Your antivirus program may sometimes block the User folder of Sims 4. When this issue occurs, Simmers are unable to take screenshots, record gameplay videos, or open Gallery images.
In rare cases, your antivirus might even prevent you from launching the game.
Let’s see how you can quickly solve this issue.
What to do if your antivirus is blocking The Sims 4 User folder
Whitelist Origin and Sims 4 in your antivirus settings
To fix the issue where your antivirus is blocking the User folder, mark Origin and The Sims 4 as safe files in your antivirus settings. In other words, you’ll instruct your antivirus to allow the respective files to run on your machine without scanning them.
Sometimes, your antivirus may incorrectly identify Origin or The Sims 4 as being malicious, which can prevent them from working.
Go to your antivirus settings, and whitelist the following files:
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin\Origin.exe
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin_Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe
- C:\Program Files (x86)Origin_Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin_LE\TS4.exe
The path to follow to whitelist your game client and files may vary depending on your installation.
For more information on the steps to follow to flag Origin and Sims 4 as safe files, go to your antivirus support page.
You can find the support pages of the most popular antivirus programs below:
- Avast: How to exclude files or websites from scans
- AVG: Threat Lab – File whitelisting
- Windows Security: Add an exclusion to Windows Security
- Kasperky: Best practices for implementing white list mode
- Norton: Exclude files and folders from Norton Auto-Protect, SONAR
- BitDefender: How to exclude files and folders from Bitdefender Antivirus scan
- Malwarebytes: Exclude detections in Malwarebytes for Windows
- Sophos: Allowed applications
- TrendMicro: How to add items in Trend Micro Exception List on Windows
- F-Secure: Exclude files or folders from scanning
Keep in mind that most of the time, this problem is caused by the ransomware protection module blocking the user folder.