Hacking [GUIDE] The EmuNAND/Save Data Mega Guide GBATemp Doesn't Deserve

[Jiro2]

you will lose the ability to play retail carts AND eshop games
that use >6.0 encryption on your 3ds if you downgrade to system NAND 4.x.

But your description sounds like you can't play retail carts and eshop games using your old save if you downgrade. Is it really that you can't play them at all (even if you just started them now and so there's no old save), or just that you can't play them using your old save?

 

[patey]

you will lose the ability to play retail carts AND eshop games
that use >6.0 encryption on your 3ds if you downgrade to system NAND 4.x.

But your description sounds like you can't play retail carts and eshop games using your old save if you downgrade. Is it really that you can't play them at all (even if you just started them now and so there's no old save), or just that you can't play them using your old save?

I think it means you can't play them, the firmware doesn't know how to use them, but maybe you could use emuNAND to run them?

 

[Skeet1983]

Emunand is loaded instead of sysnand when you boot into gateway mode or classic mode. Updating it won't affect sysnand. Creating it won't delete your save data. A large portion of the guide is dedicated to save data.



http://3ds.essh.co/

On that site, how do I know if game uses 4.x key or 6.x key? What am I looking for?

 

[Skeet1983]

I am wanting to use saves downloaded from here: https://www.3ds-savegames.com/
But, not sure what games use which save key... How do I find out?

 

[mmn]

I am wanting to use saves downloaded from here: https://www.3ds-savegames.com/
But, not sure what games use which save key... How do I find out?

 

[Skeet1983]

I backed up a 3DS game and put the .3ds file on root of mSD card. I booted into GW mode and pressed Select. The top screen GW appeared with 1 item in it, but the item did not have a picture and when I tried to load it- nothing happened... Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Trice]

Where is this information about the eShop saves incompatibility after a downgrade coming from?

I just downgraded my 3DS XL from 9.2 to 4.2 using Gateway and made SaveDataFiler backups of all my saves just in case, but after the downgrade all my eShop games still worked perfectly in EmuNAND (e.g. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds or Super Smash Bros.).

Or is there something I'm misunderstanding about the eShop saves incompatibility? Is it just about eShop games that were dumped to 3DS/3DZ files and are loaded through Gateway and not the ones actually installed on the EmuNAND?

 

[mmn]

Where is this information about the eShop saves incompatibility after a downgrade coming from?

I just downgraded my 3DS XL from 9.2 to 4.2 using Gateway and made SaveDataFiler backups of all my saves just in case, but after the downgrade all my eShop games still worked perfectly in EmuNAND (e.g. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds or Super Smash Bros.).

Or is there something I'm misunderstanding about the eShop saves incompatibility? Is it just about eShop games that were dumped to 3DS/3DZ files and are loaded through Gateway and not the ones actually installed on the EmuNAND?

See:

Spoiler

By the way, I haven't really thought about this yet, but it occurred to me that I haven't played any of the eShop games I purchased (before getting Gateway) through emuNAND. Since Gateway uses 4.x encryption, will the games that have retail version 6.1 or above tell me the saves are corrupted? If yes, what can I do to (besides waiting for Gateway to handle the save situation of course) to get those saves running in emuNAND? I hope to transfer these to my new3DS once support for that comes out, and I'm going to assume this will still be a problem at that point.

Just as I thought, savedatafiler thinks it is "broken" and won't let me export it. Looks like eShop game encryption is no different than retail carts, because all the retail 6.0+ games I have do that in savedatafiler too.

If Gateway could just load up the 6.x key in emuNAND... I don't see why it hasn't been done yet, and I don't think they're missing anything to implement it; they've hacked damn near everything else on the device.

So what is really meant by that is "eshop games that have been played on sysnand >9.2, and not in gateway mode." I'll try and change the guide to make that more clear.

