Hacking Issues trying to use Luma3DS / Save Managers. Please help!!

[MagitekMayhem]

I'm on an Old 3DS, and it says I'm running on 9.2.0-20U. My end goal is to use PKHex on Pokemon Moon, and my method initially consisted of using Luma3DS, but when that flopped I tried using Save Managers [which I've used before] to try to get where I was hoping. Both plans failed, and now I'm stuck.. And any help I can get from this would be greatly appreciated. I apologize if these issues have been fixed already, I've looked this up for a few days without any luck on any of it. I apologize as well if I dropped this into the wrong forum. >.<


Luma3DS

I attempted to install Luma3DS, following this guide: https://3ds.guide/. I actually had a homebrew on this same system for a while, but since I had to downgrade, I just wiped it and started fresh. As the guide instructs, my 3DS firmware started at 9.9 and I downgraded to 9.2. I tried following the guide to the nth degree, especially as I was afraid most of the time of bricking my system. I managed to get through the whole guide, and I actually have Homebrew on my 3DS, accessible through the shortcut on the Home Menu. All of that works, but when I try accessing Luma3DS, it goes as far as the first red screen, before both screens turn black and it just stops there.

Despite following the guide as much as I could, there's a few things worth noting:
• I used a 64GB SD card. Someone told me this might cause an issue, saying the Old 3DS may have only been able to successfully handle 32GB SD cards and below.
• The guide instructs you at one point to remove FBI as your Health and Safety feature. I did not realize FBI was put onto my 3DS as a shortcut on the Home Menu when installing the CIA files, so I removed FBI, and injected it right back into the 3DS so I could continue the next steps.
• In the part entitled "Installing Arm9loaderhax", in Section IV, it asks if your Backup is version 3.0.0-4.5.0, that you need to manually download the required firmware. Since I had installed 2.1.0, I figured this did not apply to me. Was I wrong?
• Kind of a big one: one of the first times I tried running Luma3DS, I saw an error screen say something about not being able to find "themes", and it could not continue. I haven't seen the error after the one time, and I think it happened when I tried holding Select as I brought up Luma3DS. I meant to take a picture to try to write it down, but I donno if I accidentally hit a button that cleared the error.
• I've tried using previous versions of Luma3DS, still no luck. I especially tried this after seeing the error in the previous note. • At this point, holding Select when loading Luma3DS from HB makes no difference, nor does having no game inserted.

Like I said, I can get into the Homebrew, through OotHax or using the Home Menu shortcut, and use any of the features I've downloaded, and the configuration menu for Luma3DS even comes up if I hold the Select button on Boot, so I know it's there.


Save Managers

I tried going around needing Luma3DS, as the main reason I said I'm using this is for PKHex for Pokemon Moon. So, I got JK's Save Manager, and attempted to use it on Sun/Moon. But every time I try hitting Export, it says "Error Opening Save Archive!" This happens when I try using JKSM from the Home Menu icon. I tried using an alternate Save Manager by Profi200, that's accessible through the Homebrew, as well as an alternate version of JK's Save Manager accessible from Homebrew. But for some reason on both tools, I can never get passed the Yellow screen. I've tried looking this up, only to see people get through that part without any issues.

Now, here's the issue I'm seeing with the Save Managers: all of them actually work flawlessly if I'm not using Pokemon Moon and have another game inserted instead[I don't have Sun to try]. It's only when I have Pokemon Moon in that nothing decides to continue.


I did notice, that when I try using this 3DS just to play Pokemon Moon, it says "A system update is required to use this software", wanting me to update to 11.0.0-20U. I did the Software Update as the Luma3DS guide instructed, but I guess that wasn't the same thing..? Could this be an issue?

I'm also unsure of what other things I can try, like replacing anything like Arm9loader, or finding out what the issue with that first error was. Most of what I look up have issues that don't really match mine, but I still went through the suggested solutions to theirs without any luck on a fix.

Thank you to everyone attempting to help either issue!

 

[Ante0]

Place the file arm9loaderhax.bin from Luma3ds at the root of your sdcard.
You do not have to boot through Homebrew channel with Luma, it starts automatically.

And to use Homebrew when you get Luma going, use the homebrew channel cia.


Im just assuming you installed A9LH as you did downgrade to 2.1 and all that.

 

[MagitekMayhem]

Place the file arm9loaderhax.bin from Luma3ds at the root of your sdcard.
You do not have to boot through Homebrew channel with Luma, it starts automatically.

