can i downgrade emunand 20.5 back to 18.1 ?

[tehrzky]

I want to downgrade my Switch back to firmware 18.1. Is this possible? Most tutorials I find only explain downgrading from 21.x to 19.x, so I’m a bit confused.

My current setup is:
SysMMC: 18.1
EmuMMC: 20.5

I updated through Daybreak. After the update, I didn’t play any games, install or update plugins, or change anything. Only about an hour passed after I upgraded, and now I want to go back to 18.1.

If I downgrade, will my games or data be deleted?

Yeah, it’s my bad for not thinking ahead / not thinking this through.

 

[lightwo]

With downgrading, there's a pretty high possibility your emuMMC will become unbootable. Make sure to make a backup before proceeding!

If you really want, you could try following the aforementioned 21 -> 19 tutorial and then 19 -> 18.1, but consider that there's a fairly high chance you will need to factory reset your emuMMC or clone from sysMMC, if not restoring from backup.

That being said, I think the most sane approach would instead be to:

1. Back up all your saves on emuMMC to SD card
2. Clone sysMMC to emuMMC, wiping emuMMC entirely
3. Restore saves to emuMMC, reinstall your games, etc.

Clearly, since you already have a working 18.1 install, cloning it is your best bet.

In the future, if you feel like you may have regrets after updating, make a backup first so that you can restore it later.


Edit: I'm basing this from my own experience and the impression I got after reading the experience of others trying to downgrade; it doesn't appear to be a very reliable process. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[impeeza]

YES, you can, but you will need to reinstall all your games.

FW 20+ change the format of the user partition and downgrading you need to reset your user partition.

 

[AmeliaFox]

No, but what you can do is backup ALL your saves and dump any games you have installed. You can do that with Saphira and JKSV.

Next dump your Symmc to an emunand with Hekate and update the newly dumped emunand to 19.x.x. Reinstall your dumped games you want to play on 19.x.x and finally restore your saves for the games you installed. That's probably the easiest way to do what you want, you can then switch between your 19.x.x and 20.5.0 emunands with hekate very easily.

 

[lightwo]

YES, you can, but you will need to reinstall all your games.

FW 20+ change the format of the user partition and downgrading you need to reset your user partition.

That explains why my attempts have failed. Thanks chief

 

[tehrzky]

I’m fine with reinstalling all my games, but will the SD card need to be formatted? tnx

 

[AmeliaFox]

I’m fine with reinstalling all my games, but will the SD card need to be formatted? tnx

NO

 

[impeeza]

I’m fine with reinstalling all my games, but will the SD card need to be formatted? tnx

nop, the emunand console system has to be factory reset,

 

[Hayato213]

I guess you got couple ways to do it, you can backup the sysnand 18.1.0 NAND and restore it to your emunand NAND, or do the downgrade by flashing firmware 18.1.0, but you will encounter the resetting the user partition if you do that.

Just some stuffs to keep in mind that unless you feels that you need 40MB memory for homebrews, probably no need to downgrade even though 20.5.0 has 14MB, it come down to if you use a lot of sysmodules or not. Second, that firmware 20.x.x also slowed down the home menu when you refresh your icons. Third, is the batttery draining issue on 20.x.x that can be fixed with some lines for the atmosphere config.

 

[tehrzky]

With downgrading, there's a pretty high possibility your emuMMC will become unbootable. Make sure to make a backup before proceeding!

If you really want, you could try following the aforementioned 21 -> 19 tutorial and then 19 -> 18.1, but consider that there's a fairly high chance you will need to factory reset your emuMMC or clone from sysMMC, if not restoring from backup.

That being said, I think the most sane approach would instead be to:

1. Back up all your saves on emuMMC to SD card
2. Clone sysMMC to emuMMC, wiping emuMMC entirely
3. Restore saves to emuMMC, reinstall your games, etc.

Clearly, since you already have a working 18.1 install, cloning it is your best bet.

In the future, if you feel like you may have regrets after updating, make a backup first so that you can restore it later.


Edit: I'm basing this from my own experience and the impression I got after reading the experience of others trying to downgrade; it doesn't appear to be a very reliable process. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess you got couple ways to do it, you can backup the sysnand 18.1.0 NAND and restore it to your emunand NAND, or do the downgrade by flashing firmware 18.1.0, but you will encounter the resetting the user partition if you do that.

Just some stuffs to keep in mind that unless you feels that you need 40MB memory for homebrews, probably no need to downgrade even though 20.5.0 has 14MB, it come down to if you use a lot of sysmodules or not. Second, that firmware 20.x.x also slowed down the home menu when you refresh your icons. Third, is the batttery draining issue on 20.x.x that can be fixed with some lines for the atmosphere config.

Is my understanding correct?

• Clone sysMMC to emuMMC, wiping emuMMC entirely

To restore my SysNAND backup (the one I made by following the guide on switch.hacks.guide when I first jailbroke my Switch), this is the backup I should place in the restore folder. Then, after turning ON “SD emuMMC (RAW partition),” my emuNAND will go back to 18.x, the same version as my OFW. thanks everyone.