# 3DS Best CFW? Question and Issue(s), Please Help Anyone, Thanks!



## Romruto (Sep 6, 2017)

I've been away from the hacking scene for 3DS for a long time!
...and now I'm back because I have an issue regarding how to make my New 3DS work again.

So I recently decided to turn on my 3DS (since August of 2016) with an autoboot for ReiNand CFW and just updated the files from 4.1 to the latest (5.1) today; It loaded just fine. I then proceed to update the custom firmware as usual to whatever 3DS firmware available to date. I turned it on and it autoboots through and loads up everything just fine (_okay.. from here it looks normal_). I tried to go into settings and it just sits doing nothing. Which at this point, that's odd. Maybe it's because I updated the CFW to the latest FW?? I again, tried it a few times and nothing, sits still doing nothing. I turn it off and turn it on, now it won't auto boot and after the REINAND screen, it's just a black screen (Again and again). At this point, I've accepted that I lost all my saved games and CFW because it won't load. I messed up somewhere I guess UGH!

So I have a few questions as I've forgotten a lot. Got caught up with life 

Anyway, questions....

1) Anyone know what went wrong with my predicament? And can I fix this?

2) If I start everything over, I want a CFW that allows me to play GBA games as well. Point me in the right direction for that please. Help?

3) I heard LUMA was great for CFW and GBA support. Is that true?

Note: I have a New 3DS, the system firmware is 9.2. And I have a MicroSD of 128GB. 
And yes I do have a backup of my SD card of before I updated the Reinand and updating the CFW.

Thank You!


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## invaderyoyo (Sep 6, 2017)

You probably didn't lose anything. Just switch to an up to date CFW and everything should be back. The most common setup is boot9strap with Luma, which is a good choice.


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## Romruto (Sep 6, 2017)

invaderyoyo said:


> You probably didn't lose anything. Just switch to an up to date CFW and everything should be back. The most common setup is boot9strap with Luma, which is a good choice.



How do I just switch over?


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## invaderyoyo (Sep 6, 2017)

Romruto said:


> How do I just switch over?


https://3ds.guide/a9lh-to-b9s.html


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## Romruto (Sep 6, 2017)

invaderyoyo said:


> https://3ds.guide/a9lh-to-b9s.html


I'm super lost. I had ReiNAND and never had luma. I tried to follow the instructions and even formatted my SD. Held start, and got nothing. -___-;


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## invaderyoyo (Sep 6, 2017)

Instead of holding start, try renaming the bin file to arm9loaderhax.bin and putting it on the sd root.


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## Shady Guy Jose (Sep 6, 2017)

It seems like OP didn't have A9LH. Do you remember what entrypoint you were using? MenuHAX, maybe?


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## Romruto (Sep 6, 2017)

Shady Guy Jose said:


> It seems like OP didn't have A9LH. Do you remember what entrypoint you were using? MenuHAX, maybe?


yeah i dont remember having A9LH but definitely used a BrowserHAX at the time? It's been a long time, so I don't remember  the entry point. However, it could be that.


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## Shady Guy Jose (Sep 6, 2017)

You probably used BrowserHAX to install MenuHAX. What is your current SysNAND firmware?


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## ThisIsDaAccount (Sep 6, 2017)

Turn on your 3ds with the sd card removed and go to system settings. Write down the System version you see there.

After doing that, go to this page:
https://3ds.guide/get-started

And follow the directions there from start to finish. At the end, there will be an optional procedure for emunand/rednand users. Follow that as well.


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## wormdood (Sep 6, 2017)

1.a  the latest reinand is built for b9s (similar to menuhax but it takes place before the system even boots its own firmware so it has deeper access)
1.b  assuming you can still boot the console without the sd inserted just install b9s/luma Homebrew Launcher (Soundhax) - 3DS Guide
2.  you already had one but your current/outdated menuhax setup requires the game to be installed to sysnand and enunand in order to boot . . . this is not the case with a b9s setup as it uses sysnand as emunand is unneeded at this point . . . but to answer your question directly use 3DS Guide - 3DS Guide to install b9s/luma
3.  yes


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

Shady Guy Jose said:


> You probably used BrowserHAX to install MenuHAX. What is your current SysNAND firmware?


