Hacking Stolen New 3DS... Questions about restoring backup to old 3DS

[V-ADi]

Hey everyone,

I've tried to do some searches, but my case is a bit unique, so I didn't find a 100% answer to my questions (plus currently I'm still upset - see reason below, so I might was searching with the wrong terms).

So, I was walking home, while playing on my New 3DS XL (Majora's Mask), when a cyclists approached me, grabbed my 3DS out of my hand and cycled away... Ran after him, shouted for help, but the street was empty and he got away.... But after I've cried my eyes out, I'm trying to not mope around and do some stuff on how to recover my data.

I've had a Gateway card, which was just stolen with the console, but got a 2 months old emunand backup, and a backup of my MicroSD's content as well. I've got an older 3DS XL which originally had the same system on it (after the system transfer I've restored my content on it and haven't used it since then). Now my two questions are:

1) Can the emunand and microSD's content be restored to an older 3DS XL or will it cause any trouble that I'm restoring a backup of a New 3DS XL's emunand?

2) Is it possible to boot into the emunand on the old 3DS XL without having a Gateway card? System firmware is on 9.2 or below (will check it in the morning, don't wanna wake up anyone). In my search results people are saying it's the same kind of emunand as other CFWs got, so I'm guessing it's possible? What CFW do you recommend for that, that could possibly run all the CIAs I've had installed there already (non-legit ones too)?

Thanks very much for the help in advance, and sorry for my bad English, I'm kind of tired and still very upset... And it's 0:10am already (I live in Manchester in the UK).

 

[Mikemk]

If you've dumped your xorpads, you can decrypt the SD card, but don't use the same emunand on a different model.

Install A9LH, then contact Nintendo to perform an offline system transfer to transfer your NNID. It'll take them up to a week. Then reinstall your games, decrypt your saves, and restore them using JKSM.

I'd suggest contacting the police, but with the flashcart, you might get in more trouble than the thieves.

 

[V-ADi]

Thanks for the quick response. I've been out of the hacking scene for a while, so please understand my lack of knowledge on things...

Would my system(s) / accounts be banned if it would be used on multiple systems? I'm guessing if I switch all wifi off it should be alright until Nintendo will figure something out for me.

Unfortunately I don't have xorpad dumps, just my emunand's and sysnand's, I'm guessing that's not helpful here. Without it would the decrypting of my saves still work (just cause you mentioned I need xorpad to decrypt my SD card)?

I'll follow through the A9LH install tomorrow, thanks for letting me know what should I try. (I'm still stressed out, so I won't do any installations till I've calmed down, that's for sure.)

And honestly thank you so much for your help. I'll report the theft tomorrow morning at the police station, and I'll leave the Gateway card out of the story. To be honest I don't think they'd care or understand at all.

If you've dumped your xorpads, you can decrypt the SD card, but don't use the same emunand on a different model.

Install A9LH, then contact Nintendo to perform an offline system transfer to transfer your NNID. It'll take them up to a week. Then reinstall your games, decrypt your saves, and restore them using JKSM.

I'd suggest contacting the police, but with the flashcart, you might get in more trouble than the thieves.

 

[Quantumcat]

Would my system(s) / accounts be banned if it would be used on multiple systems?

You can't use an NNID on another console without either system transferring or having Nintendo do it manually on their servers for you.

 

[V-ADi]

You can't use an NNID on another console without either system transferring or having Nintendo do it manually on their servers for you.

On my original system I still got a full emunand backup which was restored to it after I did the transfer to my New 3DS, so technically I have (had) two systems with the same NNID. The older system can't connect to the internet, and haven't used it since tbh. I don't want to access eShop, and don't want to connect to the internet at all, I just wanna use this as a temporary measure till things get sorted on Nintendo's end.

 

[Zan']

I'd suggest contacting the police, but with the flashcart, you might get in more trouble than the thieves.

Police usually doesn't care shit about flashcarts - if they even know what it is (and they will likely not be able to find it anyway)
They do care however that this is theft.
And in case of insurance, you need to file a report to the police anyway.
Otherwise you should still go to them. They'll likely not find anything. If they will you win. If you have insurance for these cases, it needs to be done anyway.

