Hacking SWITCH NOOB PARADISE - Ask questions here

[Draxzelex]

We are talking about self reported data, self reported data has always problems, especially for something like this, where we are talking about big time frames with a lot of differences in personal knowledge of the reporters. Especially since a small detail might be important for this, that are easily forgotten.
Also except for specific bans, bans normally happen in waves, to mitigate exactly the problem you mentioned. This is already enough, since you will probably not remember every detail you did in the last 1-3 months.
Complete randomness that keeps a lot of people unbanned on the other side would not make sense when bans happen because they think, that what you are doing is hurting their business. This would mean they are letting people do things for years by now that are hurting them.
But what we know is that Nintendo, like other companies, thinks piracy looses them money (whether or not it really does is another question), so it even makes sense from a business standpoint to ban everyone identified to use "backups". We also know there is enough info send while going online with a backup to directly identify them. We also know that nintendo has play logs of what people are playing, so we know that they can identify if we play a game that doesn't exist,, which in return means you install stuff, and thus easily identifies that you are using CFW and allows for a ban that will not hit someone innocent, so they ban.

Similar for cheating, we know that cheating makes the online experience worse, which is bad for the business, so they ban people if they identify it. Cheating often also can happen via multiple means, via direct memory manipulation, or via asset/rom manipulation (so directly cheatcodes or romhacking), so if they identify it via different means, depending on the game, they ban you.

Next we have the User Icon change. We know people misused this to use porn images as profile picture, which is not good for nintendos family friendly image. This likely is not an automatic ban, as long as the api is used the same as the switch does for stuff like miis, but they might have some automation that check for potential custom images, and then lets humans review this.
And even if its not the case, they will likely at least ban them if there are reports and they notice the image got tampered with.

As last guaranteed ban, we have the sketchy/weird eshop/requests part, that's a quick ban. This is probably a result from the 3DS and wiiu piracy vie nintendos CDN, which brings us back to the piracy topic, which nintendo doesn't want, so whenever they notice something weird they ban them, like it happened for some certificates of people running bots to check for game updates.

Last we have the logs. We know they keep some logs even after you factory reset the system, and we know that those files can only be modified by either using exploits to run code and access the raw files, or by dumping and restoring the Nand.
If those changes include a firmware downgrade that should not be possible because of fuses, nintendo can say for certain that there is CFW at work. We also don't really know if this be a guaranteed ban, or if this will just flag the switch to a potential ban if something else is detected, but at least we know that nintendo can identify that something got tampered with.

So those things are not just confirmed via the ban reports, and instead also via reversing/traffic analysis and understanding Nintendos position.

Now lets looks at why other things are potentially safe.
The usage of exostphere can not be detected by nintendo, since they cant make requests to things that don't exist to check for atmospheres extensions, since their trustzone would otherwise fatal.
Next to the kernel, devs would probably quickly notice, if nintendo started to call extensions there, so that is not happening.
Similar for the system modules implemented by atmosphere, its unlikely they are calling the apis from atmoshpere without noticing.
But what about timings? In theory they could use timings for detection. But the timings can change when the switch for example gets too hot and throttles down, even just the load through applications or switching between handheld and docked mode can probably change the timings of many things in the system.
Then how about the SD content. First, having specific files on the SD card doesn't mean its used, so you could wrongfully ban someone, just because the kid put some files on there. Seconds of a module would randomly start getting access to the SD and scanning the SD card, we would notice it.

Next lets continue with homebrew applications via album and title overwrite.
For the play log, it pretty much just looks like you are playing a lot of for example youtube, or really like to check your screenshots, nothing sus about that. what about errors and crashes that happen? Atmosphere re-implements fatal and creport, so those logs never get written to the system save.
So what about the missing telemetry? The same would happen if you just block the same urls atmosphere blocks, or if no problems happen, so nothing that proves you are using homebrew there.

So those are just the most important examples, as you see its not just user reports, its user reports, together with knowledge about the system and thinking about nintendos goals, which creates this list.

Is there always a rest risk? yeah, as mentioned before, but I normally mention what people should not do when using syscfw with clean atmosphere, so I already give them the required knowledge on the way, what they make out of it, is then their own doing.

