Toggle sidebar

Tutorial  Updated

Region Changing the Wii U

The way I used to do it was tedious and was quite complex, however with the v2.0 release of the wafel_setup_mlc plugin, region changing has become much simpler.

It is identical to just rebuilding the MLC, but this has region changing specific notes added.

This does not change the region of the Gamepad, however you can still use an out-of-region gamepad with Aroma, which can be loaded with the wafel_payloader Stroopwafel plugin, so you don't need to worry about getting a Gamepad from the region you are changing to. If you do want to change the Gamepad region, there is a section at the end of the guide with instructions.

It also does not change the vWii region. If you want to region change the vWii as well, use vWii Decaffeinator on Light Mode to region change. I think you also need to regenerate the setting.txt.

Following this guide will wipe the MLC. You should back up any saves you care about before following. Its possible to do it without wiping the MLC, but you're on your own should you ta

Keep an OTP and SEEPROM backup. Nothing should go wrong, but it is better to have the most important backups and not need them vs. need them and not have them.

DO NOT UNINSTALL ISFSHAX AFTER ERASING THE MLC AND DELETING THE SCFM UNTIL YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY REBUILT THE MLC AND CONFIRMED EVERYTHING IS WORKING.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS PROPERLY.
If you need support, you can join my server and ask in #help

What you need


  • Install isfshax. This is a requirement. You cannot region change without it. (You can also use de_Fuse, but at that point you probably already know what you are doing.)
    • Stop at the "Booting" section.
  • The release of the MLCRestorerDownloader for your OS.
  • The latest release of the MLC setup plugin.
  • The latest release of the Payloader plugin.
    • Get the 5payldr.ipx.
  • The latest Aroma files (If you have Aroma already, ignore this.)
    • Read and tick the 4 boxes -> Click on Download Payloads and Download Base Aroma

Downloading the MLC Titles


  1. Extract the MLCRestorerDownloader you downloaded.
  2. Copy the otp.bin into the extracted folder.
    1721326901000.png
  3. Open a command prompt / terminal (Linux/Mac only).
  4. cd into the directory with the MLCRestorerDownloader (ie. cd /Downloads/MLCRestorerDownloader) (Linux/Mac only).
  5. Run the application (ie .\MLCRestorerDownloader for Linux/Mac users). Windows users can just double click the .exe
  6. Type in 1 the for MLC titles.
  7. Type in the number for the region you want to change to (ie 2 for USA).
    1721326853774.png
  8. Wait for it to finish downloading. You can do part of the next section while you wait.

SD Setup


  1. Copy the wafel_setup_mlc.ipx to sd:/wiiu/ios_plugins.
  2. Copy the 5payldr.ipx to sd:/wiiu/ios_plugins.
    1747859617670.png
  3. Copy the two wiiu folders from the Aroma .zip files to the root of the SD.
  4. Make a folder called wafel_install on the root of the SD and copy all 52 MLC titles here.

Region Changing


  1. Boot the console.
    • If it does not automatically go into minute_minute, go install isfshax.
  2. Navigate to Backup and Restore.
  3. Select Erase MLC and then press EJECT to confirm.
    • If it tells you MLC Erase not allowed!, go install isfshax.
  4. Select Delete scfm.img and press EJECT to confirm.
    • If it tells you SCFM delete not allowed!, install isfshax and quit trying with no safety measures.
  5. Go back to the main menu and select Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc).
    • During the setup you won't use the screen and stay at the GO GO GO minute message. You have to go by the power led.
  6. Wait for the LED to start blinking blue, this means the setup has started. Wait for it to stop blinking, that is when the setup has finished.
  7. Shut off the console and put the SD back into your PC.
    • Almost everything should have returned 00000000.
    • SetInitialLaunch will have returned 1.
    • If Set Region to X returned error FFFBFFEE, ask for help. That should not happen.
    • Otherwise boot the console again (select Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)), and you should be greeted with initial setup. Success!

Region Changing the Gamepad


  1. Download the latest release of DRXUtil and copy it to sd:/wiiu/apps.
  2. Launch DRXUtil from the Wii U Menu.
    • If it doesn't show up, press L + DPAD Down + Select on the Gamepad and set the "Hide all .rpx" configuration in the "Homebrew on Wii U Menu Plugin" to false.
  3. Select Flash firmware.
  4. Select Built-in Firmware Patches. Read the warning, then select Continue.
  5. Read the second warning, then select Continue.
    • With the patched firmware, the Gamepad will now show "Modified Firmware" while booting up.
  6. Select Set region and select the target region.
    • Note that Japan/Americas/Europe are the only regions that are actually used.
  7. Press A to confirm. Press B to go back to the main screen.
  8. Select Show DRC/DRH information and verify that the region under DRC info has been set to the one you selected.
  9. Press B to go back to the main screen and select Flash firmware.
  10. Select Original Firmware. Read the warning then select Continue.
  11. Read the second warning, then select Continue.
  12. Wait for the firmware to flash. Press B once finished and go back to the Wii U Menu.
  13. Launch System Settings, select Console Information (Icon with a red Console/Gamepad), select Set System Language, and select the target language. This will change the Gamepad language.
  14. Once it's finished, you're done!

After Region Changing


You can keep isfshax installed, or you can uninstall it. I would keep it, so you can load Aroma on boot without needing to install PayloadLoader, or as some form of 'brick protection'. You can set up autobooting in minute to have it automatically load IOSU. Instructions for that are on the isfshax guide.

