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!​

 

[chatmax]

Do all save files get this exact file name? Or is this just an example? Like animal crossing is 0004000000086300.

YES...rename all your savs to 0004000002C23200

 

[Hugheserton]

Hey all. I have .sav files that I pulled directly from cartridges using NDS Adapter Plus. Is there a way to convert these without Gateway? If not, if someone's able to convert these two for me, I'd be super grateful. Thanks!

 

[darkovo]

I was stuck for hours trying to figure out the best way to backup the Card 2 save file from a Gateway EmuNAND console with no other CFW.

In the end it was easy, but I had 2 3DS consoles to test with, 1 on old official fw 4.5 and Gateway EmuNAND 11.2, the other console on up-to-date Luma CFW on Sys fw 11.8.

For Card 2 saves (ie Pokémon Alpha Sapphire)...
The way I did this was to add BigBlueMenu.3ds to Gateway SD card, add JK's SaveManager (JKSM) to internal SD card.
Start Gateway EmuNAND and run the BigBlueMenu, install the JKSM.cia. Exit.
Select the Pokemon game within the Gateway menu but don't start it (so it shows in the 3DS tile menu).
Run JKSM, dump all content to SD. It created "JKSV\Saves\Pokémon Alpha Sapphire\2018-09-02_11-34-30\main".
Copied this file using a PC to other SD card from console already setup with Luma.

On other console, install Pokémon Alpha Sapphire.cia, then run the game and let it create a new save file.
Exit Pokémon Alpha Sapphire.
Run JKSM on this other console and import the save file from SD card. Exit.
Play Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and save file is imported and works!

 

[CityNinja]

Can some one please convert these for me? 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.

 

[Fortemoze]

Hiya.. i wonder if this thread still active or nah.
I've been trying this method several times but i wonder, why it still doesnt work for me?
JKSM keep saying "The archive cannot be opened" to both SaveData and ExtraData.
YES, i do the name change of the savegame to 0004000002C23200.sav (the one that i tried rn is FE Awakening), copy it to the root with ctrxexplorer and i follow all the steps there but idk why i have no luck here. any solutions?

beforehand in 2015, i've tried LioMajor's method too to convert gateway save to cia, etc with SDF, but the results are "CTR Broken", and yeah until now i have no luck to transfer my savegame.

i hope i get any solution here thanks

 

[Negatronic]

Hiya.. i wonder if this thread still active or nah.
I've been trying this method several times but i wonder, why it still doesnt work for me?
JKSM keep saying "The archive cannot be opened" to both SaveData and ExtraData.
YES, i do the name change of the savegame to 0004000002C23200.sav (the one that i tried rn is FE Awakening), copy it to the root with ctrxexplorer and i follow all the steps there but idk why i have no luck here. any solutions?

beforehand in 2015, i've tried LioMajor's method too to convert gateway save to cia, etc with SDF, but the results are "CTR Broken", and yeah until now i have no luck to transfer my savegame.

i hope i get any solution here thanks

Ive never had to rename anthing.... Have you tried checkpoint? It is like JKSM. Cleaner and simpler, but I don't know if it does EX Data.

 

[lone_wolf323]

Ive never had to rename anthing.... Have you tried checkpoint? It is like JKSM. Cleaner and simpler, but I don't know if it does EX Data.

They probably either got a gateway save or they are trying just to import a gateway one. They have to be running on gateway mode to extract their save correctly and then use jksm from there to decrypt it.

 

[redshiftclick]

Thanks for a great guide @MattKimura

 

[OuahOuah]

Have tried to load up a GW game (SELECT + game).
Game is shown on 3DS.
Then load up JKSM cia.
But no cartridge menu at all : only "Title", "System tiles" and so.

Why no cartridge menu ?

 

[TheShadowRunner]

Can this process be further simplified by using Checkpoint instead?
I think it's time for me to finally get free of Gateway.

And another question, how to deal with Extdata if I'm not going to transfer emunand to sysnand ?
Can extdata and game updates be transfered from emunand to a new sysnand ?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Can this process be further simplified by using Checkpoint instead?
I think it's time for me to finally get free of Gateway.

And another question, how to deal with Extdata if I'm not going to transfer emunand to sysnand ?
Can extdata and game updates be transfered from emunand to a new sysnand ?

It has been further simplified, with GWSE courtesy of @ihaveamac as well as my own mod of JKSM, which simply dumps the cartridge save and exits on success. So literally the only thing you have to do is mount a game, launch GWSE, press A to rename the .sav and launch JKSM Auto, wait for it to close, move to the next game and repeat.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zf4fkbe8fwen7ee/GWSE.rar?dl=0

Extdata works the same as CIAs, so it can be dumped through normal means. I believe there should be a batch export option in either JKSM or Checkpoint, that would save time compared to doing them one by one.

 

[TheShadowRunner]

Thank you very much for your reply and your link. That covers converting GW saves nicely.

I still wonder how to handle ExtData and Game updates. I know some games use Extdata as saves (like Thearthrythm).

I was thinking of installing my GW emunand as Sysnand but it's a frankenstein emunand updated to 11.7 (for GW to access online and keep the Select button working) so I have huge fears it'll screw up somewhere as sysnand.