Also my current personal reports are easier to proof, since proving you are not banned can easily be done by just playing online while using CFW. Proving why someone is banned on the other hand is hard, unless you documented everything you did, and even then its hard. Same for a report from me in case I get banned eventually, its unlikely I report everything I did, unless it was something that was causing a direct ban, instead of a wave ban.

The data is collected in the form of yes and no questions. This eliminates nearly all guesswork of what is being asked of the user. Certain questions are even framed together to pinpoint the exact issue such as when a person is actively online or not when using CFW or homebrew. Also people escaping bans due to randomness is a phenomena that would occur when Nintendo bans in waves; there is no evidence that everyone flagged is banned during a wave. It also doesn't change the fact that not everyone who plays backups isn't banned just like how everyone who just uses CFW is also not banned.

I also do not see the point in divulging what Nintendo can or cannot see because they ultimately decide who gets banned and distribute a ban that may or may not match the offense. For example, people have mismatched fuse counts, myself included, but do not get banned despite that Nintendo can detect such a difference. Another example is the observation that people who have done save manipulation have received game bans as opposed to console bans. Why the discrepancy when some people who have only used homebew managed to full console bans can only be attributed to Nintendo's arbitrary behavior.

I disagree that it is easier to prove that you are not banned than banned. First off, bans never occur immediately so while you can showcase you are not banned at the moment, that doesn't prove you were doing said actions in the past. You might have done nothing for all I know. But this doesn't lead to a fruitful conversation because both parties can just accuse the other of lying or withholding information. That is why the truth-default theory exists; people are naturally more inclined to tell the truth than lie. If you start making assumptions that the data is incorrect, your argument is automatically less coherent because Occam's Razor states that the fewer assumptions you make, the closer to the truth you are. I reiterate, your own personal bias is preventing you from accepting the fact that people have been banned for use cases that don't conform with your definition of safe. If you believe that fact is false then provide the proof that it is because otherwise, it must be accepted as the truth and then you reform your conclusion from there.

When I try to load emummc sd card/atmosphere from hekate, it gives me a black screen and I have to force a reboot..help? It's not required because I just load sys cfw but I am curious why it doesn't work.

Was it working before? If so, what was the last thing you did before it stopped working?

Hi everyone.

I'm a complete noob on everything that has to do with this, so here are a few questions and some context.

i paid a local shop to do the whole process, im running hekate 6.2.0. no idea abouyt anything else (atmosphere, tinfoil, nut or anything else).

seeing a few vids on youtube i realize there is some access to "things" on the album section of the switch. also theres only two "sections" on the load screan of hekate one is emuMMC and the other one is the "original" instance of the switch.

i wanna get the most of it but im pretty sure the guys that did the whole process hide some stuff to avoid me downloading my ownstuff and having to pay them for every game or "app", so my "basic question" is where do i learn this whole thing and what do i need to lear so i can start squishing every single dime of this marvelous thing...

sorry about such and open question, but this is noob paradise, right?

Well you'll have to follow a Switch hacking guide which will be a bit awkward for you because technically, your console is already hacked. But if you follow it, it will help contextualize everything that shop did for you and understand how to do it yourself should an issue ever arise. This is the guide I recommend for you to follow.

had issues with emuMMC so backed up saves using NxNandManager (Atmosphere 1.6.2 with firmware 17.0.0). created new eumMMC and installed Atmosphere 1.7.1 with firmware 18.1.0. will I have any issues restoring my saves using JKSV or another save restoring tool since the firmware version is different now than when I made the backups? wasn't sure if saves are affected by firmware version. do the installed game update versions affect whether saves can be restored? have installed some updates since making the new emuMMC so the game update versions differ from when I made the backups. thanks!

Saves are affected by firmware version but only if you go down. Obviously, lower saves work on higher firmware versions because if they didn't, everyone would have issues when they update. Saves are also affected by game version. The same principle applies that lower versions work on higher versions but not vice versa. Its also fine if you update the game past the original version it was on.

 

[TudorBlue]

In need of some help and advice here guys. I’ve got a modded switch lite and tonight, I went to play one of the back ups on my switch when I got an error message. I could not get passed this screen. See attached photograph. Of course, any help and advice with this will be very much appreciated.

