The end of an era- The Sims 4 (for Mac).

[Ashenthorn]

This is just a rant, and I know there aren't that many Mac users around here...

I've been playing The Sims 4 for Mac since I bought it in 2013.
I've been running it on a 12-core PowerMac 32GB RAM with a 3GB Radeon HD 7950 (Metal capable) graphics card.
I run Mac OS 10.13.6 High Sierra on this machine, because it's a great OS and there is no reason for me to upgrade (especially on this hardware).
This machine has always exceeded the min/recommended requirements for the game, and TS4 has always run flawlessly. I can count the times on one hand that the game has crashed over the past 12 years and hundreds (thousands?) of hours of play time.

I've purchased a LOT of Packs/DLC (though certainly not all).
I've been playing TS4 modded with Wicked Whims since it came out, but I don't run a huge amount of mods.

Now, EA has discontinued the Origin client. The EA App will not run on my OS, so I will no longer be able to play The Sims 4.
According to EA, the Origin servers were decommissioned on 17 April 2025, which prevents TS4 from launching. The ONLY thing the Origin client did was to authenticate EA account username/password. Once logged in, you could switch to offline mode, and play locally, which is what I always did.

Here's the funny part: I was playing in offline mode before the servers went down, so I've been playing every day since then... and I will continue to do so until either the client crashes or I have to reboot my machine. Again, the game runs flawlessly, but the stupid EA App won't.

I've been spending this time recording my play and especially all of my Sims fucking like bunnies and capturing as many WW animations as I can for posterity. Most of my Sims are 12 years old, and a few of them I actually recreated from The Sims 2(2005ish!) RIP.



Sadly, there aren't as many "resources" available for Mac to be able to "workaround" this stupid authentication issue.
... and from what I've been seeing, the EA App has been a nightmare for a LOT of Mac users.

It was great while it lasted.

[Ashenthorn]

Good advice. 👍

I have extensive organized backups of all my content over the past decade. Saves, Lots, Sims, Trays, Mods, CC, etc. I've used Sims Tray Importer in the past, but the Mac version was abandoned a few years ago. It was convenient, but definitely not necessary if you know what you're doing.

[RoRo9261]

I've been playing The Sims since The Sims 2, first with my daughter, then I continued on my own with The Sims 3 until the end. Then I didn't want to be EA's wallet with The Sims 4 and start all over again. I just started The Sims 4 and I'm playing with 10 families in Willow Creek, as this log I created shows. I'm making comics, three volumes with my Sims when I'm not forced to stop because the game crashes. Ex: the original parents who have been playing for more than a year just got a bug due to an ID not assigned to something. When a Sim creates it by adding it to the parents, it ends up having the same bug. Luckily, I have the backups and end up installing the parents again, but after a while the bug comes back. So I delete the Sims, delete the house, and reinstall everything. For now, it's working without any bugs, but it annoys me to always have bugs, especially without installing new mods. It's worrying when an EA update is announced, which causes new conflicts with our game and obviously new bugs, like rain and snow inside the houses. Still not fixed because it also affects consoles. But when the game runs smoothly, I love playing with it.
A few mods posted on MTS (roro9261).

 

 

 

[Ashenthorn]

12 hours ago, RoRo9261 said:

I've been playing The Sims since The Sims 2, first with my daughter, then I continued on my own with The Sims 3 until the end. Then I didn't want to be EA's wallet with The Sims 4 and start all over again. I just started The Sims 4 and I'm playing with 10 families in Willow Creek, as this log I created shows. I'm making comics, three volumes with my Sims when I'm not forced to stop because the game crashes. Ex: the original parents who have been playing for more than a year just got a bug due to an ID not assigned to something. When a Sim creates it by adding it to the parents, it ends up having the same bug. Luckily, I have the backups and end up installing the parents again, but after a while the bug comes back. So I delete the Sims, delete the house, and reinstall everything. For now, it's working without any bugs, but it annoys me to always have bugs, especially without installing new mods. It's worrying when an EA update is announced, which causes new conflicts with our game and obviously new bugs, like rain and snow inside the houses. Still not fixed because it also affects consoles. But when the game runs smoothly, I love playing with it.
A few mods posted on MTS (roro9261).

