Tutorial Simple Guide to Downgrading your 3DS

[jarjarv1]

You're o3DS so it might not be the same, but for those of us with N3DS that got this problem, formatting the 3DS itself (not the SD card) did the trick. I had well over a dozen soft-bricks, and when I formatted the 3DS it worked the first time.

I just realized this myself, about to do it now. I have some software saved to my SD card though, is my save data safe for when I put the SD card back in? I'll probably have to redownload the eShop titles right? (doing system format memory without the SD card in)

If you installed the update, but youre getting an error, reboot WITHOUT your sd card. Then insert your sd card if it boots up successfully.

I downgrade successfully, but kept getting a black screen. I took out the sd card, and everything worked

Tried this many times, still no luck. May have to go with the system format option.

 

[Welcius]

Maybe its because im on 9.7? Ill try thanks.

I don't know, we downgraded from the latest firmware currently available if it helps you.

 

[DragonspiritPT]

Thank you!
N3DS downgraded with success. My console was stuck at "..rebooting in 10 seconds..." I had to shut it down and turn on manually.

 

[Ailuros27]

I managed to get past that problem, but it has softbricked twice in a row. I don't think there's any way I could have the wrong CIA files, as I've tripled checked that I have 9.2.0U for N3DS. At this point, if I keep trying this setup, is there any chance it will eventually work, or do I quadruple check that I have the correct files and then try again? I know people have done this properly and not had to format, so I'm not doing that. I'd rather have a non-kernel N3DS than lose all my saves.

 

[AileenLumina]

@TheStoneBanana Can you give a summarization based on people's reports what is the safest downgrade method? Which additional steps are improving memchunkhax2 in terms of stability?

 

[Kafke]

I just realized this myself, about to do it now. I have some software saved to my SD card though, is my save data safe for when I put the SD card back in? I'll probably have to redownload the eShop titles right? (doing system format memory without the SD card in)

No. When you format your 3DS console itself, your encryption key changes. Meaning that you'll lose your saves if you don't back them up with SVDT or some other save manager. And yes, you'll have to redownload and reinstall any software, since the game data is also encrypted.

 

[Ailuros27]

Let me put it another way: Has anyone ever done everything right, gotten a softbrick, and then updated to 10.3, tried again (changing nothing) and succeeded? All without reformatting?

 

[Pokéfan Kieran]

Ok I'm almost at the point of giving up, I used windows, I used ninjhax, ironhax and MENUHAX, even opening ftbrony before using sysupdater and the oh so vague error comes up "failed to find cia info" which could mean a lot of things. Also I checked I have the right CIA files

And yes it's o3ds 10.3 e

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Also if I format my 3ds will my hax files still be there?

 

[Ailuros27]

Third softbrick in a row, even after quadruple checking the files again. So I'll ask yet again:
Has anyone ever softbricked an N3DS then managed to downgrade successfully without formatting? That is NOT an option for me.

 

[RayD97]

10.3 downgraded successfully to 9.2
3rd try, retained all my downloaded games and such.

 

[Ailuros27]

So when you say 3rd try, that means you softbricked twice, right? Just trying to be clear.

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Fourth. Trying again.

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If worse comes to worse, I suppose I could reformat. But only if someone know a way I can get save data out of some of my eShop titles, like my DSiWare (Four Swords), my GBA titles, and titles like Sakura Samurai. I've tried svdt with these, but it won't work.

 

[CharlesHoy]

Now that I've downgraded using this I can't seem to get any cfw to work, they all freeze or hit a black screen or kick me back to the home menu. The only one that has told me anything is cakes which says my firmware.bin and firmkey.bin are incorrect and I've tried 2 different ones, what am I doing wrong?

 

[gallymimu]

If you installed the update, but youre getting an error, reboot WITHOUT your sd card. Then insert your sd card if it boots up successfully.