Most likely and it's currently "Ver. 9.2.0-20U"


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## ThisIsDaAccount (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> Most likely and it's currently "Ver. 9.2.0-20U"


As wormdood said, start here and continue until the end.


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

So I started fresh and installed the b9s using soundhax. 
The FW says Sys 9.2.0.20U. Is it safe to update to the latest?

And the important question is, am I able to recover my EmuNAND from ReiNAND. My main reason is that I have a Pokemon Moon save file that I don't want to lose. Help please, thanks.


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## Shady Guy Jose (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> So I started fresh and installed the b9s using soundhax.
> The FW says Sys 9.2.0.20U. Is it safe to update to the latest?
> 
> And the important question is, am I able to recover my EmuNAND from ReiNAND. My main reason is that I have a Pokemon Moon save file that I don't want to lose. Help please, thanks.


Don't update. Restore your EmuNAND to SysNAND as the guide says, and you'll already be on the latest with all your stuff


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

Shady Guy Jose said:


> Don't update. Restore your EmuNAND to SysNAND as the guide says, and you'll already be on the latest with all your stuff


I tried to do that but I don't think its working. When I tried to restore it from this guide "https://3ds.guide/move-emunand" and got to Section IV. It says "Navigate to [E:] EMUNAND VIRTUAL" but on my screen it says SYSNAND VIRTUAL. I don't understand...why.


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## wormdood (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I tried to do that but I don't think its working. When I tried to restore it from this guide "https://3ds.guide/move-emunand" and got to Section IV. It says "Navigate to [E:] EMUNAND VIRTUAL" but on my screen it says SYSNAND VIRTUAL. I don't understand...why.


assuming your sd card still has its emunand and nintendo 3ds folder then your emunand may be corrupt
personally i would ignore the section as i buy games that i pirate once i decide they are worth the cash so all my good saves are on cartage


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

wormdood said:


> assuming your sd card still has its emunand and nintendo 3ds folder then your emunand may be corrupt
> personally i would ignore the section as i buy games that i pirate once i decide they are worth the cash so all my good saves are on cartage


I do own Pokemon Moon but I was too far on the game on my EmuNAND. So I just left my cart in the dust...


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## wormdood (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I do own Pokemon Moon but I was too far on the game on my EmuNAND. So I just left my cart in the dust...


then lets try to solve this for your pokemons sake


Romruto said:


> I tried to do that but I don't think its working. When I tried to restore it from this guide "https://3ds.guide/move-emunand" and got to Section IV. It says "Navigate to [E:] EMUNAND VIRTUAL" but on my screen it says SYSNAND VIRTUAL. I don't understand...why.


strange can you post a pic?


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I tried to do that but I don't think its working. When I tried to restore it from this guide "https://3ds.guide/move-emunand" and got to Section IV. It says "Navigate to [E:] EMUNAND VIRTUAL" but on my screen it says SYSNAND VIRTUAL. I don't understand...why.


You said you formatted the SD. It's possible it wiped your emuNAND. Are you on Windows? Go into Disk Management and check if there's unpartitioned space at the beginning of the card, or if the FAT32 partition is taking up the whole card.
Also, unless you made a backup of the card before formatting it, your saves are probably gone anyway.


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## wormdood (Sep 7, 2017)

The Real Jdbye said:


> You said you formatted the SD. It's possible it wiped your emuNAND. Are you on Windows? Go into Disk Management and check if there's unpartitioned space at the beginning of the card, or if the FAT32 partition is taking up the whole card.
> Also, unless you made a backup of the card before formatting it, your saves are probably gone anyway.


this crossed my mind as well its the reason i said "assuming" & "try"


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

wormdood said:


> then lets try to solve this for your pokemons sake
> strange can you post a pic?


Thanks  I would like to get back all I lost.



The Real Jdbye said:


> You said you formatted the SD. It's possible it wiped your emuNAND. Are you on Windows? Go into Disk Management and check if there's unpartitioned space at the beginning of the card, or if the FAT32 partition is taking up the whole card.
> Also, unless you made a backup of the card before formatting it, your saves are probably gone anyway.


Yeah I did make a backup of my files on the sd card:

https://imgur.com/a/lhxLN


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## wormdood (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> Thanks  I would like to get back all I lost.
> 
> 
> Yeah I did make a backup of my files on the sd card:
> ...


it looks like there is no emunand can you see one via your pc ? (. . . *either way back up your current sd card and if you can your emunand as well*)
if no you may need to create a new emunand so you can inject your old emunand


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> Thanks  I would like to get back all I lost.
> 
> 
> Yeah I did make a backup of my files on the sd card:
> ...