Credits


@SDIO: isfshax setup guides, the wafel_setup_mlc plugin, help get the PoC to work, cleaning up my code, making the region fixer more sane...
@shinyquagsire23: de_Fuse, minute_minute, and stroopwafel
@GaryOderNichts: Also help me get the PoC working, DRXUtil
@rw-r-r_0644: Finding isfshax and implementing it
 
Last edited by Lazr1026,
  • Like
  • Love
  • Wow
Reactions: iPor, martian-isotopes, UsernamesAreWeird and 29 others
Click to expand...
I would suggest you copy the files fresh from the downloads, in case something got corrupted
 
I've checked my old SD card with the chkdsk utility. The wafel_install folder and some empty sections were indeed corrupted, so I fixed them. At least, as I see, minute and ISFShax are still working, (seemingly) nothing else affected. I'll try to redownload and replace as much files as I can without the access to my Wii U. Hope that Samsung won't let me down.

EDIT: My Wii U not doesn't even load the Wii U screen or minute menu, UDPIH also doesn't load the repair menu =(. Looks like I have to find someone who does soldering.

EDIT 2: I did it! I just needed to reinstall every file on my SD card and I fixed it! Now, my Wii U has a European region and is modded. I'm so happy!
 
Last edited by BlackKnight8967,
Cralex said:
Ah! There we go. Got the blinking light now. Thanks for finding what I overlooked.
Click to expand...
how did you fix it?
Post automatically merged:

Cralex said:
Ah! There we go. Got the blinking light now. Thanks for finding what I overlooked.
Click to expand...
how did you solve it? did the full setup, i selected the third boot option and the light is still purple
 
Well, first of all thank you for the awesome guides related with the WiiU I've found here.

It's my first contact on the WiiU hacking community. I got a cheap WiiU which had a corrupted SLC. I had to use Paid The Break exploit to revive it and spent the whole day working on this. Finally, after facing 1000 different issues, I managed to get almost everything working except one thing (even the vWii!).

The problem is that, for some reason I'm getting a 'Gamepad update required' message. If I proceed with the update, the console will just reboot itself and the same message will appear again. Temporally fix is to use Aroma that may have some patches that bypasses those checks.

I post this here because I've seen people with similar issues (but without an acutal solution). Actually I haven't made any region change (just a full slc/mlc rebuild). Also tried to reflash the gamepad firmware with DRXUtil but that didn't work. Not sure if this has to do with a (somehow) incomplete updated WiiU? Pretty sure that the console was on a lower firmware than 5.5.5 and some things such as boot1 hasn't been updated aswell (currently one is 8296).

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

EDIT: Well, so after another whole afternoon, I redid again all the process of fixing the SLC and rebuilding the MLC. Only thing I changed this time was to use 'English' as the language on the system setup, and that message did not appear anymore. So I think it's everything fixed now!
 
Last edited by Flashed,
Hi everyone,
I recently region-changed a 32 GB Japanese Wii U to EUR. I also successfully region-changed the Japanese GamePad to EUR. Because this console has a failing Hynix eMMC, I set it up to run RedNAND directly from the SD card.
I have changed the system language a few times, but I’ve run into a weird issue:
The language of the System Settings app always reverts back to one particular language (currently Russian), even though the Wii U Menu and all other system apps stay in my desired target language.
Every time I open the System Settings app, the language is in Russian. If I change it to English (or any other language) inside the app, it applies for that session, but as soon as I quit the app and reload it, it reverts right back to Russian.
Note: On my SysNAND (Real NAND), the language is set to English, if that makes any difference.
Has anyone encountered this language-locking behavior with System Settings on RedNAND after a region change?
I am currently considering whether I need to wipe everything and set up RedNAND again from scratch, but I would really love to avoid that if there is a simpler fix.

UPDATE 1: I tried booting the exact same console from a USB drive using USBMLC and a different SD card. I can change the system menu language back and forth perfectly fine, and the language actually sticks inside the System Settings app. This confirms that the issue is specific to my current RedNAND setup/SD card.

UPDATE 2: I just created a completely new RedNAND partition on a new SD card. However, I copy-pasted all the files from my old SD card's FAT32 partition over to the new one. The problem is still there—System Settings is still stuck in Russian!
This brings up a major question: How is the System Settings app language dependent on the contents of the FAT32 partition? Could a CFW environment config or launch script somehow be forcing locale change only in System Settings app?

UPDATE 3: Unfortunately, I had to ship out this Wii U today, so I decided to try to do a clean setup of Aroma and everything else on the FAT32 partition, and it finally worked! So, some Aroma configuration file or setting was definitely messing with the System Settings app locale.

Maybe someone with more knowledge on the subject could track down this bug, or it could be mentioned in a guide. I'm not entirely sure if this issue occurs only with RedNAND setups or it could happen with normal SysNAND as well.
 
Last edited by pankos,

Site & Scene News

Go to forum More news

Popular threads in this forum

Strange Blue Blinking Wii U

Hacking Homebrew Project  Modernized YouTube for Wii U

Feedback  Community Overclock Stats: A5X vs B1X Motherboards

Wii Games Performance on Wii U (vWii C2W Overclock) – Community Testing & Results Sharing

Gaming Homebrew Misc Project  Roséverse - a 1:1 Miiverse revival by Project Rosé!

Can the Wii u pro controller works for Wii games ?

[discussion] Paper Mario Wii U or Mario Kart 64 wii u?

My dad's Wii U cannot install Aroma. HELP!!