Switching from Gateway to CFW can be a pain, especially since all your saves were created on Gateway. There's only one way to get those saves to be usable on cia games, and that's to decrypt the saves and eventually import them in the end. It's a very tedious process, but worth it in the end to be able to keep all your saves you worked hard on for so long. Gateway has become more and more obsolete, with CFW being more convenient to work with. ESPECIALLY Arm9loaderhax!

This will guide you on how to convert Gateway saves, and import them into cia games. For those who want to abandon Gateway, or those who still want to keep Gateway but use CFW.
No other guide for this existed so I figured I had to create one.
Be sure you have PLENTY of time to work on this, you'll also need a ton of patience for this!

Thanks to @zhdarkstar for the tip about using JK Save Manager for just about everything! Made the guide ten times easier than it was before.



Requirements
JK Save Manager
CTRXplorer (Can also use FBI)




I. Preperation Steps

1. Right click and copy all your .sav files, paste them anywhere on your computer as backup

2. Make a new folder on your SD card, call it something like "Gateway saves"

3. Copy one of your .sav files into this folder

4. Look up that save file on 3DSDB to see what game it is

5. Rename that .sav file to 0004000002C23200

6. Make a new folder and name it to whatever game it is
Example:
SD:/Gateway saves/Super Mario 3D Land/


7. Place the 0004000002C23200 sav file in this new folder you just created

8. Repeat steps 3-7 until every game is setup this way. Can take a while to go through depending on how much saves you have, be really patient.

9. Download JK Save Manager.cia, and CTRXplorer.cia then place them anywhere on the SD card





II. Exporting & Importing the saves with JK Save Manager

1. Install all the cia games you need, for the games you're going to import saves with

2. Launch each and every game one time, allowing it to initialize which creates save data. Again, this takes a LOT of patience to go through

3. Install JK Save Manager and CTRXplorer cia's using any cia manager you like. Assemble them near the game cart icon on the home menu for quick access.

4. Open CTRXplorer and browse into the Gateway saves folder, then into one of the game folders

5. Copy the 0004000002C23200 sav file (Instructions on top screen, should be Y to copy), then press B twice until you're on the SD's root. Paste the file here using the Y button (Say yes to replace if the file already exists)

6. Press home and close it. Press select to open Gateway's rom menu and choose the game you're about to work on, but don't go into the game

7. Open JK Save Manager, go to "Cartridge", then choose "Export save". Name it anything such as a date ex: 5-8-16

8. Once you exported the save, go back to the main menu and choose "SD/Cia". Find the game and choose "Import save"

9. Repeat steps 4-8 until every game's save is exported then imported. You'll need extreme patience for this, as this is the only way to decrypt the .sav files.

10. Launch some of the games to confirm that the save did indeed transfer successfully.11. PLEASE make a backup of ALL the backed up saves from JK Save Manager, by uploading them to Google Drive or Dropbox!! This way your saves are forever safe!



About Card2 games
Certain games are card2 type games, where the save file is stored inside the cartridge. In our case, the save is stored inside the rom itself. Games like Pokemon XY/ORAS, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Tomodachi Life, Zelda Tri Force Heroes are card2 games. They don't produce a .sav file on the SD card like card1 games.
To export card2 saves, carry on by selecting the rom then using JK Save Manager to export the cartridge's save. Then import the save in SD/Cia.





Trivia
- Gateway saves are encrypted, so you can't export the save until you first renamed it to 0004000002C23200 and place it on the root. Since you can't have more than one of the same file name in one directory, you gotta work on these one by one. In this process, you're decrypting the saves.

- Some games like Fantasy Life and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy store their primary save data in "Extdata". If you plan on using the same NAND in the end, you don't have to worry about exporting/importing that.


- Saves from JK Save Manager, can be used by just about ANYBODY, from any region. They're highly universal and valuable to share on saves threads. Post them if you like to contribute!​

 

[solamour]

Although the instruction described the steps in detail, I wasn't able to finish it at first try, most likely because I was confused about a few crucial steps. I'll summarize what I found to help those who got stuck.