Check Disk Management like I said. If your emuNAND is gone and your NANDs were unlinked there's probably nothing you can do. If the NANDs are linked you should just need to reinstall the tickets of your games, which if you used FunkyCIA, CIAngel, FreeShop, tikShop or similar, you can do by going to the title key site and scanning the QR codes for the games in FBI, and selecting NO when it asks to install content from CDN (otherwise the saves are wiped)
But if you got the CIAs from some site online then you would need to find those same CIAs again and somehow extract the tickets from them.


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

wormdood said:


> it looks like there is no emunand can you see one via your pc ? (. . . *either way back up your current sd card and if you can your emunand as well*)
> if no you may need to create a new emunand so you can inject your old emunand


Okay I will now. How would I go about injecting my old emuNAND?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



The Real Jdbye said:


> Check Disk Management like I said. If your emuNAND is gone and your NANDs were unlinked there's probably nothing you can do. If the NANDs are linked you should just need to reinstall the tickets of your games, which if you used FunkyCIA, CIAngel, FreeShop, tikShop or similar, you can do by going to the title key site and scanning the QR codes for the games in FBI, and selecting NO when it asks to install content from CDN (otherwise the saves are wiped)
> But if you got the CIAs from some site online then you would need to find those same CIAs again and somehow extract the tickets from them.


Yeah they were unlinked


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> Okay I will now. How would I go about injecting my old emuNAND?
> 
> --------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
> 
> ...


Do you have an emuNAND backup?


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

The Real Jdbye said:


> Do you have an emuNAND backup?


How would I know that I did? Would it be a .bin file? All I made was a backup of my SD card before it went to crap.


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> How would I know that I did? Would it be a .bin file? All I made was a backup of my SD card before it went to crap.


You probably don't have one, but look for a file named something like emuNAND.bin, NAND_emu.bin of about 1-2GB in size. Could be in the SD card root, files9 folder or in gm9out.


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## GilgameshArcher (Sep 7, 2017)

Luma3DS


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

The Real Jdbye said:


> You probably don't have one, but look for a file named something like emuNAND.bin, NAND_emu.bin of about 1-2GB in size. Could be in the SD card root, files9 folder or in gm9out.


Hmm...

Inside the /rei/emunand folder, there is a file called emunand.bin (1kb)
Inside the /emuNAND9 folder, there is a file called starter.bin (670mb)

As for the /files9 folder or /gm9/out folders, they were not present at that time when I made a backup.
However there is a NAND.bin file on the root that is 1.21gb


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> Hmm...
> 
> Inside the /rei/emunand folder, there is a file called emunand.bin (1kb)
> Inside the /emuNAND9 folder, there is a file called starter.bin (670mb)
> ...


The NAND.bin is probably of sysNAND. But if it's from before you unlinked, and you unlinked by formatting sysNAND it could still be of use.


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

The Real Jdbye said:


> The NAND.bin is probably of sysNAND. But if it's from before you unlinked, and you unlinked by formatting sysNAND it could still be of use.


I'm not sure but let's say it was. What do I do?


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I'm not sure but let's say it was. What do I do?


Make a backup of your current sysNAND, restore the old one and reinstall tickets for your games like I mentioned and see if they show up on the home menu.


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

I think I'm just gonna swallow this huge pill and say screw it.... 
....I followed this guide: https://3ds.guide/homebrew-launcher-(soundhax)

and up to this section: Update your device by going to System Settings, then “Other Settings”, then going all the way to the right and using “System Update”

Can I update it? My 3DS says Sys 9.2.0-20U
Is this Luma with B9S CFW?


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## ThisIsDaAccount (Sep 7, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I think I'm just gonna swallow this huge pill and say screw it....
> ....I followed this guide: https://3ds.guide/homebrew-launcher-(soundhax)
> 
> and up to this section: Update your device by going to System Settings, then “Other Settings”, then going all the way to the right and using “System Update”
> ...



