Hacking Help with uploading roms to a 3ds

[tomatetomato222]

After much consideration, I decided to hack my 3ds to send my Citra games there, but after downloading all of them I have stumbled upon some issues.

1. A lot of games appear as black squares. I tried deleting them and downloading them again but it didn't get fixed.

2. I want to bring my save files from Citra to the 3ds and I know that it's all in a file called "main" and that I have to use Checkpoint, but when I search the save files, there is no "main". In fact, some games don't have any save files at all even though I have +100 hours played on the emulator.

3. When I open one of the games that don't appear as black squares, I get the an exception occurred message. I also tried to uninstall it and install it again but nothing changed. The rest of them work perfectly.

4. I also wanted to bring some DS and GBA roms but my Mother 3 one is glitchy and gets frozen after defeating the first enemy. This game works perfectly on my computer so I don't know what could be the problem.

I'm just a beginner to all this hacking things and I'm sure these might seem stupid questions to you but please, help me.

 

[Superboom12s]

Looks like it might be your SD card, it could be corrupted, have you tried using another SD card?

 

[tomatetomato222]

Looks like it might be your SD card, it could be corrupted, have you tried using another SD card?

I just bought that SD card a few days ago. I really doubt it's corrupted.

 

[k7ra]

I just bought that SD card a few days ago. I really doubt it's corrupted.

You don't get it. There so many fake Chinese clone cards.
Test it with h2testw
I buy 7 microsd cards and they all was fake, still looking for good one

 

[tomatetomato222]

You don't get it. There so many fake Chinese clone cards.
Test it with h2testw
I buy 7 microsd cards and they all was fake, still looking for good one

It's a SanDisk. A trustable brand. And I bought it at the supermarket. A trustable supermarket. I don't think the fault is with the SD card.

 

[Kwyjor]

It's a SanDisk. A trustable brand. And I bought it at the supermarket. A trustable supermarket. I don't think the fault is with the SD card.

You're the beginner here, aren't you..? SD card failure is the most common cause of a vast variety of strange problems. There are many stories of people whose cards worked perfectly fine until they took them out of the 3DS one day. Testing the card with h2testw is the only way to be sure.

Note that h2testw is only useful on a completely blank card, so you'll need to format the card again first. (Sometimes even copying everything off the card and back again is enough to fix some problems.)

but after downloading all of them

Does that mean you copied them from your Citra installation somehow, or did you download them from somewhere else?

I want to bring my save files from Citra to the 3ds and I know that it's all in a file called "main"

Save files for the Pokemon games are called "main". Save data for other games can be named all sorts of things. (ACNL, for instance, uses "garden.dat" as well as other separate files for things like mail storage.)

I get the an exception occurred message.

It might be useful to say just what that message says.

my Mother 3 one is glitchy and gets frozen after defeating the first enemy.

Are you using mGBA, or open_agb_firm, or what? If you're using GBARunner2 in TWiLight Menu, that is not usually recommended.

open_agb_firm is generally preferred as it uses the native 3DS GBA hardware and conveniently stores save data on the SD card.

 

[tomatetomato222]

You're the beginner here, aren't you..? SD card failure is the most common cause of a vast variety of strange problems. There are many stories of people whose cards worked perfectly fine until they took them out of the 3DS one day. Testing the card with h2testw is the only way to be sure.

Note that h2testw is only useful on a completely blank card, so you'll need to format the card again first. (Sometimes even copying everything off the card and back again is enough to fix some problems.)

Does that mean you copied them from your Citra installation somehow, or did you download them from somewhere else?

Save files for the Pokemon games are called "main". Save data for other games can be named all sorts of things. (ACNL, for instance, uses "garden.dat" as well as other separate files for things like mail storage.)

It might be useful to say just what that message says.

Are you using mGBA, or open_agb_firm, or what? If you're using GBARunner2 in TWiLight Menu, that is not usually recommended.

open_agb_firm is generally preferred as it uses the native 3DS GBA hardware and conveniently stores save data on the SD card.

I'll check the SD card, thanks.

I copied the roms from my computer into my 3ds SD and then downloaded them.

I thought all games had the main files. I must have only watched tutorials from people using pokemon games as an example. What do I do with games that don't have main files?


The image attached is what the an exception occurred says.


I am using GBARunner 2 on the twilight menu. That's what they said in the tutorial I watched. How do I use open_agb_firm?


Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Kwyjor]

I copied the roms from my computer into my 3ds SD and then downloaded them.

Why would you have to download them after copying them from your computer..? It's very unclear what you did. If you did something weird, that might also explain your problems.