 

[Draxzelex]

In need of some help and advice here guys. I’ve got a modded switch lite and tonight, I went to play one of the back ups on my switch when I got an error message. I could not get passed this screen. See attached photograph. Of course, any help and advice with this will be very much appreciated.

Did you use this SD card on another Switch console as the message implies?

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

The data is collected in the form of yes and no questions. This eliminates nearly all guesswork of what is being asked of the user. Certain questions are even framed together to pinpoint the exact issue such as when a person is actively online or not when using CFW or homebrew. Also people escaping bans due to randomness is a phenomena that would occur when Nintendo bans in waves; there is no evidence that everyone flagged is banned during a wave. It also doesn't change the fact that not everyone who plays backups isn't banned just like how everyone who just uses CFW is also not banned.

I also do not see the point in divulging what Nintendo can or cannot see because they ultimately decide who gets banned and distribute a ban that may or may not match the offense. For example, people have mismatched fuse counts, myself included, but do not get banned despite that Nintendo can detect such a difference. Another example is the observation that people who have done save manipulation have received game bans as opposed to console bans. Why the discrepancy when some people who have only used homebew managed to full console bans can only be attributed to Nintendo's arbitrary behavior.

I disagree that it is easier to prove that you are not banned than banned. First off, bans never occur immediately so while you can showcase you are not banned at the moment, that doesn't prove you were doing said actions in the past. You might have done nothing for all I know. But this doesn't lead to a fruitful conversation because both parties can just accuse the other of lying or withholding information. That is why the truth-default theory exists; people are naturally more inclined to tell the truth than lie. If you start making assumptions that the data is incorrect, your argument is automatically less coherent because Occam's Razor states that the fewer assumptions you make, the closer to the truth you are. I reiterate, your own personal bias is preventing you from accepting the fact that people have been banned for use cases that don't conform with your definition of safe. If you believe that fact is false then provide the proof that it is because otherwise, it must be accepted as the truth and then you reform your conclusion from there.

What which part of the system can detect and see is absolutely relevant, because nintendo can't ban people for something, if they don't receive the info that its happening.
So lets take your example with the fuses, in theory they can detect it, because we know the boot loader checks it, but has any system module access to the fuses?
If I remember it correctly, mostly the bootloader and trustzone use the fuses directly, while the rest doesn't use them directly. So if I'm correct, then one of the components we know 100% what it does handles this, and we know for certain that its not send to Nintendo.
So there is a big difference between things the console can actually detect, and what Nintendo can detect about you as a company with its current firmware.
About people playing backups, I actually mentioned before, that they don't need to directly lead to a quick ban, as long as you are not connecting to the online services for usage with the game. I even used game XCIs via emulation in SXOS in the past, but always offline, and pretty much only to play games I preordered early. One of the switch consoles from my family even had a game NSP installed in the past and is still going online. That's why I said they can lead to a ban, in case ticket data gets send. One of the cases where ticket info is send, is during moments where the game connects to online servers, but its possible that there are other triggers where tickets might be synchronized. Its also easy to accidentally connect online in a game if people use a mixed nand, which is a big potential error source thats mitigated via emunand for people using backups.

The questionaire being limtied to yes and no questions helps a bit with the answers the users can answer, but it also has the potential, that smaller but important things are still not reported by the users, because they are not in it.
For example if somethings like tinfoil installed itself, the user would not put it in as them installeing NSPs. Even just installing their self dumped XCIs, or for some installing NSZ (or what it was) files can lead to the users reporting this as no, since they might not understand that its all the same. So the user will still only report it based on their level of knowledge, which is to be expected, but limits the ability of this data telling us that just CFW is problematic. It can tell us on the other side that some specific thigns might be problematic through, especially when combined with analysis of the system.
And Your point about lying only is importent if we expect the user to lie, but I never said they intentionally lie, I said that some answers might be wrong because of their lack of knowledge in some areas, which is not lying.
Also when a user is unsure about something, even just the way a question is asked can lead to different answer, which is why an eyewitness might sometimes report wrong info.