For my case, I have a 3DS with Gateway (a few .3ds games in progress) and 2DS with CFW (same games in .cia format but no save files). I wanted to transfer the save files from 3DS/Gateway to 2DS/CFW. If you have only 1 console with both Gateway and CFW, the procedues are basically same.

JKSM is what exports and imports the save file. That's all you need, although CTRXplorer might come in handy if you have a lot of games to transfer.

One thing to note is that JKSM understands only "0004000002C23200.sav" in the root of the SD card (i.e. the one that goes into the console, not the one in Gateway). Here is an example, using the aforementioned consoles (i.e. from 3DS/Gateway to 2DS/CFW).

1) The root of 3DS's SD card contains my save file "0004000000030800.sav" (Mario Kart 7). Make a copy of it and rename it to "0004000002C23200.sav" in the same root directory of the SD card.

2) My 3DS didn't have a way to install .cia files, so I had to put "BigBlueMenu.3ds" in the Gateway's SD card, put "JKSM.cia" in the console SD card, power up to Gateway, press SELECT to bring up Gateway menu, select "BigBlueMenu", and install "JKSM.cia".

3) Once JKSM is installed, press SELECT to bring up Gateway menu, select the game you want to export the save file, but don't run the game. In short, just simulate you put the real game cartridge to the console, so that it shows up in the home screen.

4) Open JKSM -> Titles -> Select the game (there should be only 1) -> Save Data -> New.
Note that despite the name "Save Data", it's actually "save" or "restore". Also, selecting "New" will automatically create a folder with the current time and put the files in there. If you have other data (perhaps downloaded content), do the same for "Extra Data"

5) Take the SD card from 3DS and put it in your computer. Copy "0004000002C23200.sav" in the root directory of the SD card and "\JKSV\Saves\MARIO KART 7\YYYY MM DD_HH MM SS" to the 2DS's SD card. If the new console doesn't have JKSM, install it before copying the files.

6) Power up 2DS -> Open JKSM -> Titles -> Select the game -> Save Data -> Restore.

If you have more than 1 game, repeat the process; use CTRXplorer if you don't want to take out the SD card to copy your next game's save file to "0004000002C23200.sav". If "0004000002C23200.sav" missing or mismatched, you'd get "The archive cannot be opened" when you try to save/restore in JKSM.

 

[TheShadowRunner]

@solamour, The Real Jdbye posted an app that makes the renaming and everything automatic, on the page before.

 

[Deleted User]

I reset my console and therefore lost my emunand, is there not a way to do this without mounting the game in Gateway? I've still got all the save files from the SD card, just I don't think I can set up the emunand again.

 

[soaresden]

I said to myself "let just wait for some months...years and someone will figure it out to do this on windows"
With Citra's improvement and time, it's unbelievable, that even 5 years after, everyone have to do this !

I still have :
- my GW
- but nos the .3ds
- my hundred .sav files

I believe I can't use gW because 11.13 FW

It should be simple to decrypt in one drag and drop these .sav to the actual folders tree format.

 

[maravig]

Hello,
I have a new 3DS XL and have been using Gateway for several years. I miss not being able to play DS games. Has anyone here uninstalled/removed Gateway and then installed a newer CFW? I don't care about saves, just worried about screwing up my system rendering it useless. I'd like to have a newer, easier way to play all of my games from multiple systems. :-)

 

[godreborn]

Hello,
I have a new 3DS XL and have been using Gateway for several years. I miss not being able to play DS games. Has anyone here uninstalled/removed Gateway and then installed a newer CFW? I don't care about saves, just worried about screwing up my system rendering it useless. I'd like to have a newer, easier way to play all of my games from multiple systems. :-)

yes, many of us have.

 

[maravig]

yes, many of us have.

Can you recommend the best method to try? I just tried TwilightMenu++ but it just comes to a black screen when I try to start it. I followed the instructions to the letter, but wondering if my gateway setup is somehow preventing it from working. That's why I thought if I get rid of Gateway and start from scratch, I could try a newer method that doesn't rely solely on old exploits.

