I think OP means .CIA, but to make the same typo twice suggests they don't know what they're talking about.
3ds is portable (you can use the same SD containing them on multiple consoles), doesn't need installation, and the install of each cia requires you to have space of at least twice its size (one for the cia and other for the install). The same applies to 3ds saves: they're easy to manage portable files and don't have to be exported or installed with SDF.
Also, I've heard that installing too many cias slows down the loading of the home menu. Can anyone confirm if this true?
Yes you can. But it's not recommended if you access the eShop often, as that should uninstall your cias; leaving them in the SD makes it easy to quickly reinstall them. And even if you don't use the eShop, it could be a problem if you don't have enough room in your SD for twice the size of the game you're trying to install. A 4 GB game like Bravely Default will initially require 8 GB.Can't you remove the installation file after installing? I heard you can do that.
Yes you can. But it's not recommended if you access the eShop often, as that should uninstall your cias; leaving them in the SD makes it easy to quickly reinstall them. And even if you don't use the eShop, it could be a problem if you don't have enough room in your SD for twice the size of the game you're trying to install. A 4 GB game like Bravely Default will initially require 8 GB.
Are you talking about games installed from cias or homebrew?This is untrue. I access the eshop frequently and my CIAs are not deleted.
Are you talking about games installed from cias or homebrew?
Oh, that explains it. I knew I had the NSMB2 DLC deleted by the eShop. My mistake.DLC is what eshop deletes.
I prefer CIA for Card2 games and either CIA or 3DS (depending on the space available on my SDs) for Card1 games.
That's because you cannot trim Card2 games but their CIA version is already trimmed.
But does it still save to the ROM or as a .sav like any card1 game?