Edit:
It now reads like this:

The second bottom line is that you will lose the ability to play retail carts that use
>6.0 encryption on your 3ds if you downgrade to system NAND 4.x.
Additionally, if you have eshop games that you started playing on a >6.0 system,
and you weren't in gateway mode, you won't be able to keep those saves either*. This is because of
the aforementioned mismatch in the keys used to encrypt and decrypt saves. Basically, if
you want to continue to be able to play retail games with >6.0 save encryption, you need to
stay on the system NAND version you are currently on. You'll need to stay at that system NAND
version until gateway fixes all of these save compatability issues.

* This statement seems to be contested. I can't test it myself because I don't have any eshop
games that fit the criteria, but we have two conflicting stories about this.

 

[ubergeek77]

I'd like to offer a correction, good sir:

So what is really meant by that is "eshop games that support 6.0 save encryption have been played on sysnand >9.2, and not in gateway mode." I'll try and change the guide to make that more clear.

Also:

...
Additionally, if you have eshop games that you started playing on a >6.0 system, and you weren't in gateway mode, provided those games were released after 6.0 and support 6.0 save encryption, you won't be able to keep those saves either.
...

I can confirm this due to my official eShop copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's a rather old game in the 3DS' life, and thus wasn't released at a time where 6.0 encryption was even a thing. Even though it's been played on a 9.2 system, the save wasn't encrypted with something Gateway/savedatafiler can't recognize. This isn't something hardcoded by the system firmware; the game has to be specifically coded to support this special save type.

TL;DR: Even though you may have played a game on a >6.0 system, as long as the firmware version for it is below 6.0 (check the 3DS games database), savedatafiler will have no issues with it.

This is the same concept behind retail saves - <6.0 games aren't going to use the new encryption. It's just not in the code.

 

[mmn]

I'd like to offer a correction, good sir:




Also:


I can confirm this due to my official eShop copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's a rather old game in the 3DS' life, and thus wasn't released at a time where 6.0 encryption was even a thing. Even though it's been played on a 9.2 system, the save wasn't encrypted with something Gateway/savedatafiler can't recognize. This isn't something hardcoded by the system firmware; the game has to be specifically coded to support this special save type.

TL;DR: Even though you may have played a game on a >6.0 system, as long as the firmware version for it is below 6.0 (check the 3DS games database), savedatafiler will have no issues with it.

This is the same concept behind retail saves - <6.0 games aren't going to use the new encryption. It's just not in the code.

Ugh. That's what I meant to say. I added ">6.0" before "eshop games"

 

[daxtsu]

Has there been any updates or progress made on using 128k saves with Gateway, or converting them to 512k saves?

 

[Trice]

I can confirm this due to my official eShop copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's a rather old game in the 3DS' life, and thus wasn't released at a time where 6.0 encryption was even a thing. Even though it's been played on a 9.2 system, the save wasn't encrypted with something Gateway/savedatafiler can't recognize. This isn't something hardcoded by the system firmware; the game has to be specifically coded to support this special save type.

TL;DR: Even though you may have played a game on a >6.0 system, as long as the firmware version for it is below 6.0 (check the 3DS games database), savedatafiler will have no issues with it.

This is the same concept behind retail saves - <6.0 games aren't going to use the new encryption. It's just not in the code.

Do you know any eShop games that actually use the new encryption for sure? Because I tried multiple games that were released after 6.0 (e.g. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Smash Bros. and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call) and which of course were also played on a firmware higher than 6.0 as I didn't have a Gateway before and always kept my 3DS up to date until the release of 9.2 and they all worked flawlessly on 9.4 EmuNAND in combination with a downgraded 4.2 SysNAND. I was also able to export every single one of my saves with SaveDataFiler. The only time I actually saw one of my eShop games reported as broken in SaveDataFiler was when there wasn't any savegame to export because I'd never started the game (like the Phoenix Wright Trilogy that I just bought from the eShop right before I did the savegame backups).

I read this guide before downgrading and that was also the reason for making backups of all my saves just in case. I was already surprised that SaveDataFiler didn't have any problems with any of my games, but even more so when none of my eShop games showed any problems whatsoever after the downgrade.

