There’s always something so satisfying about finally experiencing an issue that is a recurring problem for others.

This was after updating the game installation on my iMac to the December patch:

I tried all of the following to fix this:

• Repair base game
• Super repair by trashing The Sims 4 executable file in Sims 4.app/Contents/Mac OS then repairing before loading
• Trashed the ClientFullBuild0.package file from each DLC Pack to force a re-download
• Trashed the entire Sims 4 Packs folder so all packs were re-downloaded
• Trashed the Delta folder in Sims 4.app/Contents
• Trashed the Data folder in Sims 4.app/Contents
• Uninstalled the game and reinstalled completely. Did this twice both to the internal drive and changed location to external

But none of that worked, even a new game installation didn’t work. I then did the following:

• Uninstalled the game
• Ran the Origin reset tool
• Deleted the residual files that the reset tool doesn’t delete
• Trashed the Origin app
• Emptied the trash
• Restarted the Mac
• Downloaded and installed Origin
• Downloaded and installed the game plus all packs

And that fixed it. Looks like Origin, yet again, is to blame for another catastrophic game failure. I managed to put my Sims 4 folder containing my saves, mods and other content back into the game with no problems.

This problem seems to be down to corrupted downloads and seems more prevalent after an update, as reported by others at Answers HQ. If you’re experiencing this, make sure you back up your Sims 4 folder and be prepared to completely uninstall the game AND Origin in order to fix it 😡