Transferring 3DS to 3DSXL

[MikeMania]

Okay, so I've read a few things online about migrating data to the 3DS XL. The problem is, I haven't bought mine yet, but I want to resell my 3DS while I can still get a good price for it. So I don't exactly have two systems to simultaneously use Nintendo's transfer tool.

The only thing I'm really concerned about is the ambassador games. I'm guessing that as long as I log-in with my Nintendo account on my new 3DSXL eShop, I can just download everything I've already purchased. Like the Apple Appstore?

Also, there is a few demo videos they released that I think are pretty neat to save that you can't download anymore. Is it as simple as copying them from the SD and loading them onto the new 3DSXL's SD card?

Thanks!

[TheDreamingHawk]

No. But everything is moved to the new system and you put in your old SD card after transfering

[Heatran5400]

As, TheDreamingHawk said, no.
You CAN NOT just download everything like the App Store. The only way to download every thing is from transferring from old system to new system.

[Zanreo]

No, the accounts are tied to the system, and you can't just "log in" with another account... you have to transfer your info over from one 3DS to the other. After the transfer, you will still keep all your old eShop downloads, including ambassador games.

[J_Hibiki]

Ok I have a Question, I have an OG 3DS, I'm about to trade it in to get a 3DS XL. I have a 16 GB SD caard in the original 3DS (That I am trading). I'm going to copy as much as I can from it back to the 2GB card so I can do a system transfer, but I will have to delete a couple games to make that happen. Now my Question is Will the games I deleted be redownloadable on the XL after the transfer?

[Zanreo]

Why not get a bigger SD card than 2GB if you're worried about space? Just copy the info over to a bigger one and put it in the same 3DS (note that this only works for the SAME 3DS you got the SD from) Or if that's not what you're asking, you can still transfer from a 16GB card?

Anyway, as long as they're still in the eShop downloads you should be fine and you can download them again after the transfer.

[Shadow86sk]

So I have an 3DS and I have a question about if I would buy the 3DS XL Monster Hunter. how would the transfer process work.
I assume the monster Hunter is on the SD card and I have the ambassador card and Paper Mario plus other things on my 3DS and other stuff. So how would it work? Will it cause problems?

[pokemaster515]

Are you asking if you buy a new 3DS with Monster Hunter pre-downloaded on it, can you still transfer everything from your old 3DS and have that stuff AND the new digital game on one right?

If so than yes you can, I did nearly the same thing with Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS since my old 3DS was in a bit of bad shape (those darn risings on the bottom screen >_<, plus my dog chewed on it when he was still a puppy). Its the regular system transfer from the system settings, it's pretty simple but I know how it can be nerve-wrecking if you think you might mess something up. When you move your old 3DS' SD card into the new system though Monster Hunter won't be there, you'll have to download it from the eshop.

[Shadow86sk]

also I forgot to mention I have a 8gig SD card and thank you, though it will take some time till I save up for it

[gamefreak613]

Hey everyone!

I'm about to upgrade to a 3DS XL (for the animal crossing bundle) and I'm gonna do a system transfer and all. I know how that all works...what I'm unsure of...is how 3DS SD card data works.

Things I know:

System transfers take all data (including SD card data) from old systems and put the on the new system and it operates as if it was your old system in all respects in terms of data (both game data, save data and mii channels and such).

Things I want to know but don't:
Is the old SD card wiped clean?
What save and/or DLC data is stored on the SD card and/or system and/or game cart in terms of digital games vs retail ones?

What happens when I take an SD card from my (new) 3DS and put it in my computer and copy it to my desktop? Can I then take that data, put it on a different (or the same) SD card later, pop it into the same system and have that data exactly as it was when I copied it off?

What happens if I copy the data to the computer, pop the SD card into my system...play a digital game and save it...then take the old data and replace the new data on the same SD card with the old data? does it act like I never played the game and the save file is as it was? Effectively creating "save states"?

I'm wondering this because I want to "back up" my save data from animal crossing so that if anything happens and my data is corrupted, I can go back to my most recent "back up" of my town and play from there....even if I lost a bit of data I'll still have some save data that I wouldn't otherwise have and my town would be saved.

Thanks in advance for anyone's help answering these...I asked Nintendo but they weren't much help.

[Zanreo]

-All 3DS save data for retail and digital games are saved on the SD. DSiWare games, however, are saved on the system.

-Yes, you can copy data over to your computer, put that data on a new SD card and use it as your old one. This is what people do when upgrading to a bigger SD.

-I'm not sure if this would work, as I haven't tried it, and don't want to try either. It might mess up some things, possibly...

[gamefreak613]

-All 3DS save data for retail and digital games are saved on the SD. DSiWare games, however, are saved on the system.

-I'm not sure if this would work, as I haven't tried it, and don't want to try either. It might mess up some things, possibly...

Cart saved data is saved on the SD? I'm gonna double check this...I feel like when I lent my girlfriend my fire emblem cart, her 3DS had my save data still....which would contradict this right?

