Homebrew Downgrading a New3DS XL

[BlackStarDark]

Hello there. I recently upgraded an old3ds console using sysupdater and everything worked correctly, however I'm currently trying to downgrade my second console which is a New3DSXL and I've seen that PlaiSysUpdater seems much safer as he made a guide and even linked the update packages needed so that noone really has an issue.

My question is the following tho: Is it safe for N3DS to downgrade from 10.3 to 9.2 or should I wait till there's a safer method to do so?

 

[nl255]

There is no real safer method other than a hardmod. That being said, I would suggest you do it now rather than later because as of right now all firmware versions can be downgraded to 9.2. Thus, if you have to use the recovery mode you can still try again but if you wait, Nintendo will have released a new firmware that "properly" patches memchunkhax which means no second chances to downgrade.

Just be sure to check that the downgrade worked fully, there are a couple of different downgrade checkers so be sure and get the one that checks all the titles, not just the native_firm version. Fortunately since you already have a hacked 3ds if you end up with a "frankenfirmware" on your n3ds you can use oot3dhax to fix it (which would require buying a physical copy of oot3d if you don't already have one).

 

[BlackStarDark]

Well then, guess I'll make a hardmod as I'm really used to dissasemble stuff and such.
Will see how it goes.

So by making a hardmod I can just flash the 9.2 update via the cables right ? or is it just used to make a backup of my current sysnand ?

 

[wurstpistole]

Well then, guess I'll make a hardmod as I'm really used to dissasemble stuff and such.
Will see how it goes.

So by making a hardmod I can just flash the 9.2 update via the cables right ? or is it just used to make a backup of my current sysnand ?

You can't flash a 9.2 nand as you don't have one. You backup your current nand with Gateway or emunand9 and in case anything goes wrong you can flash that back with a hard mod.

 

[nl255]

You can't flash a 9.2 nand as you don't have one. You backup your current nand with Gateway or emunand9 and in case anything goes wrong you can flash that back with a hard mod.

You are forgetting than you can't back up a stock >9.2 sysnand via gateway/emunand9. You have to use the hardmod to make the backup.

 

[Wander's Hat]

In terms of backing up: You can only back up with a hardmod right now as others have said. AFAIK this is because 10.x has no ARM9 exploit and therefore won't be able to directly access the NAND. 9.2, however has an ARM9 exploit available.

In terms of downgrading: You don't flash a NAND with 9.2 on it. Every NAND is unique to the console, and flashing other consoles' NAND dumps to your NAND will result in a brick.
The easiest way to downgrade is by using a fork of SysUpdater that uses an exploit that supports 10.3 (memchunkhax2 for this one), however memchunkhax2 has been unstable in my experience, and when I downgraded it gave me the black "An error has occurred" message, resulting in a partial downgrade. If you have errors on SysUpdater from 10.3 to 9.2, update to 10.7 ASAP and use a fork of SysUpdater that uses memchunkhax2.1 (sometimes known as svchax although I don't think that's the proper name).

 

[eskinner3742]

I've downgraded 2 of my N3DS (10.1 > 9.2 and 10.5 > 9.2) not to mention my emuNAND (10.7 > 2.1) for A9LH and everything has worked just fine and dandy for me.
If you're downgrading your N3DS and you run into trouble then you can more then likely use recovery mode to restore and try again. Once downgraded backup your NAND install CFW and really hop into modding your 3DS. It's totally worth it if you ask me and in my personal experience I have downgraded my sysNAND on 2 N3DS no problems.

Just note: If it says it's successful but doesnt't autoreboot after a few minutes, you're good to force shut down then turn back on. If you get a black screen upon reboot, force shut down again and pop out the micro SD and turn on with the SD out. Should boot up just fine.

 

[wurstpistole]

You are forgetting than you can't back up a stock >9.2 sysnand via gateway/emunand9. You have to use the hardmod to make the backup.

Whoops. Sorry.