For your question. SD data is NAND Unique. And you can't use the same NAND Backup if it's not the same model due to different NAND sizes. You may possibly be able to on EmuNAND with same model (but I am not sure on that)
If you have the xorpads you can try decrypting the SD data, but except for saves that's pretty much useless I guess.

I'd rather worry about eShop and private Information.

 

[Quantumcat]

On my original system I still got a full emunand backup which was restored to it after I did the transfer to my New 3DS, so technically I have (had) two systems with the same NNID. The older system can't connect to the internet, and haven't used it since tbh. I don't want to access eShop, and don't want to connect to the internet at all, I just wanna use this as a temporary measure till things get sorted on Nintendo's end.

As long as you stay offline you're fine. But if you try to connect to the net and use the eShop, your (bought) games will all disappear.

BTW I doubt the police will care if you have a flashcart, they're interested in criminal things not copyright things (that's for the owners of the copyright and law courts to deal with). So don't hesitate to report it. And keep an eye on all pawn shops and second hand shops, on online classifieds, etc. You can also personally go around to all the second hand shops and tell them about it in case the police don't. Maybe offer to pay them what they will pay the thief for it, so you can get it back more easily (if the pawn shop lets on that they think it's stolen, he'll take off and you'll have lost your chance to recover it). It's also easier on the lawn shop who can call you if they get in ANY MM console, rather than trying to recognise yours from your description.

 

[V-ADi]

Police usually doesn't care shit about flashcarts - if they even know what it is (and they will likely not be able to find it anyway)
They do care however that this is theft.
And in case of insurance, you need to file a report to the police anyway.
Otherwise you should still go to them. They'll likely not find anything. If they will you win. If you have insurance for these cases, it needs to be done anyway.

For your question. SD data is NAND Unique. And you can't use the same NAND Backup if it's not the same model due to different NAND sizes. You may possibly be able to on EmuNAND with same model (but I am not sure on that)
If you have the xorpads you can try decrypting the SD data, but except for saves that's pretty much useless I guess.

I'd rather worry about eShop and private Information.

Thanks for replying. So I'd need xorpads to decrypt save I guess?

I got my debit card saved on my account, but with a PIN (will log in to my Nintendo Account now and remove it), is there anything else I should worry about?

 

[Zan']

As long as you stay offline you're fine. But if you try to connect to the net and use the eShop, your (bought) games will all disappear.

BTW I doubt the police will care if you have a flashcart, they're interested in criminal things not copyright things (that's for the owners of the copyright and law courts to deal with). So don't hesitate to report it. And keep an eye on all pawn shops and second hand shops, on online classifieds, etc. You can also personally go around to all the second hand shops and tell them about it in case the police don't. Maybe offer to pay them what they will pay the thief for it, so you can get it back more easily (if the pawn shop lets on that they think it's stolen, he'll take off and you'll have lost your chance to recover it). It's also easier on the lawn shop who can call you if they get in ANY MM console, rather than trying to recognise yours from your description.

Owning a flashcart is perfectly legal. Distributing them is as well.
The only illegal part is to pirate the stuff. And unless any "harmed" involved person is reporting you for it the police won't take any action.

Thanks for replying. So I'd need xorpads to decrypt save I guess?

I got my debit card saved on my account, but with a PIN (will log in to my Nintendo Account now and remove it), is there anything else I should worry about?

I guess after you're sure you can't have any further damage done than the loss of the 3DS. You can worry about possibly getting it back.

Without xorpads to decrypt the SD data that's pretty much useless.

Sadly I don't know much about System Transfer, but I guess it just transfers data and the NAND IDs will change.

 

[Mikemk]

For your question. SD data is NAND Unique. And you can't use the same NAND Backup if it's not the same model due to different NAND sizes.

Do not flash sysnand NAND backups to a different console regardless of model or size. You will brick, 100% guaranteed, fixable only with a hardmod and older backup. It's encrypted with a key specific to the CPU.

 

[V-ADi]

Do not flash sysnand NAND backups to a different console regardless of model or size. You will brick, 100% guaranteed, fixable only with a hardmod and older backup. It's encrypted with a key specific to the CPU.

I would never restore a sysnand to another system, but I've only asked about emunand. I guess as long as I got a backup of everything I could try just to see the results. But from your answers it's highly unlikely it's gonna work. Thanks for the reply anyway.

