ROM Hack I'm looking for a complete solution of transfer a game save data from one cartridge to another

[cdytoby]

I really searched a lot, but I always don't get an answer, some posts are old, and some are unclear.

I had experience that my 3ds was in a stolen backpack. And since nintendo doesn't provide any "Cloud Save Data", I have to search a solution on my own. What I want is: backup a game data from a 3DS(digital) or cartridge to computer, and restore this game data to another 3DS(digital) or cartridge, without cracking the 3DS system, because The system version is higher than 9.2 and I can't use gateway.

Currently I have a Powersaves, and it can backup and restore save data from and to the same cartridge, but recently I read that the Powersaves won't restore the savedata to another cartridge, load save data will fail. And After some search, I come here, and ask for help.

Based on my search, I know that most of the games have save data encrypted, and the game savedata dumped from Powersaves are not only encrypted, but also have it's own data. So how to do the following: convert the Powersave dumped savedata to a correct format, and decrypt it, and re-encrypted, and convert back to Powersave format and restore? Not just Pokemon, other games too, like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Kid Icarus, and so on.

If not, I'm willing to buy extra hardware, but I don't know if other products works. There is a post back from 2013 for these products,
https://projectpokemon.org/forums/s...your-retail-cartridge-save-file-for-3DS-games
but I can't decide which I should buy because it's an old post, and products are probably updated.

And some of the game, like Totomachi life, Pokemon series, Animal Crossing, they have save data timestamp check or something, backup will never work, I can't confirm it, but if it's this case, these games can be excluded.

For all digital copies, based on my search, if I modify a single bit data on the sd card, my whole sd card will force format because data verify will fail. I need more detail, because I don't know if I can just copy the backup save data inside the sd card, and copy back to another 3DS's sdcard, and restore the save data. If that's impossible, then fine.

So, can you help me for more details about the transfer flow?

 

[Ryccardo]

Currently I have a Powersaves, and it can backup and restore save data from and to the same cartridge, but recently I read that the Powersaves won't restore the savedata to another cartridge, load save data will fail.

Correct: the saves for physical 6.0+ games are encrypted differently according to the game's header.
Saves of digital games are since forever encrypted according to your console's movable.sed

You really want to use a homebrew save manager: get a CFW and use the best (JK) or get userland homebrew and use the second best (svdt)

 

[cdytoby]

Correct: the saves for physical 6.0+ games are encrypted differently according to the game's header.
Saves of digital games are since forever encrypted according to your console's movable.sed

You really want to use a homebrew save manager: get a CFW and use the best (JK) or get userland homebrew and use the second best (svdt)

I checked some tutorials and the JK's Save manager, I have another question:
If I want to backup and restore digital copy's save data, do I must install it and play the game on the same console?
Because I'm planning to buy a new console mainly for play, and my old console can be used to test all kinds of hack. If digital copy's save data transfer works, I will buy digital copy's instead of cartridge in the future.
If not, can the JK's SaveManager backup from cartridge, and restore to another cartridge? Is this available for most of the current games?

 

[Ryccardo]

I checked some tutorials and the JK's Save manager, I have another question:
If I want to backup and restore digital copy's save data, do I must install it and play the game on the same console?
Because I'm planning to buy a new console mainly for play, and my old console can be used to test all kinds of hack. If digital copy's save data transfer works, I will buy digital copy's instead of cartridge in the future.
If not, can the JK's SaveManager backup from cartridge, and restore to another cartridge? Is this available for most of the current games?

No, not necessarily: while the save files themselves are console (digital) or card (physical) specific, the contents aren't. That's exactly why you can use homebrew save managers to copy saves between physical and digital, between different consoles and even people! You just need to save a newly bought or installed game once before it'll work on a save manager!

All save managers currently work on almost every game (support for 9.6+ software for svdt and save_manager was solved, and JK already covers almost everything: the only requirement for it is being able to install unsigned .cia on the console!)

 

[cdytoby]

No, not necessarily: while the save files themselves are console (digital) or card (physical) specific, the contents aren't. That's exactly why you can use homebrew save managers to copy saves between physical and digital, between different consoles and even people! You just need to save a newly bought or installed game once before it'll work on a save manager!

All save managers currently work on almost every game (support for 9.6+ software for svdt and save_manager was solved, and JK already covers almost everything: the only requirement for it is being able to install unsigned .cia on the console!)

Thank you for the answer.
I have 2 more questions:
1. About the SD card verify, for what I've heared, when the sd card's files are modified, for example add file, delete file, or modify something, system will consider the files are invalid and will format these. I never dare to try, but I want to know more details, how did it works? In this case, is it really safe to modify digital savedata?
2. About games like Pokemon, Animal Crossing, is it safe when to restore a savedata? For what I've found, if the game check the save data is not the same data from last time, it will create a new one.

 

[Ryccardo]

1- That's true when thinking about the save archive as a black box (which indeed has signatures, checksums, ...) but is not a problem when working "from the inside"!
(Of course you may make an error while editing a save, but just backing up and restoring is OK)

2- It's called "secure value" and this article explains it. With JK you don't have to worry about it, because it will automatically fix the console to accept the imported save. With SaveDataFiler you must manually delete the secure value. svdt has some support for autopatching saves, but in practice you would always need to manually correct it in the save itself, and the same is true for save_manager

Homebrew Does What Nintendon't!

 

[cdytoby]

1- That's true when thinking about the save archive as a black box (which indeed has signatures, checksums, ...) but is not a problem when working "from the inside"!
(Of course you may make an error while editing a save, but just backing up and restoring is OK)

You mean the checksums and signature related files are also stored in SD card?
I ask this because most of the cfw requires copying something files into the sd card, if those related files are not in the SD card, and later modify the sd card in cfw, if something goes wrong, restore the earlier sd card backup will never be success, I suppose.

 

[Ryccardo]

You mean the checksums and signature related files are also stored in SD card?
I ask this because most of the cfw requires copying something files into the sd card, if those related files are not in the SD card, and later modify the sd card in cfw, if something goes wrong, restore the earlier sd card backup will never be success, I suppose.

We're talking about game saves, not arbitrary files on the SD

 

[cdytoby]

OK, that's all I want to know, thank you again for your answer.