Switching from Gateway to CFW can be a pain, especially since all your saves were created on Gateway. There's only one way to get those saves to be usable on cia games, and that's to decrypt the saves and eventually import them in the end. It's a very tedious process, but worth it in the end to be able to keep all your saves you worked hard on for so long. Gateway has become more and more obsolete, with CFW being more convenient to work with. ESPECIALLY Arm9loaderhax!

This will guide you on how to convert Gateway saves, and import them into cia games. For those who want to abandon Gateway, or those who still want to keep Gateway but use CFW.
No other guide for this existed so I figured I had to create one.
Be sure you have PLENTY of time to work on this, you'll also need a ton of patience for this!

Thanks to @zhdarkstar for the tip about using JK Save Manager for just about everything! Made the guide ten times easier than it was before.



Requirements
JK Save Manager
CTRXplorer (Can also use FBI)




I. Preperation Steps

1. Right click and copy all your .sav files, paste them anywhere on your computer as backup

2. Make a new folder on your SD card, call it something like "Gateway saves"

3. Copy one of your .sav files into this folder

4. Look up that save file on 3DSDB to see what game it is

5. Rename that .sav file to 0004000002C23200

6. Make a new folder and name it to whatever game it is
Example:
SD:/Gateway saves/Super Mario 3D Land/


7. Place the 0004000002C23200 sav file in this new folder you just created

8. Repeat steps 3-7 until every game is setup this way. Can take a while to go through depending on how much saves you have, be really patient.

9. Download JK Save Manager.cia, and CTRXplorer.cia then place them anywhere on the SD card





II. Exporting & Importing the saves with JK Save Manager

1. Install all the cia games you need, for the games you're going to import saves with

2. Launch each and every game one time, allowing it to initialize which creates save data. Again, this takes a LOT of patience to go through

3. Install JK Save Manager and CTRXplorer cia's using any cia manager you like. Assemble them near the game cart icon on the home menu for quick access.

4. Open CTRXplorer and browse into the Gateway saves folder, then into one of the game folders

5. Copy the 0004000002C23200 sav file (Instructions on top screen, should be Y to copy), then press B twice until you're on the SD's root. Paste the file here using the Y button (Say yes to replace if the file already exists)

6. Press home and close it. Press select to open Gateway's rom menu and choose the game you're about to work on, but don't go into the game

7. Open JK Save Manager, go to "Cartridge", then choose "Export save". Name it anything such as a date ex: 5-8-16

8. Once you exported the save, go back to the main menu and choose "SD/Cia". Find the game and choose "Import save"

9. Repeat steps 4-8 until every game's save is exported then imported. You'll need extreme patience for this, as this is the only way to decrypt the .sav files.

10. Launch some of the games to confirm that the save did indeed transfer successfully.11. PLEASE make a backup of ALL the backed up saves from JK Save Manager, by uploading them to Google Drive or Dropbox!! This way your saves are forever safe!



About Card2 games
Certain games are card2 type games, where the save file is stored inside the cartridge. In our case, the save is stored inside the rom itself. Games like Pokemon XY/ORAS, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Tomodachi Life, Zelda Tri Force Heroes are card2 games. They don't produce a .sav file on the SD card like card1 games.
To export card2 saves, carry on by selecting the rom then using JK Save Manager to export the cartridge's save. Then import the save in SD/Cia.





Trivia
- Gateway saves are encrypted, so you can't export the save until you first renamed it to 0004000002C23200 and place it on the root. Since you can't have more than one of the same file name in one directory, you gotta work on these one by one. In this process, you're decrypting the saves.

- Some games like Fantasy Life and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy store their primary save data in "Extdata". If you plan on using the same NAND in the end, you don't have to worry about exporting/importing that.


- Saves from JK Save Manager, can be used by just about ANYBODY, from any region. They're highly universal and valuable to share on saves threads. Post them if you like to contribute!​

 

[Aslak]

I managed to do gateway save convert for all saves(for moving to B9S) but I happened forget one save which was my Bravely Default one.

Anyone possibly can convert it for me?

 

[havip503]

so literally I played pokemon games on GW w .3ds . So how do I import those saves to cia ? ( Im using luma rn but I can't roll back to gw anymore )

 

[CityNinja]

So after trying to go back to Gateway fw only to make Luma3ds become stock fw and then having to buy a r4i gold to reflash it. I figure I'll ask for some one to please convert these for me.

Lesson learnt - When the forum posts says (in big red letters) "This will revert your 3ds to stock firmware do not use." It should be heeded.

Saves are for 3 games (I believe they are USA if it matters):

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Super Mario 3D Land
Theatrhythm - Final Fantasy


Thanks in advance.

 

[Vandes]

Could theoretically the process be inverted?
Can I use JKSM to export the save from an installed CIA game and import it on the currently mounted Gateway rom to obtain the corresponding .sav? What about encryption?

EDIT: I managed to try, and inverting the process works.

 

[smile72]

Been having a few problems transferring 3 saves as I simply cannot find them on my sd card. However when I load the games using Gateway I can access their save data. Also I have quite a few .savs on my sd card where I cannot find any titleid for so I'm just not sure which is which.

 

[ryouga]

Ok so a little clarification is needed thanks, I currently have 3 saves I want to backup (that being said not important ones) and one from Pokemon Y and currently use Gateway, I have the 3 normal saves but wanted a little clarity on what to do, im unclear if I need to mount the game then boot the software to export the save or not, (even more so for Pokemon)

 

[vilars]

please can someone help me convert these save i don't have the gateway anmore

 

[CityNinja]

yea been looking for some one for a couple of months and nada.

