Hacking Question Idiot didn't read, how screwed am I

[Cynder]

So I wanted to jump in on this whole switch hacking thing early while the vulnerabilities are still relatively fresh. Got my paperclip ready, deleted the Wi-Fi settings, and put my switch into RCM mode. Cool. Set up my SD card for ReiNX because the guide didn't tell me that a Hekate backup was cleaner. Awesome. Load the payload. Only now am I told to ensure my SD card is 32GB. Turn off system, check, start again. Make backup NAND. How much "damage" is irreparably on my Switch and how likely am I to bite the ban bullet on this one. (And before everyone goes calling me an idiot for not reading the stickies more thoroughly, my last taste of hacking was on 3DS, which was comparably unbannable. I was misguided in thinking the Switch was more of the same.)

Update (12/1/2018):
I managed to restore my NAND without issue, but I couldn't check for signs of banning due to update nags. I have my Switch connected to the parental control app (mostly because my friends are jerks who were trying to hook their phones up so I had to beat them to it) and I just got the monthly play time record. I checked it and it still sent play reports even when the system is nagging for an update, which confirms that the Switch communicates with Nintendo servers even when Nintendo services such as eshop are blocked by update nags. To that end I'm pretty sure I'm clear of banning, at least thus far.

 

[shano]

So you didnt backup the NAND before booting CFW?

 

[Justinde75]

If you installed anything homebrew related and you dont have a nand backup to restore, you'll get the next day

 

[Cynder]

So you didnt backup the NAND before booting CFW?

Nope. The guide I was following made no mention of backing up NAND before booting the CFW, only after the have a back up in case of bricking.

If you installed anything homebrew related and you dont have a nand backup to restore, you'll get the next day

All I did was boot the CFW twice and have the toolkit and tinfoil on the SD card before using the toolkit to backup. Is it really that easy to trip?

 

[Justinde75]

Nope. The guide I was following made no mention of backing up NAND before booting the CFW, only after the have a back up in case of bricking.

All I did was boot the CFW twice and have the toolkit and tinfoil on the SD card before using the toolkit to backup. Is it really that easy to trip?

The console logs any error and stuff so yeah I think it is that easy

Honestly at this point you can just try go online, but you'll get banned the next day, either you stay offline to avoid the ban, or you go online and get banned. There isnt much of a difference

 

[shano]

Not much you can do now but hope that when ya do go back online after restoring the NAND that you dont get banned when going back online.

Rule of thumb: Backup the NAND before doing anything.

 

[Clydefrosch]

i mean, you should be fine as long as you didn't have any crashes in that time.
but generally, it's advised to use hecate to make your nand dump at the very beginning. hecate runs outside of the switchs os so acts done in that are less likely to show up on any kind of log or detection

 

[Cynder]

The console logs any error and stuff so yeah I think it is that easy

If simply entering RCM logs to the error log, spilling water on the console can mean a ban if you're unlucky. If loading CFW leaves that much of a paper trail, that's frightening. If loading homebrew apps successfully leaves behind error logs, then... I'm deeply concerned about what counts as an error to the system

 

[Ian095]

If you just used simple Homebrew applications then you might be okay. Back when the exploit was first revealed I tried it out and my console wasn't banned. Saying that, that was back when 4.1.0 was the highest firmware with less telemetry. I backed up after that months later but during that time period I was never really "banned". You've run the risk like others said you would have to recover your NAND and have your fingers crossed!

 

[Quantumcat]

I'm deeply concerned about what counts as an error to the system

A black screen with the console telling you an error occurred and that you have to restart.

 

[Justinde75]

Did you install any homebrew titles to the home? Like tinfoil or anything, or did you just use the homebrew loader?

 

[Cynder]

A black screen with the console telling you an error occurred and that you have to restart.

Well, that never happened, so I guess I'm safer? Kind of off topic, but if we know where these errors are stored and that deleting all of them is ban worthy, why can't we just delete the sketchy ones individually?

 

[isoisoiso]

I think you're fine
You didn't run any pirate games or anything

 

[Cynder]

Did you install any homebrew titles to the home? Like tinfoil or anything, or did you just use the homebrew loader?

Just the loader through the Album thing. When I saw that it used that, I backed up everything from my album just in case before loading the CFW. It turns out I didn't need to, though

 

[Justinde75]

Just the loader through the Album thing. When I saw that it used that, I backed up everything from my album just in case before loading the CFW. It turns out I didn't need to, though

You **could** be safe. Honestly i'd try to get rid of everything homebrew related and try to go online. If you get banned you can just install homebrew again and play offline, wouldnt change much if you'd just stay offline to avoid the ban

It might take 1-2 days for you to get banned, so just try to go online, play a game and then wait. And if you arent banned after 3 days you should be safe imo

 

[Cynder]

You **could** be safe. Honestly i'd try to get rid of everything homebrew related and try to go online. If you get banned you can just install homebrew again and play offline, wouldnt change much if you'd just stay offline to avoid the ban

I'm just glad I decided to hold off on Nintendo Online until it was actually good. No eShop and game patches will be annoying, but if I'm banned I'm banned. And just in time for ultimate, too!

 

[Justinde75]

I'm just glad I decided to hold off on Nintendo Online until it was actually good. No eShop and game patches will be annoying, but if I'm banned I'm banned. And just in time for ultimate, too!

If you get banned you can just install a cfw and update games with apps like tinfoil. You can still do everything, just not play online. Cfw even have patched apps for banned consoles so you can still watch youtube and stuff. You'll be able to install stuff like retroarch so you wont miss out on that much imo, but it depends on the person

 

[BlastedGuy9905]

The console logs any error and stuff so yeah I think it is that easy

Honestly at this point you can just try go online, but you'll get banned the next day, either you stay offline to avoid the ban, or you go online and get banned. There isnt much of a difference

He didn't even get any errors you paranoid. Just... Stop exaggerating.

 

[Arras]

If you get banned you can just install a cfw and update games with apps like tinfoil. You can still do everything, just not play online. Cfw even have patched apps for banned consoles so you can still watch youtube and stuff. You'll be able to install stuff like retroarch so you wont miss out on that much imo, but it depends on the person

You can, yeah, but manually seeking out and downloading updates for games is really annoying. You'll probably have to first know there even is an update in the first place, then find it, depending on your source, go through a bazillion ad links, download the thing, transfer it one way or another and install it, as opposed to automatic updates while you're sleeping. It works, but it's several orders of magnitude more inconvenient.

That said, if you just launched some homebrew and did nothing else, I doubt you'll get banned. What was the 32GB SD even needed for? I know from experience Hekate can do backups on smaller SD cards just fine, though you do need to remove the SD and move the files to your PC each time.

 

[Justinde75]

He didn't even get any errors you paranoid. Just... Stop exaggerating.

Whats wrong with being careful? Im not going to tell somebody to just be careless and then potentially getting their expensive console banned