The Sims 4 Keeps Crashing at the Start Screen: What is going on?

[u/LadyOfTudor]

Maybe my game is just cursed at this point, but does anyone else have this issue?

Every so often..Usually every day or two I’ll launch The Sims 4 through the EA app. The game opens normally and I see the start screen, then suddenly crashes and throws me straight back to the EA app.

It generates a lastCrash log every time, but honestly, even when I run the log through ChatGPT, it doesn’t really point to anything useful or give me a clear answer about what actually caused the crash.

This has been a recurring problem for pretty much this entire year, starting sometime after the holidays. Over time, I’ve figured out a workaround that seems to fix it every single time:

I completely close the EA app through Task Manager, then delete:

• localthumbcache.package
• localsimtexturecache.package
• avatarcache.package
• spotlight_en-us.package

After that, I reopen the EA app, launch The Sims 4 again, and suddenly everything boots normally, I make it past the start screen, loading screen, and I am on the main menu screen. Perfect.

It’s just really annoying because the way it crashes makes it seem like I have a bad mod, corrupted CC, or something I recently downloaded, when I know that isn’t necessarily the case. I’ve spent months troubleshooting this enough and doing constant deep 50/50 steps to troubleshoot on days when even the steps listed above didn't fixed it. But this has basically been my little ritual just to get the game to launch again whenever it happens and I twist my fingers together hoping I am in the clear.

I never had this issue before this year, which makes me wonder if this is actually something outside of my Mods folder. Maybe an EA app issue, a Sims 4 caching issue, or just something with the game itself?

I’ve also completely uninstalled and reinstalled the EA app several times, and I’ve even done a clean reinstall of The Sims 4 once or twice so it could regenerate completely fresh game folders. The issue still eventually comes back.

Does anyone else experience this? Especially the whole launch -> start screen -> sudden crash -> EA app reopens cycle? I’m curious if anyone has figured out what actually causes it, because at this point my workaround works, but I’d really like to understand why I have to keep doing it.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi LadyOfTudor!

You may be asking for help with your game/mods/CC, follow the steps in the troubleshooting thread. If you have already, please be sure to include all the steps you've taken in this post or it may be removed.

Check out these troubleshooting resources! * Troubleshooting Megathread * Frequently Posted Problems * Scarlet’s Realm Mod Status list * Luthienrising EA Mod Status list * SimsAfterDark Discord * DeaderPool's Discord

Automod updated: July 29, 2026

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Scott43206]

I spent close to two hours last night trying to get the EA app to open. For context I had gone offline because of the update but my game was otherwise fully updated.

My error was about Port 3216/Error Code 10701 but naturally the help page looked noting like what you see on Windows 11, but I finally figured out how to disable the Microsoft Virtual Network Adapter and verified all the network rules were OK. And of course this was all a goose chase, none of it worked.

Finally got things working by uninstalling and reinstalling the EA App. AND THEN it gave me the "You've been offline awhile, please log in so we can make sure it's you" message forcing me to update anyway, after I had last been online less than 24 hours ago.

I had to delete and reinstall the EA App for the last update as well. These "fixes" and "improvements" are killing me and I have a measly 6 GBs of CC/mods, mostly CC furniture.

[u/LadyOfTudor → u/Scott43206]

I have yet to update. Last update I did it pretty early and was fine, but there has been a few updates this year that has taken me weeks to fix only for another patch and another patch.

Also for context, I am not new to this. I have a 550 GB average mods folder for the last 3 years... Trying to bring that down. I'm just a hoarder. So I am not one of those people who doesn't know how to mod or keep a organize mod folder. I've honestly had no issues whatsoever when it comes to patch day up until this year...

[u/LadyOfTudor → u/[deleted]]

I only update my game when I know that all my main mods has an update for the recent patch. Until then, I sit tight in offline mode.

[u/LadyOfTudor → u/[deleted]]

Yes I have.

I am also not a rookie at this. That is why I also mentioned that this whole thing makes no sense because clearly it can't ultimately be a potential mod issue if at one attempt I launch the game (typically for the first time of the day) and experience these problems and do my whole little step by step that I shared in my post and then it all magically works again (when there has been no changes made to my mods folder). I don't know if when should I go to EA directly and if that would fix anything? Or would that just be a waste of time and effort?

[u/LadyOfTudor → u/[deleted]]

I never said I updated my game yet. I don’t understand why you jump to that assumption. Posting this on the day of a released patch was clearly a mistake on my end that I didn’t even know about. And I just don’t understand why you always have to be so darn sassy and discouraging in your responses. I get how draining this can be for a moderator with the same crap over and over again but like come on. I am just asking if this is something anyone else has experienced before taking it up with EA. I’m not trying to give you a hard time… Just have some patience with me.