 

[BlackStarDark]

I've downgraded 2 of my N3DS (10.1 > 9.2 and 10.5 > 9.2) not to mention my emuNAND (10.7 > 2.1) for A9LH and everything has worked just fine and dandy for me.
If you're downgrading your N3DS and you run into trouble then you can more then likely use recovery mode to restore and try again. Once downgraded backup your NAND install CFW and really hop into modding your 3DS. It's totally worth it if you ask me and in my personal experience I have downgraded my sysNAND on 2 N3DS no problems.

Just note: If it says it's successful but doesnt't autoreboot after a few minutes, you're good to force shut down then turn back on. If you get a black screen upon reboot, force shut down again and pop out the micro SD and turn on with the SD out. Should boot up just fine.

Well yea, I'm really gonna downgrade it soon, however I think I might do a hardmod and backup my nand first, just in case.

 

[eskinner3742]

Well yea, I'm really gonna downgrade it soon, however I think I might do a hardmod and backup my nand first, just in case.

I've personally never hard modded a 3DS but did look into it. Now that the 3DS modding community has come so far I really don't see a need for a hardmod anymore with A9LH and EmuNAND 9 (Granted everything goes well) but if you would feel more comfortabe proceeding with a hard mod then go ahead. I would definitely make a 10.7 (or whatever firm you're on) NAND dump as well as 9.2 (Which can be done with EmuNAND9) regardless of how indepth you plan to go with your modded 3DS.

Also, even though I have had a lot of success with downgrading, doesn't mean that you will and there is ALWAYS a chance when messing with your 3DS, especially when doing something like downgrading or playing with SysNAND, that you could end up with a bricked 3DS so always proceed with caution and make frequent backups so you have some sort of restore point to go to if need be.

Good luck and have fun!!!

 

[BlackStarDark]

I've personally never hard modded a 3DS but did look into it. Now that the 3DS modding community has come so far I really don't see a need for a hardmod anymore with A9LH and EmuNAND 9 (Granted everything goes well) but if you would feel more comfortabe proceeding with a hard mod then go ahead. I would definitely make a 10.7 (or whatever firm you're on) NAND dump as well as 9.2 (Which can be done with EmuNAND9) regardless of how indepth you plan to go with your modded 3DS.

Also, even though I have had a lot of success with downgrading, doesn't mean that you will and there is ALWAYS a chance when messing with your 3DS, especially when doing something like downgrading or playing with SysNAND, that you could end up with a bricked 3DS so always proceed with caution and make frequent backups so you have some sort of restore point to go to if need be.

Good luck and have fun!!!

Indeed, also since I'm gonna hardmod it , I'm planning to downgrade it back to 2.1 in order to retrieve OTP safely (theorethical) and boot into CFW sysnand without the need of an emunand.

 

[eskinner3742]

Indeed, also since I'm gonna hardmod it , I'm planning to downgrade it back to 2.1 in order to retrieve OTP safely (theorethical) and boot into CFW sysnand without the need of an emunand.

LOL that's what I'm in the process of doing. All I have left is to remove emuNAND from the SD. I'll let you know how it goes. Everything has worked so far and A9LH can boot into other bins already so I believe that everything has set up successfully. I had to stop because I had to go to work (Where I'm at now lol) I'll finish it up and let you know how it works to me since you're planning to do the same thing. This is my first attempt but again, everything has worked so far so you should have no problem and if you're like me you find it fun to do

Here's the guide I'm following: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

Since you are starting fresh you can follow it from step 1, and I'd reccomend following it pretty closely. Hope this is helpful.

 

[BlackStarDark]

LOL that's what I'm in the process of doing. All I have left is to remove emuNAND from the SD. I'll let you know how it goes. Everything has worked so far and A9LH can boot into other bins already so I believe that everything has set up successfully. I had to stop because I had to go to work (Where I'm at now lol) I'll finish it up and let you know how it works to me since you're planning to do the same thing. This is my first attempt but again, everything has worked so far so you should have no problem and if you're like me you find it fun to do

Here's the guide I'm following: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

Since you are starting fresh you can follow it from step 1, and I'd reccomend following it pretty closely. Hope this is helpful.

Yap I followed the exact same guide for my 6.1.0-12U Old3DS and it worked flawlessly.
thanks for the link again tho