This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.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• Supported Firmware information is out of date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.

 

[Leozairus]

Yeah got the .nca file but when I use hactoolgui it pops up a cmd box and quickly disappears and leaves the folder blank.... grr

Got it to work by manually using hactool. Was able to execute the following command. hactool.exe --romfs=romfs.bin (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys) then I did hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys). Now i just got to put the files in the folder for the the title ID I want and also had to patch the main.npdm with the Title id using http://carlus.altervista.org/nx/title_id_patcher.html and now it works.

Donor FORTNITE
Game Mario Tennis Aces
Firmware 5.1.0
Saves Yes

My friend, I cant extract the XCI file, I'm always using the tool, can you put the command lines to extract xci? thanks

 

[skflich]

My friend, I cant extract the XCI file, I'm always using the tool, can you put the command lines to extract xci? thanks

I used xciexplorer to get the biggest .nca file

 

[reyyesrey]

@skflich's method worked for me too, happily playing using Fortnite as a donor now.

 

[LoDeus]

Don't know if that's the place but with Skyrim over Pinball FX3, black screen whenever I enter the Warmaiden in Whiterun, and language pack obviously doesn't apply.
A.O.T.2 crash at character creation over ARMS Demo and stays in english over VOEZ Demo (not a real problem since I'm good with english but would have prefered french).

Switch on 5.1.

 

[Leozairus]

I used xciexplorer to get the biggest .nca file

Thank you man, now Snack World works too (same method)

Snack World working with Voez Demo
Firmware 5.1

Saves: unstested

 

[skypirate123]

Heya, are there any other sheets/site documenting what titleIDs can run what? The first post link to https://lfsdb.com/ seems to be few and far between for what works/doesn't work.

Ended up loading Zelda onto one titleID and seems to have borked everything else I had too and none of them run.

Will reload everything later today and see what happens. Anyone else run into issues where one game has messed up the others from loading?

 

[KeyZiro]

Mario Tennis boots over Odyssey

y

 

[Soluble]

Mario Tennis Aces also works over pokemon quest.

 

[garryb]

Can someone please tell me if they got fifa 18 to work?

 

[JJTapia19]

Mario Tennis Aces also works over pokemon quest.

Does it save?

 

[Soluble]

Does it save?

Sorry hadn't tested, yes it saves

 

[EmperorX]

Heya, are there any other sheets/site documenting what titleIDs can run what? The first post link to https://lfsdb.com/ seems to be few and far between for what works/doesn't work.

Ended up loading Zelda onto one titleID and seems to have borked everything else I had too and none of them run.

Will reload everything later today and see what happens. Anyone else run into issues where one game has messed up the others from loading?

https://awesome-table.com/-LFDcC2m8HJCLBPe-7e0/view

 

[said31]

i can play fifa 18 ?§
and what game choose for donor ?!

 

[Soluble]

Can someone please tell me if they got fifa 18 to work?

i can play fifa 18 ?§
and what game choose for donor ?!

Octopath traveler demo

 

[stingray1059]

I used xciexplorer to get the biggest .nca file

i already downloaded xciexplorer.. what button to press.. ?
i need to make mario tennis working.

 

[saito1234]

Did anyone test The Lost Child?

 

[Soluble]

i already downloaded xciexplorer.. what button to press.. ?
i need to make mario tennis working.

Find the biggest NCA which is 1.8gb ish I think, and extract. Then extract the NCA with hactool. On mobile at the moment, but I'm sure someone can add better instructions!

 

[Arithmatics]

Went through all this crap and you can just use the dang switchblade payload and find the keys online ez... Oh well I learned some stuff along the way.

If you're just starting, the exe in OP will get you mostly setup, then you'll just abandon everything you did and use switchblade. There's problems with the fs_mitm.kip and even replacing it with another one I couldn't get hekate to boot properly. Switchblade just worked.

Basically find the keys online. Look for switch keys pastebin, and paste it into a new text file and rename to keys.ini
Use the exe provided in OP to convert your .xci to the target demo title ID
Copy it to the proper place on sd after it's converted sd:/atmosphere/titles/XXXXX
Copy the files from Switchblade SD Files onto SD https://www81.zippyshare.com/v/AdcRF1lR/file.html
Send the switchblade payload using tegrasmashrcm gui and play the game.

this worked for me on 4.1.0.

 

[CyKoDeLiC]

So I installed everything correctly. I wanted to play Lost Sphear as a backup, used Fortnite as a donor. It starts, but the game is in japanese. Is there any workaround? I used the multi language version.

 

[Don Jon]

Yeah got the .nca file but when I use hactoolgui it pops up a cmd box and quickly disappears and leaves the folder blank.... grr

Got it to work by manually using hactool. Was able to execute the following command. hactool.exe --romfs=romfs.bin (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys) then I did hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys). Now i just got to put the files in the folder for the the title ID I want and also had to patch the main.npdm with the Title id using http://carlus.altervista.org/nx/title_id_patcher.html and now it works.

Donor FORTNITE
Game Mario Tennis Aces
Firmware 5.1.0
Saves Yes

What do you mean by "Now i just got to put the files in the folder for "

Do you mean putting romfs . Bin in romfs folder and exefs in Exefs folder ?