This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.
If you have time, and have Staff permission, feel free to edit this thread and remove this statement once necessary.

Some information that needs to be addressed:

• SX OS and Atmosphere now supports proper LayeredFS, instructions for using it has changed since this tutorial was made
• Supported Firmware information is out of date
• LFSKit needs to be updated to properly support non 5.x.x firmware
• Compatability chart needs to be re-made

-PRAGMA

WARNING

• DO NOT GO ONLINE WHEN DOING THIS (YOU WILL BE BANNED)

How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading

Firmware Supported: ONLY 5.x.x
Use the PRAGMA LFS Kit below.

PRAGMA's LFS Kit

DOWNLOAD
SOURCE

• Go from NOTHING in your SD Card to playing a game backup in a few clicks!
• Decrypt .XCI -> romfs/exefs folder with main.nmpd auto edited aswell as folder's name auto renamed to donor titleid
• Download NOTHING except LFSKit!

ENJOY!

Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!

1. 
   
   1. A donor title is the application we will run to open the backup.
      Pick a game you don't care about (Download a Demo or a free game from eShop, for example Octopath Demo)
      saves are something no one knows much about, we don't fully know where or how they are stored.
      They might overwrite the donor titles save, so seriously pick a game you DONT care about, not a game you rarely play.
      
      
   2. I also recommend picking a donor title/game combo that has been tested and reported working just so you know if YOU did something wrong or not.
   3. Find the TitleID of the donor title you chose from http://nswdb.com or http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
      Region must be the same, choose the TitleID for the base-game NOT for the update title, even if your updated.
2. 
   
   1. Once again, boot into Hekate-IPL (Step 1).
   2. Enter "Launch firmware" and select "RomFS".
   3. Your now in your system's home menu.
   4. Open the Donor Title you set the TitleID of on that folder and .npmd file earlier.
   5. The game will load up flawlessly.
      If you opened the Title lets say, Fortnite, and Fortnite booted, the titleid of the folder in sd:/atmosphere/titles/{fortnitetitleid} doesnt exist, or doesnt start with 0100.
      If it gives you an error screen, either you didnt edit the main.npmd properly, or its an incompatible title/donor combo.
   To see which games work and which dont using which donor titles, look below.
   If you notice that you used a combination of Game and Donor title that isnt in the list below, post in the thread and I will add it. (look under to see what I need to add to chart).
   

Troubleshooting

• Black Screen/Infinitely Loading
  Leave it for around 5 minutes then press the home button and go back into the game without closing it. Often this can do the job.
• Freeze when Loading
  Close the game and try again, its a common occurence, you may have to try up to 4-5 times before getting it to work, sometimes you may even have to reboot between retries.

 

[VIDOKS]

did you copy all the script properly ? the key.ini is in the folder with hactool ?

 

[Zumoly]

you need keys.ini

Yeah he shared some on mega but they're the one in .dat format.

 

[VIDOKS]

you need keys.ini

yeah but that's the mega link

 

[KeyZiro]

Yeah he shared some on mega but they're the one in .dat format.

change .dat to .ini

 

[VIDOKS]

no what i shared to you is a file called key.ini with all the keys inside ^^

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

not a .dat

 

[Zumoly]

did you copy all the script properly ? the key.ini is in the folder with hactool ?

Yes. I put it where the hactool is. I double clicked the script / dragged & dropped the NCA file onto it.

 

[VIDOKS]

no just drop the xci or nca on it and it will extract it and open the script automatically

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

just wait until it's write done and you should see two folder xciDecrypted and exefs

 

[Zumoly]

no just drop the xci or nca on it and it will extract it and open the script automatically

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

just wait until it's write done and you should see two folder xciDecrypted and exefs

Yeah! Extracted properly now! You're the man!
Thanks all for your help!

 

[thealgorithm]

change .dat to .ini

The keys.ini file needs to be a text file and also needs to contain your unique console keys via biskeydump (not sure if all of them are needed)

 

[SonicRegret]

Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack (Game) over VOEZ Demo (donor) does not launch [goes into black screen] and causes a system crash when app is closed entirely then relaunched.

Proof :

 

[Zumoly]

The keys.ini file needs to be a text file and also needs to contain your unique console keys via biskeydump (not sure if all of them are needed)

I was looking at it the wrong way! I actually though there needed to be an exef (extension!) file extracted!

 

[VIDOKS]

The keys.ini file needs to be a text file and also needs to contain your unique console keys via biskeydump (not sure if all of them are needed)

not needed the mega link that i post didn't have my console key but all others and i't work ^^

 

[Zumoly]

Yo guys! I need to contribute too!
Got running Dragon Quest Builders onto Pinball FX3!
Will come with more updates.

 

[Favna]

Game Name: Gal Gun 2 (don't even ask why I tried this)
Donor Name: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (0100A6300150C000)
Status: works
Firmware: 5.1.0
Saves: Works
Proof: https://streamable.com/k8a3b

 

[shabbypenguin]

Little nightmares complete edition works great on pokemon quest with working saves

 

[Favna]

I wonder how saves are stored using this method, if you were to backup the save of your "game" would you end up with the original game's save file or the injected games save file, the injected game can still access its own save file while being launched by the donor game, so where is the save stores? Can it be extracted in the future when separate installation of backups becomes a thing and a transfer is desired?

Idk if saves are stored under the donor's title id, or the patched one's ID

Good question. It seems (tried it on one game - Mario odyssey as the donor) that save files are not overwritten. If I reboot without the cfw layerfs patch, I can run the game with the save no issue.
When running the layerfs cfw, and running the donor, I can then continue from the save in that game. Perhaps the game attempts to read the save file and if its not valid it creates another one and vice versa so that nothing gets overwritten.

Saves are stored as the donor game. I tried 2 different games over Wonder Boy and upon going back to the first it at first didn't start at all so I used checkpoint to restore a blank save folder which made it work again, but ofc deleting my save.
Also checkpoint doesn't see the injected game, only the donor.

 

[thealgorithm]

Unrelated question (sort of). Has anyone found that exiting a game then attempting to run homebrew or other titles causes the Nintendo switch to crash with a message asking to press power to reboot?.

 

[SonicRegret]

Unrelated question (sort of). Has anyone found that exiting a game then attempting to run homebrew or other titles causes the Nintendo switch to crash with a message asking to press power to reboot?.

Yes I recieved this error when trying to find injected saves within the donor game, also I noticed that the icons for homebrew would also be missing and when any homebrew app was launched, I tried checkpoint and retroarch snes9x it would immediate crash the switch and ask for reboot.

 

[KevinX8]

I can confirm saves do not work on kirby star allies with pokemon quest as the donor, but it does boot successfully. @ShinyMK

 

[runetoonxx2]

what is kirby star allies title id