I must have only watched tutorials from people using pokemon games as an example.

This is why people usually recommend against video guides. Many videos are out of date or incomplete.

What do I do with games that don't have main files?

Usually the most straightforward way is to start playing the game, create a new save file, and then back up the save data with Checkpoint. You can then overwrite the data in the Checkpoint backup and restore the overwritten Checkpoint backup.

How do I use open_agb_firm?

Perhaps you should take a moment to read up on it yourself..? There is ample information available. Don't follow video guides.

 

[tomatetomato222]

Why would you have to download them after copying them from your computer..? It's very unclear what you did. If you did something weird, that might also explain your problems.

This is why people usually recommend against video guides. Many videos are out of date or incomplete.

Usually the most straightforward way is to start playing the game, create a new save file, and then back up the save data with Checkpoint. You can then overwrite the data in the Checkpoint backup and restore the overwritten Checkpoint backup.

Perhaps you should take a moment to read up on it yourself..? There is ample information available. Don't follow video guides.

I downloaded them using godmode 9 so that they appear on the home screen? Isn't that what you are supposed to do?

I didn't know that about video guides. I'll be more careful from now on.

I tried to do the checkpoint backup thing with New Leaf. I put all the citra save data on the Checkpoint New Leaf saves folder but I couldn't make a backup. I think I need a proper tutorial on how to use Checkpoint.

Sorry if I'm being annoying with these questions, I'm new to all of this and it confuses me a lot.

 

[Kwyjor]

I downloaded them using godmode 9 so that they appear on the home screen? Isn't that what you are supposed to do?

Godmode9 isn't used for "downloading" things. I don't know what you did. And evidently it is not working, so if your SD card is really okay, then what you did is not what you're supposed to do.

You'd probably be better off reinstalling your games on your 3DS some other way, and then restoring your save data.

I tried to do the checkpoint backup thing with New Leaf. I put all the citra save data on the Checkpoint New Leaf saves folder but I couldn't make a backup. I think I need a proper tutorial on how to use Checkpoint.

Maybe you should start by re-reading my previous post..?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

After much consideration, I decided to hack my 3ds to send my Citra games there, but after downloading all of them I have stumbled upon some issues.

1. A lot of games appear as black squares. I tried deleting them and downloading them again but it didn't get fixed.

2. I want to bring my save files from Citra to the 3ds and I know that it's all in a file called "main" and that I have to use Checkpoint, but when I search the save files, there is no "main". In fact, some games don't have any save files at all even though I have +100 hours played on the emulator.

3. When I open one of the games that don't appear as black squares, I get the an exception occurred message. I also tried to uninstall it and install it again but nothing changed. The rest of them work perfectly.

4. I also wanted to bring some DS and GBA roms but my Mother 3 one is glitchy and gets frozen after defeating the first enemy. This game works perfectly on my computer so I don't know what could be the problem.

I'm just a beginner to all this hacking things and I'm sure these might seem stupid questions to you but please, help me.

Make sure you didn't mistakenly install titles to NAND instead of SD. That will make them appear as black squares.
Also, make sure your firmware is up to date.

Post automatically merged: Oct 2, 2025

I downloaded them using godmode 9 so that they appear on the home screen? Isn't that what you are supposed to do?

I didn't know that about video guides. I'll be more careful from now on.

I tried to do the checkpoint backup thing with New Leaf. I put all the citra save data on the Checkpoint New Leaf saves folder but I couldn't make a backup. I think I need a proper tutorial on how to use Checkpoint.

Sorry if I'm being annoying with these questions, I'm new to all of this and it confuses me a lot.

You should be using FBI. GM9 can not install games.
There is also this which allows installing games from a PC directly to the SD card. It's much faster than installing games with FBI: https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-...a-nintendo-3ds-sd-card-entirely-on-pc.551496/
boot9 and movable.sed (required) can be dumped with GM9, after that you can do the process entirely on PC.

 

[tomatetomato222]

Thanks a lot. I'll try to fix everything later.

 

[False_Hope]

I'll check the SD card, thanks.

I copied the roms from my computer into my 3ds SD and then downloaded them.

I thought all games had the main files. I must have only watched tutorials from people using pokemon games as an example. What do I do with games that don't have main files?


The image attached is what the an exception occurred says.


I am using GBARunner 2 on the twilight menu. That's what they said in the tutorial I watched. How do I use open_agb_firm?


Thanks a lot for your help.

Main is just the way that game is saved (more specifically it's the name given to the file after being saved)

other saves can be things like system or Profile_0 Profile_1 Profile_2