Gaming AC:NH "A communication error has occurred"

[mentalist95]

Hello! After searching for a couple of hours and reading many threads (also from here) I've decided to start a thread on my own. I own two Switches. One is vanilla OFW 10.0.3, the other is on 10.0.3|AMS 0.12.0|E CFW. Both have an installation of Animal Crossing New Horizons, on same version 1.2.1. Yesterday it was no problem to visit the town of the other Switch in AC:NH, now 12 hours later it is. I was able to visit the town on both Switches, no problem, even several times. There have been three or four visits in total in a window of about one hour. Now today on the morning after I get the message "A communication error has occurred" without having anything changed in that time after the open town has been found and I was trying to visit it. I was playing in local mode, so both devices are offline and without any WIFI connection to the internet.

I've read a lot about for example local lan play (not the case here, its disabled, if its enabled the error comes up even before finding any town to visit), about not moving the character while connecting (also not the case, I was sitting), restart the Switch (didnt help, tried it a couple times), disabling Edizon (did not help) and so on. So what I did:

1) Open the gates at the airport
2) Searching for the open town
3) Finding the town and trying to visit it
4) Getting the error (the case on both devices)

So I run out of ideas and hope we may exchange some experiences and hints. I'm not sure on what AC:NH does in the background to have some hints what may be wrong, but maybe we figure out together?

 

[catlady77]

Delete any apps that use bluetooth like syscon or ldm_mtm should be in your switch folder if I recall. Deleting of certain modules seemed to get rid of my local play problems. Edizon had nothing to do with it.

https://github.com/spacemeowx2/switch-lan-play was one of the culprits

 

[mentalist95]

Delete any apps that use bluetooth

Unfortunately, there aren't any. The only apps installed are for file management or tinkering with dumps. I've checked in Kosmos Toolbox, there is only one Sysmodule running, which is Tesla. I'm wondering if there's anything like known causes or something. Just tried it again, its searching and finding the town but attempting to visit it just brings up again the error. It's in German, and says something like "Error in file transmission" But what files?

Anything I've googled about it just brings up issues with the internet connection, which is not a cause here, since its all local.

 

[catlady77]

Unfortunately, there aren't any. The only apps installed are for file management or tinkering with dumps. I've checked in Kosmos Toolbox, there is only one Sysmodule running, which is Tesla. I'm wondering if there's anything like known causes or something. Just tried it again, its searching and finding the town but attempting to visit it just brings up again the error. It's in German, and says something like "Error in file transmission" But what files?

Anything I've googled about it just brings up issues with the internet connection, which is not a cause here, since its all local.

then i would say to delete folders 1 by 1 (back them up obv) in your switch folder and test your connections when you do it. i know it's in there, I just dont know which one exactly. let me go find the post hold on

i cant find it, but yeah me and someone else had problems so we just deleted stuff we dont use in switch folders. i havent had connection probs since.

 

[mentalist95]

I'm uncertain about that, since I honestly can tell, where hasn't been any change to the last time I've tried to visit the town. Now there are even less apps installed than before, but still does not work.

Are there any developer tools to see whats going on under the hood? I'm new to flashing the Switch but really curios about that error. Would be helpful to figure somehow out, at what stage Animal Crossing fails to establish the connection. But as it is "An error occured!" is not helpful from what we get from the device

 

[catlady77]

also, reboot your router so it can power cycle

 

[mentalist95]

reboot your router so it can power cycle

Please have a look at my posts. There is no router involved.

 

[catlady77]

Please have a look at my posts. There is no router involved.

yes i know that but regardless it played a part in local connection if you dont believe me you will get local connection issues outside the game as well when you locally connect 2 switches and try to "update" software, it wont be able to connect/talk to each other regardless you software update or not. a power cycle helped me get a connection back, and it was local

 

[mentalist95]

So, I'm back with an update. Restarting the router did not do the thing. But a few things I've tried in the meantime:

1) Doing some actions on the town on the Switch with CFW (like catching some fish, checking letters, talking to some villagers), like playing a few minutes before trying to visit. I was feeling like there is a cooldown needed, before visiting again, if doing so too frequently
2) Making sure there are no hacked items in inventory (Like gold tools. It may be be even the case for empty slots. Reassign some legit item to all of them, to override their state. Hacked items in unlegit state will not be in savegame, so you know which ones are not legit. Dropping them and collecting them up will make them legit and persisting over saves.)

I don't know which of these two things solved it, maybe both of them. But now another error comes up (translated from german): "The connection to the other island was lost. Contact Nintendo support if this keeps persisting." This seems to be only the case if I try to visit my legit Switch from my hacked one. The over way around is no problem.

EDIT:

I simply dont get it. Now I've got this error on both devices, trying to visit each other. Nothing has changed. I dont know whats going on, but I get more and more the feeling, that the local multiplayer of AC:NH is simply the worst I've ever seen. Sometimes an error comes up, while trying to fly. Sometimes I get to the stage of take off, then the next error. Or I am just about to land: Error. Or even if AC:NH managed to bring me to the other island, I take two or three steps on it and then again: Connection error.

EDIT 2:
Now again, at the starting point, finding the town, attempting to fly and again the error from my first post, which I started the thread with. So the situation even worsened. I'm pretty certain there's a thing like a cooldown on too many connection attempts, which bans you locally from visiting each other. I'll let the 36 hours pass, like today and will try it again then. If it works then, evidence is there, we have a cooldown after too many failed visits in need.

 

[Hoback201]

So, I'm back with an update. Restarting the router did not do the thing. But a few things I've tried in the meantime:

1) Doing some actions on the town on the Switch with CFW (like catching some fish, checking letters, talking to some villagers), like playing a few minutes before trying to visit. I was feeling like there is a cooldown needed, before visiting again, if doing so too frequently
2) Making sure there are no hacked items in inventory (Like gold tools. It may be be even the case for empty slots. Reassign some legit item to all of them, to override their state. Hacked items in unlegit state will not be in savegame, so you know which ones are not legit. Dropping them and collecting them up will make them legit and persisting over saves.)

I don't know which of these two things solved it, maybe both of them. But now another error comes up (translated from german): "The connection to the other island was lost. Contact Nintendo support if this keeps persisting." This seems to be only the case if I try to visit my legit Switch from my hacked one. The over way around is no problem.

EDIT:

I simply dont get it. Now I've got this error on both devices, trying to visit each other. Nothing has changed. I dont know whats going on, but I get more and more the feeling, that the local multiplayer of AC:NH is simply the worst I've ever seen. Sometimes an error comes up, while trying to fly. Sometimes I get to the stage of take off, then the next error. Or I am just about to land: Error. Or even if AC:NH managed to bring me to the other island, I take two or three steps on it and then again: Connection error.

EDIT 2:
Now again, at the starting point, finding the town, attempting to fly and again the error from my first post, which I started the thread with. So the situation even worsened. I'm pretty certain there's a thing like a cooldown on too many connection attempts, which bans you locally from visiting each other. I'll let the 36 hours pass, like today and will try it again then. If it works then, evidence is there, we have a cooldown after too many failed visits in need.

I would love to know if you ever found a fix.