And to use Homebrew when you get Luma going, use the homebrew channel cia.


Im just assuming you installed A9LH as you did downgrade to 2.1 and all that.

What do you mean by this? I saw a few things saying Luma should just start right up, but that never happened for me. Luma3DS menu pops up if I hold Select on Boot, but if I don't touch anything, the main Home Menu screen comes up on Boot. But yeah, from there, I can just go into the HB cia, instead of going through the OotHax exploit.

Nevertheless, I tried like you said, dropping the arm9loaderhax.bin into the SD card's root, but that didn't seem to make a change. But yeah, I tried to follow the guide as much as one could who didn't know entirely what they're doing, installing A9LH in the process. Someone actually just told me to try to redo this whole process, so I was going to try to do so now.

 

[Ante0]

If you can run the HB cia and FBI you are on Luma, so that should be just fine. Try by installing something with FBI.
And I would also update to 11.2. Sun/Moon requires 11.0 to even run. Not sure if JKSM checks/needs required firm of the game before exporting, so that could actually help if it does. This assumes you are using sysNAND as your primary NAND. Else update emunand if you use that.

 

[rikumax25!]

What do you mean by this? I saw a few things saying Luma should just start right up, but that never happened for me. Luma3DS menu pops up if I hold Select on Boot, but if I don't touch anything, the main Home Menu screen comes up on Boot. But yeah, from there, I can just go into the HB cia, instead of going through the OotHax exploit.

Nevertheless, I tried like you said, dropping the arm9loaderhax.bin into the SD card's root, but that didn't seem to make a change. But yeah, I tried to follow the guide as much as one could who didn't know entirely what they're doing, installing A9LH in the process. Someone actually just told me to try to redo this whole process, so I was going to try to do so now.

Luma is not a "menu thingy". If your console boots and arm9loaderhax.bin is on the SD the YOU ARE ALREADY RUNNING LUMA

 

[MagitekMayhem]

If you can run the HB cia and FBI you are on Luma, so that should be just fine. Try by installing something with FBI.
And I would also update to 11.2. Sun/Moon requires 11.0 to even run. Not sure if JKSM checks/needs required firm of the game before exporting, so that could actually help if it does. This assumes you are using sysNAND as your primary NAND. Else update emunand if you use that.

I got this fixed last night, and this wound up being the problem.
For some reason, my 3DS didn't update to 11.2 when I ran the System Update, it just stayed on 9.2, which prevented me from actually playing Pokemon Moon regularly since I wasn't on 11.0. I saw in System Settings that it still said 9.2, but figured the custom firmware was tricking the 3DS someway er another to still say that; when a helpful saint on Reddit pointed out that it SHOULDN'T say that, they had me run the update again, and afterwards everything worked flawlessly: Pokemon Moon, and both save_manager by Profi200 and JK's Save Manager. So yeah, I'm guessing the 3DS wasn't letting the game be accessed, throwing out a red flag and returning an error in the save managers. Thank you very much for your response!

Luma is not a "menu thingy". If your console boots and arm9loaderhax.bin is on the SD the YOU ARE ALREADY RUNNING LUMA

This was what I was confused about. I've been looking for some sort of "splash screen" to give me a thumbs-up with some fancy "Luma3DS" text with a menu, but I see now it's just basically the custom firmware running. Thank you very much!

 

[rikumax25!]

I got this fixed last night, and this wound up being the problem.
For some reason, my 3DS didn't update to 11.2 when I ran the System Update, it just stayed on 9.2, which prevented me from actually playing Pokemon Moon regularly since I wasn't on 11.0. I saw in System Settings that it still said 9.2, but figured the custom firmware was tricking the 3DS someway er another to still say that; when a helpful saint on Reddit pointed out that it SHOULDN'T say that, they had me run the update again, and afterwards everything worked flawlessly: Pokemon Moon, and both save_manager by Profi200 and JK's Save Manager. So yeah, I'm guessing the 3DS wasn't letting the game be accessed, throwing out a red flag and returning an error in the save managers. Thank you very much for your response!



This was what I was confused about. I've been looking for some sort of "splash screen" to give me a thumbs-up with some fancy "Luma3DS" text with a menu, but I see now it's just basically the custom firmware running. Thank you very much!

You can add splash screens ig you want , glad you got it working