 

[Stormwolf64]

Thank you for writing such a guide, it's just a shame that it's a bit lacking. Are we required to be on gateway emunand for this process? or can it also be done on luma cfw? What do you mean on part 2 step 6? Certainly doesn't work for me on luma. Gateway cartridge was not part of the requirements either. Some of us aren't as informed and skilled in this as others, so please don't throw it in there without any explanations. Another weird thing. You don't mention .sav in any of the titleid's you mention. Surely they should have .sav at the end?

The part with the gateway and jk manager was where it fell apart for me. Doesn't work.

 

[Ossevaolep]

I don't have a gateway flashcard and I don't know if there's a possibility of converting the .sav file to JKSM. Someone can help me with that?

 

[Quantumcat]

I don't have a gateway flashcard and I don't know if there's a possibility of converting the .sav file to JKSM. Someone can help me with that?

You need a Gateway card. You can ask people to convert for you, might get lucky. Unlikely to get someone to do more than 1 or 2 games saves for you though.

 

[Ossevaolep]

You need a Gateway card. You can ask people to convert for you, might get lucky. Unlikely to get someone to do more than 1 or 2 games saves for you though.

Thanks for your reply. Is there any topic where I can ask for help? It's only for a single game (Hyrule Warriors Legends)...

 

[Quantumcat]

Thanks for your reply. Is there any topic where I can ask for help? It's only for a single game (Hyrule Warriors Legends)...

Not sure if there is a general topic, but you could try asking in the Noob Paradise thread or make your own topic. Or, you could try searching for someone asking the same thing and pm the person that helped them. Especially if the game is Hyrule Warriors since they'll already have the rom (may have to be the same region).

 

[godreborn]

you'll need to look up the title id of the game you want converted. I believe gateway uses the title id+.sav for all saves. I can't recall which title id. I think it's the long one while the dumps are the short one (e.g AGME) for some reason.

 

[Ossevaolep]

Not sure if there is a general topic, but you could try asking in the Noob Paradise thread or make your own topic. Or, you could try searching for someone asking the same thing and pm the person that helped them. Especially if the game is Hyrule Warriors since they'll already have the rom (may have to be the same region).

Where can I make the topic?

you'll need to look up the title id of the game you want converted. I believe gateway uses the title id+.sav for all saves. I can't recall which title id. I think it's the long one while the dumps are the short one (e.g AGME) for some reason.

That's correct, the save Is already named as you said.

 

[Velocity]

Hi Guys,

I just have a couple of questions regarding this, so I recently purchased a N2DS, and I want to move from my 4.5 3DS with Gateway to CFW, but want to make sure I can take all my saves with me.

1. Can I export on one DS and import on another?
2. Is it possible to run JKSM without a CFW, like on emunand for example?

Thanks,
Vel

 

[Ossevaolep]

Hi Guys,

I just have a couple of questions regarding this, so I recently purchased a N2DS, and I want to move from my 4.5 3DS with Gateway to CFW, but want to make sure I can take all my saves with me.

1. Can I export on one DS and import on another?
2. Is it possible to run JKSM without a CFW, like on emunand for example?

Thanks,
Vel

1) you want to know if you can export you gateway saves to cia saves? Yes it is possible (read this https://gbatemp.net/threads/importing-gateway-saves-to-cia-games.425743/ ).

And if you don't mind could you convert a save for me? I'm desperatery searching someone who can do this

 

[Velocity]

1) you want to know if you can export you gateway saves to cia saves? Yes it is possible (read this https://gbatemp.net/threads/importing-gateway-saves-to-cia-games.425743/ ).

And if you don't mind could you convert a save for me? I'm desperatery searching someone who can do this

Thanks I know you can export/import them (that's the whole purpose of this thread. All the instructions relate to doing it on the same DS, where as I want to export on one then import on another.

I don't actually have CFW running on either of my DS' yet, as I need to find the blue card for my gateway (which is annoying as I actually have 2...!) so that I can install the CFW which will enable to install cia files.

I am going to have a proper look for the card tomorrow, so do you want to upload the file then if I manage to find it I will convert it, otherwise I will have to wait for an r4i card I've ordered to arrive.

 

[Ossevaolep]

Thanks I know you can export/import them (that's the whole purpose of this thread. All the instructions relate to doing it on the same DS, where as I want to export on one then import on another.

I don't actually have CFW running on either of my DS' yet, as I need to find the blue card for my gateway (which is annoying as I actually have 2...!) so that I can install the CFW which will enable to install cia files.

I am going to have a proper look for the card tomorrow, so do you want to upload the file then if I manage to find it I will convert it, otherwise I will have to wait for an r4i card I've ordered to arrive.

the file is here: https://www.3ds-savegames.com/save/hyrule-warriors-legends/story-100-complete
thanks for it in advance <3

 

[Quantumcat]

Thanks I know you can export/import them (that's the whole purpose of this thread. All the instructions relate to doing it on the same DS, where as I want to export on one then import on another.

I don't actually have CFW running on either of my DS' yet, as I need to find the blue card for my gateway (which is annoying as I actually have 2...!) so that I can install the CFW which will enable to install cia files.

I am going to have a proper look for the card tomorrow, so do you want to upload the file then if I manage to find it I will convert it, otherwise I will have to wait for an r4i card I've ordered to arrive.

Yes, just copy the JKSM folder to the other console after exporting and import.