This has been happening a lot lately. Don't know if it's an interfering mod or it's just my game because I did a search and came up with nothing. Seems like every time I have a sim ask another sim on a date they happily accept but within minutes the date unexpectedly says they have to leave to go to work. Or they are thinking of leaving soon. Now most of these sims do not have to go to work. They are either self employed (sculptor, inventor) or they don't have to go to work for at least 6 hours.
I feed them, I make sure they do something entertaining. I flirt, chat, compliment, get to know, nothing works. Some of them actually run away randomly in the middle of the date. What can be causing this???? It is so frustrating. Is it just that they are incompatible?
I have Late Night, World Adventures, Island Paradise, Ambitions and a few stuff packs.

It's been so long since I've done the dating thing in Sims, but doing a search only gave me: Dates can end if the other party has a scheduled engagement, or if one or more of their needs are low. Maybe they're tired.

In some careers my Sims have had, they've autonomously taken naps/slept hours before their work shift was scheduled to begin (including day sleeping for an evening/night shift). That could be the case with some of your Sim's dates.

I often get the bogus "Have to Go To Work Soon" excuse for ending dates and group-ups that take place during the day. Maybe not minutes into them, but much sooner than expected. I feel like the other sim may as well fake having a headache in order to get out of whatever they think they have gotten themselves into. Or if they are having a problem with my sim's personal hygiene or housekeeping skills (if the date takes them to my sim's house), perhaps they could just say so? Even inviting friends over for brunch during the late morning often doesn't seem to work out.

For some reason evening dates, when neither sim has to work in the evening of course, usually turn out to be much more successful in this regard.

Thanks for responses. Glad to know I am not the only one who has done everything necessary to please a date and they still leave. It they at least had a thought bubble that they were tired or needed hygiene or bladder relief, it would make it more helpful to us players. Oh well.

Guess I took it for granted that many MasterController users already do this, but maybe some see it as "cheating." Whenever I interact with another sim whose attention I want to keep for a long time, I take a look at NRaas > MC > (Sim) > Basic > Mood. This tells me early enough on if the have a motive like energy, hunger, etc. that's going to get in the way of the planned time together unless I find a way to help them through it.

And then there's MC > (Sim) > Intermediate > Moodlets > Remove Moodlet (but I usually just look at what they have there, not actually remove any; MC Cheats add-on module required).

So with all this insight, they still often wanna get as far away from my sim as they can with some lame excuse after a sim hour or so. But again, usually early in the day rather than at night. It's difficult to not take personally.

Thank you! A lot of good advice. Also, didn't know this about MC. This can be very helpful.

At what time do you ask them out for dates?
While self-emplyed Sims do not have a real work schedule they do have a hidden one; they start "work" at 9pm and end their "shift" at 6am.
Another thing is that in any world that is not a city world the time between 10pm and 11pm is when they start to get "tired" and antsy to leave, unless they work in a career that has later shifts, like culinary, music, sports or criminal.

Good to know, but I've tried all different times with different sims. Doesn't always happen, but happens more than I believe it should. I pretty much tale turns playing different sims so I kind of know what their work times are. Didn't know about the hidden schedule, thanks.

Moodlet manager.
Cure them a few times with it as soon as you see them.

Actually, even if they are leaving and you can't do anything else with them other than curing them, they stop, come back, and say thank you if you cure them. This doesn't prevent the end of the date, but it gives you a chance to start another one.

Great. So much stuff I didn't know you could use on other people. 60,000 though, pretty steep.

True, but once it's bought it's an inventory item, so other members of the household might be able to borrow it if necessary. (And I tend to cheat to give them to some of my sims who logically should have that power. )