And about the ban proof, its easy to use sysdvr to proof I'm currently online in CFW and can go online in a game by just streaming it and using tesla overlays.
For the past on the other side, the evidence is not 100% water tight, since I might regularly use different switches, but its more likely I'm telling the truth as you mentioned.
For example based on the Fuse count and system error log I can also give good evidence about the likely timeframe in which I already use CFW, and that I never did a normal stock bootloader boot since then.
Also the newest entry in the error History under Settigns->Error History is a 2124-3001 from march 2020, before that there where regularly new entries, and not a single one after it.
Based on the play history its also possible to at least give move evidence that I used a switch a lot since then. I also have a public playlist with unlisted streams of splatoon from after the last error log, that where made using sysdvr, and probably also some local recordings, with some recordings probably also showing the FPS counter or somethings else from tesla.

 

[someguy12345]

I'm going to post this here before resorting to making a thread, sorry if a lot of this seems redundant, been cross referencing the rentry and nh-server guides but I wasn't able to find concrete answers for all of this.

The main thing I would like to confirm is if my steps to transfer saves from an unhacked Switch Lite to this new hacked V1 Switch are sound and safe.

I have an NSO subscription, and I'm aware of cloud saves. However, I'd like to transfer my Dark Souls save, which does NOT support NSO. My understanding is the only way this save can be transferred is with a full system transfer. I'll need to do a local system transfer from my Switch Lite to the hacked V1 Switch.

My V1 Switch already has homebrew installed, Atmosphere 1.7.1 and Hekate 6.2.0 (both latest). The Sysnand firmware is on 16.0.1 (outdated - current is 18.1.0) (long story short, I started the hacking process last year, which is why it's updated more recent but not most recent). Can someone confirm if the planned steps I have seem correct? +some questions along the way...

STEP 1
First step, I'm assuming, would be to back up my emunand and sysnand. I know this is accomplished with Hekate's main menu.
QUESTION A: How do you back up sysnand specifically? In Hekate -> Tools -> Backup eMMC, there are 2 full backup options: eMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and eMMC RAW GPP. Do these back up the emunand, sysnand, or both? I want to back up my sysnand before doing the system transfer with my old unhacked Switch.

STEP 2
Update official firmware on sysnand to 18.1.0.
QUESTION B: is it confirmed that official firmware 18.1.0 is safe to use if you already have Atmosphere 1.7.1 and Hekate 6.2.0 (both latest) installed?

STEP 3
Do local system transfer FROM unhacked Switch Lite TO hacked V1 Switch. Games and saves will be stored on the Sysnand.

STEP 4
Somehow I need to launch JKSV (save manager) within Sysnand in order to back up my now-transferred saves.
QUESTION C: How would I go about running JKSV on Sysnand? This post makes it seem like the Album icon should launch the homebrew applet, but this does not work on Sysnand for me. It just opens up the actual pictures album. It does launch the applet on Emunand however, just not Sysnand.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/backup-...etting-dirty-the-sysnand.628842/post-10104332

Just open the album icon to open the homebrew launcher. This is known as applet mode. Applet mode only has partial RAM access. Some homebrew requires full ram access and doing that requires booting the homebrew launcher through an installed title on the system by holding R while booting. Something as simple as a save manager can just use applet mode.

QUESTION D: Mostly confirming, do we know how how safe it is to do this? I'm aware this risks "dirtying" the Sysnand. I've ready many accounts online from people who have been doing this (JKSV save dumps from Sysnand) for years and haven't been banned, but just wanted to confirm in case there have been new developments.

STEP 5
Copy output save files from SD card to PC; done


Do these 5 steps sound right? Biggest clarification I need would be STEP 4. Am I missing anything critical, i.e. steps and precautions taken to stay safe from bricks and bans (to the best of our knowledge)?

Extra Question: from my research, I understand "Auto NoGC" is automatically turned on for security measures (disables game card reader). Will the game card reader still work on Sysnand and is it safe to use? The explanations I've seen online are admittedly beyond my technical understanding, something about burning fuses when the card reader is updated.

Apologies if this seems excessively noobish and long, any help is appreciated, I'm a 3DS hacking pro but this environment seems much different.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

I'm going to post this here before resorting to making a thread, sorry if a lot of this seems redundant, been cross referencing the rentry and nh-server guides but I wasn't able to find concrete answers for all of this.

