Hacking Question about switching consoles

[Quaxo76]

Hello,
I'm new to the 3DS world but I'm trying to improve as much as I can, and it's getting pretty expensive...
To give you a little background, I never had any Nintendo handhelds since the original Gameboy, so when I found a pristine DS at a thrift shop for about 10€ I bought it on a whim.
I started reading online and quickly found out about the 3DS, so I bought one at another thrift shop (an original 3DS) with a few defects that I fixed, and gave the DS to my son.
I then found out that it's fun to play 3DS games with other players, so I bought another original 3DS to play with my son. Then I discovered the world of CFW.
I modded both my consoles, and loaded them with a lot of 3DS games, plus a flashcart for DS games.
Then... since I'm not that young anymore, and my eyes aren't getting any better, and I have trouble focusing at the optimal distance for 3D viewing, I decided to buy a New 3DS XL (the new one for the better 3D, XL for the bigger screen )
Now I will mod the new one of course, and I want to transfer my SD card, fully loaded, to the new one. I really would like to avoid having to reinstall everything from scratch, plus transferring the game saves, etc. It's a very long process.

But when I tried, as a test, to put my SD in my son's console, the console booted fine but none of my installed games showed up. Could you please explain why this happens (why the other console doesn't "see" the games on the SD) and if there is a fix to avoid having to reinstall everything?

Thank you in advance,
Cristian

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Welcome to GBAtemp.

We have a tutorial for that topic.

Simply putting the SD in another console doesn't work. The content is encrypted with a console-specific key.
Please backup your save data with JKSM and/or Checkpoint from time to time. SDs can corrupt or fail without warning.


The N3DSXL is a fun device. Ten years ago I would have preferred the non-XL variant for pixel density and sharpness. Aging eyes...

If you have further questions or problems, just ask.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Quaxo76]

Thank you very much. I knew about game encryption on the 3DS, but I thought that in the process of installation with FBI, the encryption was removed... After all, a generic CIA file is usually unusable with citra, but if I install it on the 3DS, then re-create the CIA, the new CIA is then perfectly playable by the emulator...
Thanks again, I'll read the tutorial.

Cristian


Edit: I already have a question. I'm reading the "Transfer using a PC" page. That implies using two different SD cards, if I'm not mistaken. Can I just use a small card on the target system to install the cfw, and then where the tutorial says to copy the data from the source SD to the target SD, simply move the source system's SD card to the target system?