the folder" or "the disk isn't mounted" errors, I don't actually know if this works around those problems. All I DO know is that this uses operating system tools to put the default directories into new locations without the Origin app needing to know the details. If there is some issue that is preventing Origin from seeing those folders anyway, this will (probably) do nothing to fix it.
* The ~/Applications folder is used to put other Applications for your user on macOS (this folder is for the specific user and is not system-wide). Moving it out of the way might cause other apps to behave unexpectedly. Caveat emptor.