The main thing I would like to confirm is if my steps to transfer saves from an unhacked Switch Lite to this new hacked V1 Switch are sound and safe.

I have an NSO subscription, and I'm aware of cloud saves. However, I'd like to transfer my Dark Souls save, which does NOT support NSO. My understanding is the only way this save can be transferred is with a full system transfer. I'll need to do a local system transfer from my Switch Lite to the hacked V1 Switch.

My V1 Switch already has homebrew installed, Atmosphere 1.7.1 and Hekate 6.2.0 (both latest). The Sysnand firmware is on 16.0.1 (outdated - current is 18.1.0) (long story short, I started the hacking process last year, which is why it's updated more recent but not most recent). Can someone confirm if the planned steps I have seem correct? +some questions along the way...

STEP 1
First step, I'm assuming, would be to back up my emunand and sysnand. I know this is accomplished with Hekate's main menu.
QUESTION A: How do you back up sysnand specifically? In Hekate -> Tools -> Backup eMMC, there are 2 full backup options: eMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and eMMC RAW GPP. Do these back up the emunand, sysnand, or both? I want to back up my sysnand before doing the system transfer with my old unhacked Switch.

STEP 2
Update official firmware on sysnand to 18.1.0.
QUESTION B: is it confirmed that official firmware 18.1.0 is safe to use if you already have Atmosphere 1.7.1 and Hekate 6.2.0 (both latest) installed?

STEP 3
Do local system transfer FROM unhacked Switch Lite TO hacked V1 Switch. Games and saves will be stored on the Sysnand.

STEP 4
Somehow I need to launch JKSV (save manager) within Sysnand in order to back up my now-transferred saves.
QUESTION C: How would I go about running JKSV on Sysnand? This post makes it seem like the Album icon should launch the homebrew applet, but this does not work on Sysnand for me. It just opens up the actual pictures album. It does launch the applet on Emunand however, just not Sysnand.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/backup-...etting-dirty-the-sysnand.628842/post-10104332

QUESTION D: Mostly confirming, do we know how how safe it is to do this? I'm aware this risks "dirtying" the Sysnand. I've ready many accounts online from people who have been doing this (JKSV save dumps from Sysnand) for years and haven't been banned, but just wanted to confirm in case there have been new developments.

STEP 5
Copy output save files from SD card to PC; done


Do these 5 steps sound right? Biggest clarification I need would be STEP 4. Am I missing anything critical, i.e. steps and precautions taken to stay safe from bricks and bans (to the best of our knowledge)?

Extra Question: from my research, I understand "Auto NoGC" is automatically turned on for security measures (disables game card reader). Will the game card reader still work on Sysnand and is it safe to use? The explanations I've seen online are admittedly beyond my technical understanding, something about burning fuses when the card reader is updated.

Apologies if this seems excessively noobish and long, any help is appreciated, I'm a 3DS hacking pro but this environment seems much different.

There is a tool in the system settings to transfer specific save games, without a full system transfer. I think its under Data Management->Transfer Your Save Data.
You still need to go online on both system for the transfer, so you still need to go into your syscfw to extract the saves via homebrew, or do a nand dump and extract it from that (overall takes longer and is more complicated). Best make sure that the syscfw uses atmospheres defaults as much as possible.
To boot into sysCFW you could probably add this to your hekate_ipl.ini config file:

[Atmosphere-hekate]
fss0=atmosphere/package3
id=atmoshe
emummc_force_disable=1
cal0blank=0

The reason why your sysnand boot doesn't run the homebrew launcher via album is probably, that you are booting stock, not syscfw, so when using the above config it should work.
Also don't forget that there is not just the album way of running homebrew, but instead also the title overtake way, where you run a game or application like youtube, and hold the R Button while starting it. Some homebrew requires thigs way to start, since it gives it access to more memory, compared to the album applet.

About the safety, I don't personally know a case where just syscfw got them banned (but its only a small sample size of like 8 to 10 switches, but over a timeframe of probably 4 years+ for most of them).
Some people online state they got banned without doing anything problematic(so installing homebrew/backups to the home menu, cheating online, romhacks onilne), through as mentioned before, it might be a knowledge problem, and they might just not know that something they did was problematic, since its not in the qustionary.
The atmosphere devs and I think its mostly safe to use atmophere with its default settings online, which is also the way atmosphere is designed to be used. On the other side, there might also always be a small risk left that something has been missed that could lead to a ban of the console with CFW.