 

 

Sorry to hear about your bugginess/crashes. I played Sims 1 and 2, but I skipped 3.

As I said, on my Mac, I have very rarely experienced any bugs/crashes in any of my games.

Every once in a while, I DO create new, clean saves using my latest saved backed up sims... but I don't really do any multi-generational playing and usually turn off aging, Sim Stories, etc - so that probly helps keep things running smoothly for me. I have 8 households in Willow Creek, 4 in Windenberg, 1 vampire in Forgotten Hollow, and 1 household each in Brindleton Bay, Oasis Springs, Strangerville, and Mt. Komorebi.

Each time I launch the game, I create a new "Save As..." file from the last good save, and move older saves to a different backup folder - just in case. But I have rarely had to restore from backups.
 

[zzikou]

On 4/22/2025 at 11:01 AM, Ashenthorn said:

This is just a rant, and I know there aren't that many Mac users around here...

I've been playing The Sims 4 for Mac since I bought it in 2013.
I've been running it on a 12-core PowerMac 32GB RAM with a 3GB Radeon HD 7950 (Metal capable) graphics card.
I run Mac OS 10.13.6 High Sierra on this machine, because it's a great OS and there is no reason for me to upgrade (especially on this hardware).
This machine has always exceeded the min/recommended requirements for the game, and TS4 has always run flawlessly. I can count the times on one hand that the game has crashed over the past 12 years and hundreds (thousands?) of hours of play time.

I've purchased a LOT of Packs/DLC (though certainly not all).
I've been playing TS4 modded with Wicked Whims since it came out, but I don't run a huge amount of mods.

Now, EA has discontinued the Origin client. The EA App will not run on my OS, so I will no longer be able to play The Sims 4.
According to EA, the Origin servers were decommissioned on 17 April 2025, which prevents TS4 from launching. The ONLY thing the Origin client did was to authenticate EA account username/password. Once logged in, you could switch to offline mode, and play locally, which is what I always did.

Here's the funny part: I was playing in offline mode before the servers went down, so I've been playing every day since then... and I will continue to do so until either the client crashes or I have to reboot my machine. Again, the game runs flawlessly, but the stupid EA App won't.

I've been spending this time recording my play and especially all of my Sims fucking like bunnies and capturing as many WW animations as I can for posterity. Most of my Sims are 12 years old, and a few of them I actually recreated from The Sims 2(2005ish!) RIP.



Sadly, there aren't as many "resources" available for Mac to be able to "workaround" this stupid authentication issue.
... and from what I've been seeing, the EA App has been a nightmare for a LOT of Mac users.

It was great while it lasted.

 

[Dark_Messiah]

you need a newer os i'm afraid, even steam stopped supporting that fossil. your hardware should be able to run newer os just fine.

[cooldood555]

19 hours ago, Dark_Messiah said:

you need a newer os i'm afraid, even steam stopped supporting that fossil. your hardware should be able to run newer os just fine.

Just agreeing to this. I have a 2021 MacBook Pro with 16 GB of RAM, playing on Sequoia, and the game runs fine. No lag, no crashes, etc.

[Ashenthorn]

On 4/23/2025 at 9:31 PM, Dark_Messiah said:

you need a newer os i'm afraid, even steam stopped supporting that fossil. your hardware should be able to run newer os just fine.

"Fossil". heh.
High Sierra came out 2 years AFTER Win10. Last update was in 2020. 4 year old OS, runs 12 year old Sims just fine.
 

[Ashenthorn]

UPDATE for any old Mac users that are interested...

I'm still playing the Sims 4 on my High Sierra machine.
The old Origin client is still working (withOUT the EA app). It DOES require your username/password to launch the Sims, but it still accepts my old credentials, and allows the Sims to launch and run.
I still only play in offline mode, so I don't know if any updates would break this, and I don't plan on finding out.

UPDATE: 20 November 2025 - Old Origin client no longer accepts credentials. The Sims 4 is finally dead for old Macs.

Edited November 21, 2025 by Ashenthorn
update