Jeff

 

[godreborn]

Can you recommend the best method to try? I just tried TwilightMenu++ but it just comes to a black screen when I try to start it. I followed the instructions to the letter, but wondering if my gateway setup is somehow preventing it from working. That's why I thought if I get rid of Gateway and start from scratch, I could try a newer method that doesn't rely solely on old exploits.

Jeff

It may not work with gateway. Try Luma

 

[maravig]

It may not work with gateway. Try Luma

What is the safest way to remove Gateway from my new 3DS XL? Remember, I don't care about saves.

 

[fmkid]

What is the safest way to remove Gateway from my new 3DS XL? Remember, I don't care about saves.

Do you want to preserve all your EmuNand content, or get rid of that too?

 

[maravig]

Do you want to preserve all your EmuNand content, or get rid of that too?

Not sure. I kind of think I'd like to start with a clean slate and add the emulators that I'd like to have or at least run pretty smoothly. I have all the software as far as that goes, but not certain what is the best cfw to use on a basic SD card. Also, does everything go on the SD card in the system or the SD card that resides in slot 1? I'm open to any recommendations you have.

 

[fmkid]

Not sure. I kind of think I'd like to start with a clean slate and add the emulators that I'd like to have or at least run pretty smoothly. I have all the software as far as that goes, but not certain what is the best cfw to use on a basic SD card. Also, does everything go on the SD card in the system or the SD card that resides in slot 1? I'm open to any recommendations you have.

On any case, you must install B9S + Luma CFW, according to the actual FW version of your SysNand, following the guide.

• If you want to preserve your EmuNand (and all its content), you must follow this tutorial, once you've B9S + Luma CFW installed.
• If not, then you must format your console's SD card before start with the B9S + Luma CFW installation. You can follow this another tutorial for that.

 

[maravig]

On any case, you must install B9S + Luma CFW, according to the actual FW version of your SysNand, following the guide.

• If you want to preserve your EmuNand (and all its content), you must follow this tutorial, once you've B9S + Luma CFW installed.
• If not, then you must format your console's SD card before start with the B9S + Luma CFW installation. You can follow this another tutorial for that.

Ok, but how do I safely strip Gateway from my 3DS? Don't know what good preserving the emunand would be since I don't care about saves. I figured whichever CFW I installed, I would just use the emulators that work best in that scenario. :-) or does that sd format option wipe out all traces of Gateway?

 

[moonknight]

If I already updated to CFW and no longer have a way to boot into Gateway, is there another way for me to convert my .sav files that I backed up from Gateway to work with CFW? Please help!

 

[Kwyjor]

If I already updated to CFW and no longer have a way to boot into Gateway, is there another way for me to convert my .sav files that I backed up from Gateway to work with CFW? Please help!

I was under the impression you could still use the Gateway if you set up an emuNAND.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gateway-gw3d-11-10-b9s-and-cfw.550040/

Because otherwise there is no way to access those .sav files unless you can find someone else here with a Gateway to do it for you.

 

[moonknight]

I was under the impression you could still use the Gateway if you set up an emuNAND.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gateway-gw3d-11-10-b9s-and-cfw.550040/

Because otherwise there is no way to access those .sav files unless you can find someone else here with a Gateway to do it for you.

I can't boot into Gateway anymore. At least not the way I use to. And as I mentioned, I already backed up my .sav files before I installed CFW. So I have the .sav files, but I don't know how to get them to work with CFW.

 

[lone_wolf323]

I can't boot into Gateway anymore. At least not the way I use to. And as I mentioned, I already backed up my .sav files before I installed CFW. So I have the .sav files, but I don't know how to get them to work with CFW.

they wont. you have to either set up a emunand frankenand. which there are tuts here for, or hope that someone else has a gateway setup they can decrypt the saves for you. Or the saves are useless to you.

 

[moonknight]

they wont. you have to either set up a emunand frankenand. which there are tuts here for, or hope that someone else has a gateway setup they can decrypt the saves for you. Or the saves are useless to you.

Can you help? I have 8 save files that I want to decrypt.

I don't really want to mess with the CFW that I just set up.