 

[Ebon_scar]

hello i got i small question i opent my cfw sysmmc and downloaded a pirate game
is there a way to restore your sysNAND with a back up i did right after i modded my switch (clean sysNAND)
to avoid a ban (i havent connected tho the internet yet)

sorry fore my English

this is the back up i have i hope i can save my switch

 

[Shurkien]

One of my coworkers mentioned that he has a spare day one switch laying around which he may want to sell.
I declared my interest and he said to name a price.

The console was heavily played on until he got his ToTk OLED model and both joycons are drifting (which doesnt matter for me).

Since he doesnt know why im looking for this particular switch - can anybody help me what would be a reasonable price?

 

[Ebon_scar]

around a 100 should be fine

 

[BigOnYa]

One of my coworkers mentioned that he has a spare day one switch laying around which he may want to sell.
I declared my interest and he said to name a price.

The console was heavily played on until he got his ToTk OLED model and both joycons are drifting (which doesnt matter for me).

Since he doesnt know why im looking for this particular switch - can anybody help me what would be a reasonable price?

With drifting joycons, and probably a worn out battery, I'd only offer $75-100. Btw, you can fix both joycons and replace new battery yourself.

 

[52eeveebest]

HI, i want to custom interface of my Nintendo switch (without RMC)

 

[BigOnYa]

HI, i want to custom interface of my Nintendo switch (without RMC)

Read here, a little out of date, but you will understand better. https://rentry.org/SwitchHackingIsEasy

 

[Shurkien]

With drifting joycons, and probably a worn out battery, I'd only offer $75-100. Btw, you can fix both joycons and replace new battery yourself.

Tbh - i only really need the tablet. Idc about joycons and battery.

Thanks for you anwser!!

 

[Near14]

Hi guys I hope you’r doing well

I got an error in hekate saying that my emmc is working on slow mode and it may be due to hardware issues.I receive this message every time I restore a nand backup but not when launching hekate What hardware issue specifically ?

You have to know that since I’m getting that message , ofw and cfw sysnand crash inconsistently at boot.Yesterday , it crashed the whole day, but since this morning , it boot without problem.

Emunand works perfectly fine and boots normally tho.

Any idea ? Thank You

 

[testing123]

There are many but most use hekate or fusee. Best to use the most recent.
https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate
https://github.com/Atmosphere-NX/Atmosphere/releases
https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

Thanks for your advice last time I had issues.

Now I need to update the Switch to play AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative and Mortal Kombat 1.

It's been a while since I've updated my hacked Switch; I can't even remember how to check the current firmware. Pretty sure checking "System Settings" crashes the system.

May I please ask for the current way to update the hacked Switch's firmware to play current games?

 

[JMMZ]

Hi everybody I have a question, I have seen that with some games like monster hunter rise or Pokémon sword are installed in both the SD and the console memorie, why it's that? I always try to install everything on the SD but there is like 66 mb or something installed on the console too with that games

 

[BigOnYa]

Hi everybody I have a question, I have seen that with some games like monster hunter rise or Pokémon sword are installed in both the SD and the console memorie, why it's that? I always try to install everything on the SD but there is like 66 mb or something installed on the console too with that games

Its just game data, that's normal

 

[Dust2dust]

Hi everybody I have a question, I have seen that with some games like monster hunter rise or Pokémon sword are installed in both the SD and the console memorie, why it's that? I always try to install everything on the SD but there is like 66 mb or something installed on the console too with that games

If you're running with an emuMMC, everything ends up on the SD card, one way or another, your eMMC is never touched, so it's a non-issue.

 

[rsx]

Was it working before? If so, what was the last thing you did before it stopped working?

It never worked. I followed nh-server's guide, one day i tried to load it out of curiosity and nothing.

 

[Zap2000]

Hi I want to do an update from old Atmosphere to the lastest.
Which firmware would I be best install to get most out of this update as I’m running on order firmware also