Sims 4 Crashes Every 5 Minutes on Macbook after September 2020 Update

[Bluebellflora]

@annaroccaa

Thanks. I've remerged your posts and added them to this specific thread on the issues with 16" MacBook Pros. Please see the suggestions in the opening post on page 1. Disabling automatic graphics switching is fixing it for most people.

[TheodorableTeddy]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:Mac
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Often (50% - 99%)
What is your current game version number? 1.65.47.1220
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? eco lifestyle, cats and dogs, dine out, parenthood, tiny living, nifty knitting, vintage glamour,
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? on a 16 inch MacBook pro from 2019 go in the sims 4 go in to bild mode and and bild a room although it might just work for you I don't know
What happens when the bug occurs? for a millisecond the room is bild but I can see that all floor tiles are nw invisible if on the ground I can see through the ground if on a second level I can see through the the floor or to whatever I below then it crashes. if it doesn't all that happens is I get what femmes to be a rendering glitch from the front left side of the lot. every single time I try to create a fully enclosed room it does not I saw a player named xkathyyyy appeared to have the same issue in 2016 on a MacBook Air with stood out to me baby its a problem with Mac laptops I dont know I just thought it was worth pointing out also one of these scenarios happens every time I've tried to play
What do you expect to see? a room fully enclosed with all of the floor tiles rendering correctly and the game does not crash
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? No

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whenever I try to bild a fully enclosed room in the sims the game just crashes or load a lot with a fully enclosed room or make a room with a floor walls but no celling have a ceiling  if it docent crash floor tiles don't render its too annoying becuse I can't bild without the stress of oh I hope my game doesn't crash please fix I also can't place robot vacuums becuse of it

[TheodorableTeddy]

@TheodorableTeddythis is the google drive link of a screen recording I took I am on the latest path here and ye I am taking a video of a screen recording don't ask its a long story

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x0JiQiS8BoBlZZ0wAz0qiZ_xVVy0MlcC/view?usp=sharing

[Ventronica]

For those that are still having issues with the game's "Display Mode" being stuck in "Windowed" mode despite being in "Fullscreen" and this resulting in Edge Scrolling no longer working it is worth noting whether or not the Mac has more than one user and account on it.  I found that a simple restart of the computer seems to be a temporary workaround at least until the other user logs in and at that point I need to restart again.

I have already tried downloading gfxCardStatus (from gfx.io), set the graphics card to "Discrete Only" and not only confirmed that the game was staying in Discrete mode while the game is launched but also tried Disabling the Energy Saver > "Automatic graphics switching" as well to no avail.  The only thing I didn't try is upgrading to Big Sur but only because it seems ridiculous when I have a workaround that just requires me to restart the machine.

There are some very interesting hypotheses and suggestions in this thread but its just disappointing that EA has not come up with a fix for the game since there are only a fixed number of Mac computers and setups and getting Apple to fi anything is like getting Microsoft to fix something (very unlikely).

Thanks and good luck to those who are stuck with this problem!

*Edit: Disabling Retina Mode and re-enabling seemed to help as well.  I did not have any luck with CTRL + CMD + F hot key combinations either as it usually just caused scaling problems with my screen and game.

[Bluebellflora]

@TheodorableTeddy

Yep, it's an issue with the GPU in 16" MacBook Pros. Please see the opening post for suggestions to fix it. Most people have found disabling Automatic Graphics Switching in System Preferences fixes it. You may need to download gfxCardStatus, more info is in the solution on page 1.

[Ventronica]

@Bluebellflora 

I'm not so sure because I still have the same issue even with the card set to "Discrete Only".  I still have issues with the app recognizing that I am in fullscreen and the setting still shows Windowed Mode unless I restart my computer (which was my original workaround before I even read this thread).  

I'm still hoping that there is an update to the game that will fix this but I'm doubtful.  I also really don't want to lose all of my game progress since I've tried reinstalling several times but am new to TS4 (on Mac) and have not figured out which files to backup and move to ensure that I don't lose the families/games that I've saved. I was hoping you could point me in the right direction to figuring out where these files are located so I'm more inclined to try some other measures to fix this.

Anyway, thanks for your help pushing this thread forward!

[Bluebellflora]

@Ventronica

All your saves, Library items, settings and other user data is stored in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4. That's the folder to backup.

With it set to only use the dedicated GPU, have you noticed it erroneously switching to the Intel chip right before it freezes/crashes? This is what other users have reported which is why they have downloaded gfxCardStatus.

[TheodorableTeddy]

@Bluebellflora I do not see automatic graphics in system preferences as of searching for it. I am also confused on how do I get to page one. it may come as no surprise but I am not a peculiarly tech savvy person, I also do not know what a"gfx card states" is and after googling it appears to be something for 2010 Macs my Mac is less than a year old and everything is from the factory. when this bug first appeared I was under the impression it was becuse of the game, but what you are suggesting (I think) is that it is whith my Mac If it is with the software it is less of a problem if hardware I wold rather just use a different computer and then if I did that this MacBook whole be the third computer I tried to run the sims on and the failed to run the sims on and I wold probably think I was cursed then. sort for any trouble I am causing you and I do not mean to be a nuisance. thank you

[Bluebellflora]

@TheodorableTeddy 

System Preferences > Energy Saver > Automatic graphics Switching

gfxCardStatus is a 3rd party app. It runs in macOS Catalina, as others have confirmed in this thread, so will run on your 16" MacBook Pro.

No nuisance

[omanasim21]

My sims game is blurry. I have tried repairing, deleting options.ini, etc. I have an external monitor and tried unplugging to see if the graphics change at all - they do not improve. I downloaded the system graphics program to choose discrete only, no change. I toggled on and off laptop mode. When I do change to full screen mode it stays in windows mode and the graphics are small on the screen - sometimes in windows mode the mouse does not register in the correct location on the game. 

2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB

**Edit enabling retina helped with graphics but immediately crashed the game upon opening.