I didn't test it. XD I'd be pissed if Sandisk sold me a fake card. Does that mean my prod.keys backup might be useless? Everything else seemed to go fine when I did lockpick except the sd seed vector. Or could this have to do with me reformatting it to fat32 before starting?
Why tho, just install Retroarch, and have it all...including all titles, all systems(almost), gave saves, screen stretch, overclock, etc. Just saying.
Luckily, you don't need to stay signed in. The games only need the account linked not actively signed in. Once you'be linked the account, you are free to use the DNS.
Its possible that your keys are no good if the SD card is fake. And no, it wouldn't have anything to do with the card being FAT32. If anything, there would have been an issue if you were using exFAT as it can corrupt your SD card; FAT32 is the recommended format.
I think either method is fine as long as the end result is there being a Nintendo Account linked on your console. I got mine over 2 years ago so forgive me for not being able to remember how I linked mine but the process should be straightforward nonetheless.
I am well aware of Linkalho however I do not regularly recommend it. That is because it is a tool that people should fall back on if they cannot link a Nintendo Account normally whether because they are banned or they risk a ban by doing so. Linking a real Nintendo Account versus a fake is objectively better.
Tomatoes/ Tamatoes. You chose your choice. But you both are right.
Thing is most guides have people go online to download something from the eShop so they can immediately use title override once they are in CFW so that option is usually off the table. It also seems silly for someone to want to stay completely offline. Staying offline doesn't prevent bans, it merely delays them which is the same problem with tools such as 90DNS or Incognito. Actually one can argue its worse than risking a ban because bans are not guaranteed therefore you may be able to enjoy some of Nintendo's online services if a ban were to happen versus staying offline forever.
I'm running a test on the SD. I really don't think it's fake or corrupt. I'll try using lockpick again to create another prod.keys file. Assuming the next attempt produces no issues, is it fine that I've already created and loaded EmuMMC?(Didn't actually do anything in it besides making sure I had booted into it)
The keys that you are dumping only change every major firmware update or so. They would not change if they were dumped before or after an eMMC backup. Honestly, the keys are nowhere near as important as the eMMC backup because a complete eMMC backup makes a keys dump almost useless...almost.
