Fix: Sims 4 won’t open

There have been many reports by players that upon clicking the Sims 4 launcher, the application doesn’t respond and shows no signs of processing. There is no action seen and it is as if you haven’t clicked the launcher at all. Furthermore, you may also experience the Sims 4 play option greyed out.

This phenomenon particularly arose in late 2014 and 2017 and was considered one of the greatest bugs in the game. This error message is triggered because of various reasons and is usually fixed without any major technical solution. Take a look at the workarounds listed below:

Solution 1: Repairing Sims 4

Before we start looking for other irregularities in the game, we should check if there are any bad configurations or corrupt files in your game structure. Games constantly update every once in a while to improve bugs or to add new features. It is possible that while updating the game modules, some of them didn’t get installed correctly or have missing files. We will try repairing the game so all of this can be fixed by the client itself.

1. Launch Origin using its launcher and navigate to “My Games”.
2. Locate your Sims game, right-click it and select “Repair Game”.

3. Wait for the process to complete fully. Do a restart and check if you can successfully launch the game.

Solution 2: Disabling Antivirus Software

The reason why this error might occur again and again is that of interference from Antivirus software installed on your computer. There are several options that protect your computer by also monitoring different applications running and the kind of resources they are using.

In this solution, you have to explore yourself and see if there are any settings in your antivirus which might be providing these services. Furthermore, you should add Sims 4 as an exception to prevent all of these problems from happening.

If you are unable to still fix the problem, you can disable the antivirus completely.  Restart your computer after disabling and see if you can access the sites without any problem.

Solution 3: Checking Third-party Programs and already Running instances

It is of no surprise that third-party applications always compete for resources on your system and may cause Sims 4 to act unnaturally and cause unexpected errors. Furthermore, it was also seen that there was already an instance of Sims 4 running in the background. If a program is already running, it may not be possible for another instance of it.

1. Press Windows + R, type “taskmgr” in the dialogue box, and press Enter.
2. Once in the task manager, you have to look for two things; first, you should check if there are any instances of Sims 4 running on your computer. If there are, you should close them and try running Sims 4 again from the launcher. The second thing you are looking for is programs. Any type of program which may consume resources or maybe running the background. Some examples are Raptr and Overwolf.

3. End the task and try launching the game again.

Solution 4: Power Cycling your Computer

Power cycling is an act of turning off a computer completely off and then on again. Reasons for power cycling include having an electronic device reinitialize its set of configurations parameters or recover from an unresponsive state or module. It is also used to reset all the network configurations as they are all lost when you turn the laptop completely off.

1. To Power Cycle your laptop shut it down properly and remove all the wires from it.
2. Next, remove the battery properly and detach it. Press the Power button for 1 minute.
3. Now, wait for around 2-3 minutes before plugging the battery back in. The reason for taking out the battery is to make sure that all the capacitors are discharged correctly and all the current data stored in RAM is lost. After turning the laptop back on, check if the problem got solved.

In case of a PC, shut it down completely, disconnect all modules and take out the main power cable. Now after waiting for the required time, plug everything back in and check if this solved the problem.

Solution 5: Running in Compatibility Mode

Another thing which we can try before indulging in other technical workarounds is running Sims in compatibility mode for other versions of Windows. There have been numerous reports that launching the game in compatibility mode fixed the problem instantly. The compatibility mode launches the game with settings and configurations for an earlier version of the operating system instead of the latest one installed on your computer.

1. Right-click on Sims 4 application and select “Properties”.
2. Once in properties, select the Compatibility Check the option Run this program in compatibility mode for and select another operating system. Preferably go with Windows 8 or 7.

3. Press Apply to save changes and exit. Now restart your computer completely and check if the problem got solved.

Solution 6: Checking Mods in Sims 4

Another thing which you should check is the mods you use in your game. Mods are in reality single files that modify the behavior of the game by overriding some stock settings and functionality. They are not developed by the game developers. Instead, they are developed by individuals or game enthusiasts.