To answer your question, it's safe to update. But i recommend you try this before calling it a day:

1. Make a backup of your Nintendo 3DS folder.
2. Restore NAND.bin
3. If that doesnt make your games appear, format the system using system settings.
4. Go through initial set up and then drag the backup you made back onto your SD card (overwriting the folder still there).


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## Romruto (Sep 7, 2017)

ThisIsDaAccount said:


> To answer your question, it's safe to update. But i recommend you try this before calling it a day:
> 
> 1. Make a backup of your Nintendo 3DS folder.
> 2. Restore NAND.bin
> ...


where do I go to restore my .NAND.bin?
edit: I held start while booting on and chose the nand.bin and proceeded to restore.
edit: nothing happened after restoring the nand. So I give up. I'm just gonna start from scratch.


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## ThisIsDaAccount (Sep 8, 2017)

Romruto said:


> where do I go to restore my .NAND.bin?
> edit: I held start while booting on and chose the nand.bin and proceeded to restore.
> edit: nothing happened after restoring the nand. So I give up. I'm just gonna start from scratch.


Did you try restoring and then formatting the console?


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 8, 2017)

Romruto said:


> I think I'm just gonna swallow this huge pill and say screw it....
> ....I followed this guide: https://3ds.guide/homebrew-launcher-(soundhax)
> 
> and up to this section: Update your device by going to System Settings, then “Other Settings”, then going all the way to the right and using “System Update”
> ...


Don't give up yet.
What I suggested should allow you to get your saves back, if you didn't format sysNAND between making that backup and creating emuNAND, and you didn't format emuNAND afterwards. Usually there would be no reason to format besides unlinking so there's a decent chance that it will work.


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## Romruto (Sep 8, 2017)

delete comment


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## Romruto (Sep 9, 2017)

After installing everything from this https://3ds.guide/homebrew-launcher-(soundhax) GUIDE, from start to finish, and still having the folder that has my 3DS savedata & rei files, am I able to recover my emuNAND?

I know you said "_if you didn't format sysNAND between making that backup and creating emuNAND, and you didn't format emuNAND afterwards. Usually there would be no reason to format besides unlinking so there's a decent chance that it will work._" but when I tried to backup my rei's emuNAND, during the step about backing up the sysNAND from the 3ds guide page, everything listed in the GODMODE was only sysNAND and there was no emuNAND present to select from. Also, I highly believe that my New3DS was unlinked from the sysNAND and rei's emuNAND.

So even if they were unlinked and nothing was showing emuNAND in the list in GODMODE, was it even possible to recover my ReiNAND's emuNAND?

Edit: I did format my sd card due to it freezing before all of this. During my wanting to play this 3DS again, I turned it on and loaded into Rei's emuNAND as normal. Then I downloaded the new update files for ReiNAND. After that, I turned on my 3DS as normal and proceeded to use Rei. I thought to update the CFW on Rei to today's Nintendo 3DS FW. After that, things acted up strange like not loading into the System Settings and stalling until I had to hard shut down. It happened again and again, so I decided to use a backup of my old files before I updated ReiNAND files and Rei's emuNAND CFW. At this point, it stopped loading into the emuNAND and gave a black screen. Then I tried to format the SD card and move the backup'd files onto the sd card once more and nothing still. And finally, I ended up here asking questions about what to do.


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## LeeCorn (Sep 27, 2019)

The maximum you can get on a SD card isn't 32 GB ? You told yours were 128 GB so maybe that's the problem...

Sorry for the english i'l french X)


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## LeeCorn (Sep 27, 2019)

The maximum you can get on a SD card isn't 32 GB ? You told yours were 128 GB so maybe that's the problem...

Sorry for the english i'l french X)


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## LeeCorn (Sep 27, 2019)

The maximum you can get on a SD card isn't 32 GB ? You told yours were 128 GB so maybe that's the problem...

Sorry for the english i'l french X)


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## LeeCorn (Sep 27, 2019)

The maximum you can get on a SD card isn't 32 GB ? You told yours were 128 GB so maybe that's the problem...

Sorry for the english i'l french X)


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## LeeCorn (Sep 27, 2019)

The maximum you can get on a SD card isn't 32 GB ? You told yours were 128 GB so maybe that's the problem...

Sorry for the english i'l french X)

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The max format of SD card you can use isn't 32GB ? Maybe that's the problem cause you said yours is 128GB...

Sorry for the english i'm french X)


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