I might try it later tonight if someone doesn't have direct findings themselves....I'll do something small...like save my pokemon dream radar data and copy it...then progress in it...then copy back the old data and see what happens...(I'll keep the newest data point too in case I need to revert to it...unless of course doing it breaks that too...)

[Homeslice]

Save data is saved to the cart, sometimes extra data is saved to the SD card.

One thing to keep an eye on - when I transferred my data from my 3DS to my XL, I apparently missed some instruction where I was supposed to swap SD cards and ended up not keeping any of my game saves for digital games. Not a big deal until I realized I have to do all those ridiculously easy early puzzles in Pushmo again.

[gamefreak613]

Thanks for responding with your first forum post to my topic Homeslice!

I wonder what kind of extra data is saved to the cart...

I guess all that leaves left to answer is whether I can backup my digital "game states" to my computer...and load them at will... It would be cool, (but I doubt it's possible) if I could seperate the save file from the game file...so that if I reinstalled a digital game I uninstalled, I could place the save data in the SD card and have it work....but I think they're tied together.

[Homeslice]

My first post was actually going to be gushing over the random Nathan Fillion post, but I am apparently not cool enough to be allowed to comment on that yet!

I think the game saves are tied to your system, and system transfer changes them over, so any backups on a computer probably won't work.

Otherwise you could just share saves with people over the internet.

[gamefreak613]

Yeah I'm fairly sure the saves are tied to the system either by being intertwined with game data or by the same way game data is tied to the system. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you couldn't copy your own game data with save files and preserve them/revert to them later...which is what I'm still curious about...didn't get a chance to try it myself last night...

[Triforce of the Gods]

I know you can copy them to the computer on an SD card and put them back later. I had a Pikmin 2 save on my second Wii that I couldn't put on my first Wii cause the disk drive broke and you need to play the game once before moving a save. So I put it on my computer, moved my first Wii's data to my Wii U then moved the Pikmin 2 save to my Wii U.

[gamefreak613]

Yes but Pikmin 2's save data wasn't directly tied to the game data...which is a disc...not a digital game.

[gamefreak613]

Okay I've just tested...

I copied my original data, then put it back in and...

I played a demo with 29 uses so it went to 28, then I also went and played Fire Emblem Sacred Stones (Digital game from being an ambassador) and copied save data to a new slot...then exited the game...copied the old data back to my 3ds and the demo was still 28, but the fire emblem game and save data was reverted. So it looks like digital games and their save data can be copied at will, and then loaded back in to revert to that state later...and I assume you can jump back "forward" and "backward" between save files without any real penalty. (provided you copy the whole 3DS folder...I'm not sure it's possible to pick and choose the games you take off)

So...you can indeed backup your digital games and save files without having to lose your save data by saving your whole SD card data somewhere external as long as you're okay reverting all game saves back to that point.

I don't like cheating much since I feel it ruins the "fun", but this also opens up some interesting "cheats" making "duping" of items pretty easy if you can transfer them to friends and back...for example if Pokemon X/Y is digital, it will make it super easy to make duped legit looking pokemon and items and such, since you can just send the pokemon to a friend, then load the save file back when you had the pokemon still. Same could be done for Animal Crossing items and such...hmm...

Cheating aside, I'll use this to periodically backup valuable digital game save data that I don't want to lose.

EDIT: Also, Although demo's are saved to the SD card it looks like the number of plays is tied to the system. (in case that wasn't obvious)

[gamefreak613]

New info: apparently games like Animal Crossing do indeed have a way of seeing if your save file isn't the one you last used on the system. There is a system in place where a piece of data (in my opinion a checksum value but more on that in a bit) is placed both on your sd card and the system's internal memory (most likely in "extra data"). Those two files are synced each time the game is saved. If one is out of sync with the other, the game will know that something's been tampered with, and won't play the save file (I assume you'll still be able to play the game, but you'll need to start from scratch).

I think the file that's in sync is a simple md5 checksum or something. That way the game will be able to tell not only if the save files didn't match up...but also if someone happened to hex edit the data and tried to give themselves extra items or something. For those who don't know...a checksum is where you run a file, files, or zip of files through an algorithm to create a unique identifier (a long string of numbers and letters that is unique). If any sort of change happens to any file that was put through the algorithm, the result would drastically and unpredictably change. The algorithm's results are impossible to predict or fake which stops someone from somehow creating a forged identifier. Once the identifier is made, (for example H2459) it's result is saved on both the system memory and memory card. If someone tried to load an old save or an edited save, the identifier would change to something else like (Q2f15) and when someone tried to play the file on the 3DS, the check to see if the identifiers matched would fail, the game would know something was up, and thus you wouldn't be able to play the file and would have to start over. This system of preventing edited saves seems to be able to be used selectively, which is why up till now no other save files have had this check (which is why my previous experiments to play with save data succeeded). So games where duping or hex editing would influence the online components of a game's gameplay or economy can use this feature to prevent cheating, where games that are single player and meant to be played alone can benefit from being able to have saves copied and replaced.

Whew...that was fun to explain...anyone follow me?