I would also upgrade my internal microSD from 16GB to 128GB which adds another layer of complexity to the matter..

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Thank you very much for your reply and your link. That covers converting GW saves nicely.

I still wonder how to handle ExtData and Game updates. I know some games use Extdata as saves (like Thearthrythm).

I was thinking of installing my GW emunand as Sysnand but it's a frankenstein emunand updated to 11.7 (for GW to access online and keep the Select button working) so I have huge fears it'll screw up somewhere as sysnand.

I would also upgrade my internal microSD from 16GB to 128GB which adds another layer of complexity to the matter..

Just export extdata with any save manager like normal, like I just told you...

 

[TheShadowRunner]

Thanks again The Real Jdbye.
I may convert my GW emunand to Luma sysnand after all, sounds much faster than reinstalling extdata and everything (ofc after I convert the saves).

My only concern is I'm on GW Emunand 11.7, frankenfirmware made using 123ab's method. It's been perfectly stable as GW Emunand (except it wants 11.13 now for online/friends/eshop of course) but I'm not sure the modified files aren't going to fuck up everything if I use it as Luma sysnand..

And if I update it (GW Emunand 11.7 to 11.13) before installing as sysnand, then I won't be able to access GW ever anymore..

It's a catch-22 situation..

 

[lone_wolf323]

Thanks again The Real Jdbye.
I may convert my GW emunand to Luma sysnand after all, sounds much faster than reinstalling extdata and everything (ofc after I convert the saves).

My only concern is I'm on GW Emunand 11.7, frankenfirmware made using 123ab's method. It's been perfectly stable as GW Emunand (except it wants 11.13 now for online/friends/eshop of course) but I'm not sure the modified files aren't going to fuck up everything if I use it as Luma sysnand..

And if I update it (GW Emunand 11.7 to 11.13) before installing as sysnand, then I won't be able to access GW ever anymore..

It's a catch-22 situation..

You are quite able to downgrade a emunand. Or sysnand if you really have to. So the gateway on emunand is not going to be forever lost if you update.

 

[TheShadowRunner]

@ The ReaJdbye, I seem to have an issue with Card2 games, such as Korg DSN12, JKSM-Auto says it cannot find the save.
In the readme you say to launch JKSM-Auto manually and it may help but it doesn't (same error).
What is the proper way to dump Card2 game saves from GW ?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Ramom]

@MattKimura can you export a .sav for me? I don't have a Gateway it's so expansive here on Brazil. Can you do that for me? Please!
Skylanders SuperChargers Racing 3ds (USA)

 

[TheShadowRunner]

@The Real Jdbye, I figured it out.
This title (Korg DSN12) is in fact not card2, it just didn't have any save at all, my bad.

And for card2 games (Tomodachi, Triforce Heroes), it worked as expected by simply mounting the games and launching Auto-JKSM manually.

However I had issues with a couple games :
- Devil Survivor 2
- SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked
- Paper Mario

For these, Auto-JKSM was unable to backup the saves properly, just hanging there with no errors and the progress bar frozen.

So I tried manually with the latest 2018 JKSM and backup was succesful and realized there's an issue with that: JK changed the backup naming format and all the saves from Auto-JKSM aren't recognized by the newest 2018 JKSM (no more underscore in dirnames and date format slightly changed).
In other words I can't restore all my backups, I guess I need the exact JKSM build you based Auto-JKSM on. It's sadly not on JK's github anymore.
Do you still have that specific version handy ?
Thanks.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

@The Real Jdbye, I figured it out.
This title (Korg DSN12) is in fact not card2, it just didn't have any save at all, my bad.

And for card2 games (Tomodachi, Triforce Heroes), it worked as expected by simply mounting the games and launching Auto-JKSM manually.

However I had issues with a couple games :
- Devil Survivor 2
- SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked
- Paper Mario

For these, Auto-JKSM was unable to backup the saves properly, just hanging there with no errors and the progress bar frozen.

So I tried manually with the latest 2018 JKSM and backup was succesful and realized there's an issue with that: JK changed the backup naming format and all the saves from Auto-JKSM aren't recognized by the newest 2018 JKSM (no more underscore in dirnames and date format slightly changed).
In other words I can't restore all my backups, I guess I need the exact JKSM build you based Auto-JKSM on. It's sadly not on JK's github anymore.
Do you still have that specific version handy ?
Thanks.

You can rename the folders to make them be recognized. The date IIRC is just the default name given to the save, you can name it anything you want, so it shouldn't prevent it from being seen, as long as you make the game folder name match what it expects it should work.
I actually reimported the saves using Checkpoint, which required manual renaming as well, and that worked just fine.
But I've attached a version of JKSM from around the same date that was in my downloads.

 

[Denis1992]

Hello guys,
please help me on this...
i forgot to save my save files when i was on GW...
now i updated to luma and cant get it done as its not possbile to run GW Mode again
i only got a sysnand and version 11.13 (newest )
Is there any solution for me ? MAybe a downgrade would work ?
Thanks in advance.