Sims 4 Won't Launch

[MrsRiffly]

I'm am getting incredibly disheartened and if anyone could help me that would be absolutely wonderful. Almost a week ago I was playing the Sims 4 (with CC) when I closed out of sims to add a new mod in. Once doing so, the game refused to launch. All it would do is have the 'play' button darken and the cursor would load and nothing would happen. After days of trying almost every fix on the internet, I'm at my last hurrah. I need help. 

I've tried uninstalling the game and origin (many, many times), and launching the game with completely new/clean files and the game will not launch. I have tried clean rebooting my computer, updating windows 10, making sure my graphics card and drivers are up to date. I've cleared the %temp% files and reset all of my user files. I've deactivated Origin in-game, let Sims 4 and Origin past my threat protection and firewall, though in desperation is it now completely off (come get me viruses!). I've cleaned my registries and repair the Sims game itself, but alas it has still only made it to that dreaded little spinny loading symbol on my spider-man cursor.

I've tried to see if its loading in the background and not launching, but the game doesn't even appear in my task manager or details. I've tried a lot more options as well, but my brain is quite frazzled at this point honestly and I'm losing hope of ever drowning innocent sims in a pool again. If anyone has any suggestions or black magic they are willing to work, I would honestly appreciate any help. Thank you!

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@MrsRiffly  Please switch back to the 64-bit version of Sims 4, and undo any compatibility mode settings.  The game doesn't need that, plus it only complicates troubleshooting.

Origin is crashing repeatedly, probably while you try to play.  Please clear its cache, then uninstall it "the hard way"; this shouldn't affect your installed games.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

Restart your computer, download the full installer, and run it as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."  This is a direct download link:

http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe

If you still can't launch the game, open Origin, hover over your username, select Application Settings, and under the Application header, scroll down to Startup options, and disable the web helper service.  Then click the Origin in-game header and disable Origin in-game (the first option).  Close Origin and reopen it, then try to launch the game again.

If that doesn't work, please move your entire Sims 4 user data folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to this folder yet; just let me know whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.  If you can't, please run another dxdiag.

[tylerrjosephhhh]

Having the exact same issue. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@MrsRiffly  No black magic here, I swear, and anyone who suggests differently willl certainly not suffer any mysterious affliction.

Do you have OneDrive set to automatically sync the contents of Documents with cloud storage?  Even if you don't think you set it up, please check anyway.  If this is the issue, you can either disable OneDrive entirely, or prevent it from auto syncing Documents.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/choose-which-onedrive-folders-to-sync-to-your-computer-98b8...

If that's not the issue, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

@tylerrjosephhhh  Please post a dxdiag as well, and let me know which troubleshooting steps, if any, you've taken so far.

[MrsRiffly]

Thank you so much for coming to my aid! I turned off OneDrive entirely,  but alas, Sims still won't launch in 64 or 32 bit mode. I've run a dxdiag though and attatched it here.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@MrsRiffly  Please switch back to the 64-bit version of Sims 4, and undo any compatibility mode settings.  The game doesn't need that, plus it only complicates troubleshooting.

Origin is crashing repeatedly, probably while you try to play.  Please clear its cache, then uninstall it "the hard way"; this shouldn't affect your installed games.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

Restart your computer, download the full installer, and run it as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."  This is a direct download link:

http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe

If you still can't launch the game, open Origin, hover over your username, select Application Settings, and under the Application header, scroll down to Startup options, and disable the web helper service.  Then click the Origin in-game header and disable Origin in-game (the first option).  Close Origin and reopen it, then try to launch the game again.

If that doesn't work, please move your entire Sims 4 user data folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to this folder yet; just let me know whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.  If you can't, please run another dxdiag.

[MrsRiffly]

I just tried everything you had posted for me, (sorry it took so long, Animal Crossings was there for me when Sims hated me), and my game launches! I honestly appreciate your help so much, I'm excited to play again. Thank you!!