 

[ubergeek77]

Do you know any eShop games that actually use the new encryption for sure? Because I tried multiple games that were released after 6.0 (e.g. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Smash Bros. and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call) and which of course were also played on a firmware higher than 6.0 as I didn't have a Gateway before and always kept my 3DS up to date until the release of 9.2 and they all worked flawlessly on 9.4 EmuNAND in combination with a downgraded 4.2 SysNAND. I was also able to export every single one of my saves with SaveDataFiler. The only time I actually saw one of my eShop games reported as broken in SaveDataFiler was when there wasn't any savegame to export because I'd never started the game (like the Phoenix Wright Trilogy that I just bought from the eShop right before I did the savegame backups).

I read this guide before downgrading and that was also the reason for making backups of all my saves just in case. I was already surprised that SaveDataFiler didn't have any problems with any of my games, but even more so when none of my eShop games showed any problems whatsoever after the downgrade.

I'm not sure why those games are any different, but the only two 6.0+ legit eShop games I have are Smash and Azure Striker: Gunvolt. Both are 6.0+ games, I definitely have saves for both of them, and Savedatafiler shows both of them as broken.

Are you 100% sure you played them on a 6.0+ sysNAND? We may need multiple people with those games to confirm this.

 

[Trice]

I'm not sure why those games are any different, but the only two 6.0+ legit eShop games I have are Smash and Azure Striker: Gunvolt. Both are 6.0+ games, I definitely have saves for both of them, and Savedatafiler shows both of them as broken.

Are you 100% sure you played them on a 6.0+ sysNAND? We may need multiple people with those games to confirm this.

Smash Bros. came out long after the 6.0 update and without a Gateway there wasn't any possibility to even play the game on a <6.0 system, so yeah, I'm 100% sure that I played it on a 6.0+ SysNAND.

I just noticed that SaveDataFiler actually lists the Smash Bros. entry (00EDF for the US version) again at the end of the list. The first entry can be exported and the second one is shown as broken. I'm not sure what this means exactly. As soon as FunkyCIA is finished with downloading of my eShop purchases I'll install Smash Bros. on my older 3DS and try to restore my SaveDataFiler save there to see if the exported save actually is the correct one.

 

[ubergeek77]

Smash Bros. came out long after the 6.0 update and without a Gateway there wasn't any possibility to even play the game on a <6.0 system, so yeah, I'm 100% sure that I played it on a 6.0+ SysNAND.

I just noticed that SaveDataFiler actually lists the Smash Bros. entry (00EDF for the US version) again at the end of the list. The first entry can be exported and the second one is shown as broken. I'm not sure what this means exactly. As soon as FunkyCIA is finished with downloading of my eShop purchases I'll install Smash Bros. on my older 3DS and try to restore my SaveDataFiler save there to see if the exported save actually is the correct one.

What happens when you load the game up? Is your stuff there? Can you save?

 

[Trice]

What happens when you load the game up? Is your stuff there? Can you save?

Yeah, all my unlocked characters, challenges and stages are there. And I just bought a new trophy and changed my controls and it was saved immediately. And after a reboot of the 3DS and the game everything's still there as I left it.

 

[mmn]

you will lose the ability to play retail carts AND eshop games
that use >6.0 encryption on your 3ds if you downgrade to system NAND 4.x.

But your description sounds like you can't play retail carts and eshop games using your old save if you downgrade. Is it really that you can't play them at all (even if you just started them now and so there's no old save), or just that you can't play them using your old save?

Changed "games" to "saves", thanks.

 

[Lord M]

My firend have 3ds xl with 9.2 nand and 9.4 emunand (due gw 3.0)
He want to format to separate nand from emunand, but when he click format system, his 3ds want forced to connect wifi/internet and i stop him because i think 3ds want to update after format LOL its right? Because my normal 3ds dont ask/force me the wifi for format... maybe im wrong? this strange format dont update system?

 

[joseph0042]

Edit. Nvm I figured it out. Thanks for the info in this forum though!

 

[YayMii]

Wait...will 6.0+ retail carts work fine in a 9.4 emuNAND in classic mode even if the sysNAND is 4.x? If so, I don't see any downside to downgrading.