 

[MadMageKefka]

One you get your new system setup, I suggest installing this: https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-3dsafe-in-nand-pin-lock-for-3ds.440832/

It installs a PIN lock in your NAND, which is IMPOSSIBLE to bypass. If the system is ever stolen or lost, you can edit the bottom screen to display contact info, so it can be returned to you. If it is stolen and NOT returned, the device is a brick to the thief, he won't be able to use it AT ALL, unless he REALLY knows what he's doing. There is a way to remove 3DSafe with hex editing and a hardmod, but its not easy or common knowledge.

About the flashcart thing.... who's to say the thief didn't add that after it was stolen?

 

[nl255]

Next time be sure and dump your movable.sed and secureinfo_A. If you had those you would have been able to restore the data from your emunand backup (not the backup itself).

 

[MadMageKefka]

Next time be sure and dump your movable.sed and secureinfo_A. If you had those you would have been able to restore the data from your emunand backup (not the backup itself).

Is there a guide around on how to do this? I don't need to myself, but it will still be useful to learn.

 

[nl255]

Is there a guide around on how to do this? I don't need to myself, but it will still be useful to learn.

Use decrypt9 which can back those files up from either sysnand or emunand. You might also want to make xorpads for every nand backup or at least one backup+xorpad set a month.

 

[GothicIII]

I would never restore a sysnand to another system, but I've only asked about emunand. I guess as long as I got a backup of everything I could try just to see the results. But from your answers it's highly unlikely it's gonna work. Thanks for the reply anyway.

In your case it is currently impossible to restore anything. You need xorpads of the ctrnand partition to decrypt the content. xorpads are console-specific and can't be recalculated without the original device.
With a decrypted ctrnand you can manually transfer all settings/encryption data from it to a different system. It is pretty much the same what nintendo does with its system transfer.

To get the NNID working again you *must* call nintendo and ask them to unbind the account. After that you need to boot a clean Sysnand/Emunand where no NNID settings are saved and log in with your NNID account. After that the transfered nand where the nnid was stored will start working with the online features again.


I did many experiments with NAND transfer and I conclude that even if you properly decrypt and reencrypt the whole nand partition with the correct xorpads for a new console loading the nand will result in a black screen. So manual system transfer (which requires ctrnand xorpads and a nand backup) is the only option which is available for now if the original system is lost.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Use decrypt9 which can back those files up from either sysnand or emunand. You might also want to make xorpads for every nand backup or at least one backup+xorpad set a month.

I mean how do I use those files to recover data from an unusable Nintendo 3DS folder?

 

[V-ADi]

Use decrypt9 which can back those files up from either sysnand or emunand. You might also want to make xorpads for every nand backup or at least one backup+xorpad set a month.

Unfortunately there is no news regarding the console, possibly I'll never see it again... Unfortunately when I got this I don't think you could back up these xorpads. Unfortunately the only backups I got are sysnand, emunand and SD card backups, as on the Gateway site at that time this is what they've recommended.

Btw did some experimenting today and restored my stolen 3DS's SD card content to my old 3DS which has the "same" emunand installed. What was interesting there that in System Settings > Data management it showed all the installed games there, but with an X mark, the only thing I could do with them is to remove them. I've tried to see if JKSM can recognise them, but no luck. It seems like more than 5000 Streetpasses, and all of my digital game saves, are gone (Pokemon AlphaSapphire, Animal Crossing New Leaf, etc). I've learnt my lesson to not play on the street ever again, and to do more backups in the future... But possibly I won't start any of these games from the beginning.

I mean how do I use those files to recover data from an unusable Nintendo 3DS folder?

nl255, could you answer this though? So this topic wouldn't go to waste, and if something similar happens to someone like me, but they do have their emunand and xorpads backup, what could you do?

 

[MelonGx]

You can't use an NNID on another console without either system transferring or having Nintendo do it manually on their servers for you.

I don't believe Nintendo can do that.
Nintendo isn't Sony. They don't have easy re-registration & cloud backups like PSN.

 

[Quantumcat]

I don't believe Nintendo can do that.

Yes they can. You just call them up and say your console was stolen or dropped in water etc, and that you have a replacement but can't do a normal system transfer. They will change the NNID link manually on their servers.