Gaming AC:NL Save restore.

[Zalg0]

Ok, so here's my issue. I ran into issues with my rxtools and was forced to format, so long story short I was lucky enough to make a backup of my root onto my computer prior to having to do all this.

Now onto my issue, I'm back to normal on rxtools 10.5 but I did not make any proper save manager backups of my games, but the only one I care about right now is ACNL.

I tried following this guide:
(https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCros..._cannot_use_save_data_because_it_was_not_the/)

In general what it says to do is force make a save backup using a save a manger after you replace the new save folder with your old one and then go through the other steps to get around the save security. BUT what happens as soon as I replace the save folder is the entire game seems to disapear or get corrupted (for the save managers) Ive tried JK's save manager.cia, save_manager, and svdt..all of which do not see the game at all when I change the save folder, but as soon as replace the files back to how they were before it magically comes back and all of my save managers recognize it just fine. I've seen the comments and talked to people who have no issues with doing this, so I'm not sure what's wrong on my end.

Here are some extra details:

The game is legit bought and redownlaoded off the eshop and installed onto emuNAND.

I'm on emuNAND 10.9 rxtools

 

[zero2exe]

You said you backed up your SD card but did you also backup/restore your old emunand?

 

[Zalg0]

You said you backed up your SD card but did you also backup/restore your old emunand?

Surprisingly I did, prior to formatting I created a 943mb "emuNAND.bin" file using "emuNAND tool" on pc. But hell if I know what to do with this thing lol...

All I did to reinstall my rxtools after formatting with emuand9, but I still have the old emuNAND backup.bin prior to all that, if that means anything.

 

[zero2exe]

Surprisingly I did, prior to formatting I created a 943mb "emuNAND.bin" file using "emuNAND tool" on pc. But hell if I know what to do with this thing lol...

All I did to reinstall my rxtools after formatting with emuand9, but I still have the old emuNAND backup.bin prior to all that, if that means anything.

You see emunand.bin is basically a copy of your virtual/emulated Nand. Emunand itself is located in a hidden partition inside your SD card which can't just be copy/pasted from the contents of the SD card so basically whenever you format your SD card that virtual part just dies along with everything else.

What to do then? Well first you need to have an emunand partition to work with (since you installed everything back this should be already done) problem is this new Emunand isn't the same as the old one so that's why your saves aren't recognized in this new system.

For this you need a special tool called Emunand Tool (here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/emunand-tool-release-and-support-thread.359239/ ) this will allow you to inject back your old Emunand.bin into the hidden partition which will basically restore Emunand to the exact state it was at the moment of the backup. If your saves didn't get updated/played again ever since the time you created that backup then your 3DS should be able to recognize them again.

 

[Zalg0]

So, I just injected my old emunand, didnt realize I needed version 1.01 because I kept getting an "invalid size" error.

But anyways, I just injected it..do I need to put my old save backups into their original spots now?

 

[Zalg0]

Oh my god, thank you SO MUCH IT WORKED..you have no idea how long at pretty much 24/7 pace to get this save back (now I got all my saves and games back as well since i just replace the Nintendo 3DS folder), now I just need to reinstall my other software things..but again thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction (which i've been circling around this entire time lol)

 

[zero2exe]

No problem. The 3DS is just pretty stingy about saves and stuff because everything is encrypted and every new Nand creates a new encryption method which makes everything unique to said system which is why it worked as soon as you restored your emuNand. Good luck and remember to backup both saves and emunand every once in a while.

 

[Zalg0]

Will do, just for information sake, what if I didn't have an emuNAND backup..would I be screwed?

 

[zero2exe]

Will do, just for information sake, what if I didn't have an emuNAND backup..would I be screwed?

Most likely yes. I'm not sure if there's a way to make a 3DS play a save created in another 3DS (aside from well, being stored in a cartridge in the first place) but if there was you would probably have to mess up with Hex editors, so to me at least it's just easier to keep Nand backups safely in my PC whenever (and just before) I try to do stuff with my CFW or updates so whatever happens to emunand I canrevert it right away.

 

[Zalg0]

Alright good to know