I downgrade successfully, but kept getting a black screen. I took out the sd card, and everything worked

they are talking about a different problem.

the black screen is a different issue than the power off error screen

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Now that I've downgraded using this I can't seem to get any cfw to work, they all freeze or hit a black screen or kick me back to the home menu. The only one that has told me anything is cakes which says my firmware.bin and firmkey.bin are incorrect and I've tried 2 different ones, what am I doing wrong?

you are probably not following the instructions exactly. there are a lot of steps to CFW and missing any one will behave this way. PLUS they aren't 100% stable anyway. I found the rxtools tutorials to be quite accurate (having done CFW twice now once on a downgrade once on a native 9.0 FW, both n3ds)

 

[Mr_sephiroth]

help me please
"Failed to get CIA info!"
all the time
how is that possible if I use windows

 

[Ailuros27]

I wonder if this error people are getting from downgrading is somehow connected to *hax. Just now, I was attempting to back up what save data I can with svdt, and when I chose "Sakura Samurai" as the target, I got the usual reaction, but when it got to the final red bottom screen, it gave me that "An error has occurred, turn off the power" that I've been getting immediately after downgrading.

Edit: It did it a second time on the same game.

Loading the game from the home menu does not cause that error, though.

 

[Pokéfan Kieran]

I'm getting "Failed to find CIA file info" error with this even though I downloaded the correct file and verified the checksums, both of the zip file and the individual files (102) in all. I'm on a 10.1 N3DS XL (MM 3D version) and running the sysupdater from the OP.
titleException:
main.cpp:148: Result 0xD900182F
Failed to get CIA file info

I transferred the files to the SD fresh again, after this time making sure to unblock the zip file and unzip it with 7zip, and still get the same error.
What does is mean "use the home button if you run the CIA version"?

same

 

[waffletower]

Every time. EVERY TIME I DOWNGRADE SUCCESSFULLY I GET AN ERROR ON BOOT
So I guess technically it's not a success.

I've done everything except format my N3DS itself (and messing with my dbs files like a YouTube video said). Gonna try yet another version of sysupdater (I was linked here to julian's download, but I think that's the first one I tried).
Why is this so much harder than my O3DS was?

Edit: Dumb question, is there a reason all of the SHA1 values in the guide post have a question mark at the end? The MD5 checked out okay for the N3DS firmware I downloaded, and the SHA1 checked out fine, except for the ? (which is at the end of all of those in the guide, but was not at the end of my result)

 

[Ailuros27]

Suddenly I got really good idea. Or a really insane one. I have my O3DS' emunand on 10.3, the same version as my N3DS, now that I used recovery mode. Is it possible I could use my O3DS as an ark, system transferring to the O3DS, which would reformat the N3DS, then downgrade the N3DS? I'd have my data on my old system in emunand, then, if/when N3DS gets emunand above 9.5, I could system transfer back? Is system transferring from a sysnand to an emunand even possible, as long as they are on the same system menu version?

 

[RayD97]

So when you say 3rd try, that means you softbricked twice, right? Just trying to be clear.

Sorry should have clarified what that meant. 3 tries before FBI actually displayed something. But the first time I saw FBI display something (which was on the 3rd try) it downgraded very smoothly after pressing y. The only thing that happened to me was that when it said "Rebooting in 10 seconds..." I had to manually press the power button and power up again. Other than that, went great. N3DSXL btw.

 

[SonicHyuga]

Suddenly I got really good idea. Or a really insane one. I have my O3DS' emunand on 10.3, the same version as my N3DS, now that I used recovery mode. Is it possible I could use my O3DS as an ark, system transferring to the O3DS, which would reformat the N3DS, then downgrade the N3DS? I'd have my data on my old system in emunand, then, if/when N3DS gets emunand above 9.5, I could system transfer back? Is system transferring from a sysnand to an emunand even possible, as long as they are on the same system menu version?

You can not system transfer a N3DS to an O3DS.