1. Move your mods folder to your Desktop. Cut paste the entire folder.
2. Now start the game. If the problem was pertaining to any of the mod being corrupt, the game will launch without any problems. If the game starts, follow the next steps.
3. Now open the mod folder in your Desktop, copy a few of the mods, and paste them in the new mod folder generated automatically by the game. Now try playing it.

4. If the game does play, you can copy another batch of mods into the folder and try again. When the game stops running, you can easily identify which mod is giving the problem so you can isolate it.

Solution 7: Creating a new Administrator User Account

Another thing we can try is creating a new user account. This is a known problem in Windows where a user accounts get corrupt or due to some modules getting damaged, some functions in the user profile fail to work as expected.

You can check out our guide on how to make a new user account and transfer all the existing data to it. Before transferring any data, make sure that Sims 4 is working perfectly in the new user account. If it is, only then transfers the data and delete your old profile. It is recommended to back up your important data before executing this solution.

Solution 8: Prompting for a Download

Another trick we can try is to prompt Origin to install Sims 4 on your computer again. This will force Origin to reevaluate all the files and initialize the download progress. We will cleverly trick Origin to think that the entire file has been downloaded so it will start the game and treat it like it was just installed.

1. Close Origin Use the task manager to end its process as well.
2. Now navigate to the following directory:

C:\program files (x86)\origin games\

The location might be a little different depending on where you initially installed the game.

Here a folder named ‘Sims 4’ will be located. Copy the entire folder to any temporary location such as D:\Temp.

3. Now launch Origin and try to launch Sims 4. It will prompt you to download the entire package. Instead of downloading the entire thing, close Origin again.
4. Now move the Sims 4 folder from the temporary location back to this one and replace the newly created folder if necessary.
5. Now launch Origin again and check if you can launch the game without any problems.

Solution 9: Reinstalling Origin

Origin is an online gaming, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Electronic Arts that allows users to purchase games on the internet for PC and mobile platforms, and download them with the Origin client. You must be using this to play Sims 4 on your computer.

1. Copy the Sims 4 folder from Origin manually to some other location and uninstall the application completely.
2. Once the application is uninstalled, navigate to the official website and download the client again.

3. Now copy the Sims 4 folder back into Origin and refresh the client properly. Hopefully, the game will be detected and will be able to launch with a fresh copy of Origin.

Tip: If you are still facing problems, try launching the application in ‘Offline’ mode and see if this does the trick. You can also try clearing the cache.

Solution 10: Clean Booting your Computer

If all the above solutions don’t work, we can try Clean Booting. This boot allows your PC to turn on with a minimal set of drivers and programs. Only the essential ones are enabled while all the other services are disabled. If the error doesn’t occur in this mode, you should enable the processes back on only with small chunks and check if the error returns. If it doesn’t, you can turn on another chunk and check. This way you will be able to diagnose which process is causing the problem.

1. Press Windows + R to launch the Run application. Type “msconfig” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the Services tab present at the top of the screen. Check the line which says “Hide all Microsoft services”. Once you click this, all Microsoft related services will be disabled leaving behind all the third-party services (you can also disable all Microsoft related processes too and check more extensively if there are no third-party services causing the problem).
3. Now click the “Disable all” button present at the near bottom at the left side of the window. All the third-party services will now be disabled.
4. Click Apply to save changes and exit.

5. Now navigate to the Startup tab and click the option of “Open Task Manager”. You will be redirected to the task manager where all the applications/services which run when your computer starts will be listed.

6. Select each service one by one and click “Disable” at the bottom right side of the window.

7. Now restart your computer and check if you can launch Sims 4 correctly. If you can, enable a small chunk (explained at the start) and then check again. If you diagnose a specific service, you can try restarting or disabling it using the services window. If it is an application causing the problem, you can uninstall it with ease.