Tutorial  Updated

How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading + What Games Work/Don't

This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.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  • Supported Firmware information is out of date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

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Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!


    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.

    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.
 
Last edited by PRAGMA,

SG911

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Being able to play these games via LayeredFS is great! Now just need to figure out to update these games & or install DLC. Updates at least without getting some thing about being corrupted.
 

Zumoly

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i was just pointing it out since @PeterGemp wanted to know

i needed it originally to to use that to find the title key and patch the game

edit - yea you need the title key to decrypt, which is linked to the Rights ID


Did you know that using the wrong title key will always tell you that section 0 is corrupt but will still extract the romfs.bin?
 
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SG911

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Did you know that using the wrong title key will always tell you that section 0 is corrupt but will still extract the romfs.bin?

Good to know! I was trying to update my kirby star allies & kept getting that & i think section 1 as well or something else dealing with "1" I'm gonna have to try again tho now that i know that.


EDIT: How do i get the titlekey? Trying to use that extract update nca.bat thing & it asks for one.
 
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PeterGemp

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i was just pointing it out since @PeterGemp wanted to know

i needed it originally to to use that to find the title key and patch the game

edit - yea you need the title key to decrypt, which is linked to the Rights ID

Just to make sure, am I able to get the titlekey (or the *.tik for that matter) via RightsID or can I only get it by using an (my personal) sdseed?
Titlekeys are kinda hard to come by if you don't own them or find an very outdated titleid-titleykey-list via google...
I'm sure that a new site for switch will be established very soon (cf. wiiu or 3ds). But for now, I can't find a good source. For scientific purposes, of course.
 
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HoTsHoTz79

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Did you know that using the wrong title key will always tell you that section 0 is corrupt but will still extract the romfs.bin?

That is correct, did a lot of testing for Xenoblade 2 update and can confirm that

i tested if i change the titlekey (random) and it fails;
Error: section 0 is corrupted!
Using random Titlekey = Error: section 0 is corrupted!
Using provided Titlekey = No Error

more details here;
https://gbatemp.net/threads/manually-updating-romfs-bin-for-backups.509834/page-6

Good to know! I was trying to update my kirby star allies & kept getting that & i think section 1 as well or something else dealing with "1" I'm gonna have to try again tho now that i know that.

EDIT: How do i get the titlekey? Trying to use that extract update nca.bat thing & it asks for one.

i just posted that on prev page, so copy pasting; (manual method)
jFYI; if you want the Title ID or Right ID
hactool.exe -k keys.ini "filename.nca"

Doesn't mater what error you get at the bottom... just scroll up and find Title ID / Rights ID

Something
Something

Title ID: 0100e95004038000
SDK Version: 3.5.0.0
Distribution type: Download
Content Type: Program
Master Key Revision: 3 (4.0.0-4.1.0)
Encryption Type: Titlekey crypto
Rights ID: 0100E950040388000000000000000004
Something
Something
Something
Something

Just to make sure, am I able to get the titlekey (or the *.tik for that matter) via RightsID or can I only get it by using an (my personal) sdseed?
Titlekeys are kinda hard to come by if you don't own them or find an very outdated titleid-titleykey-list via google...
I'm sure that a new site for switch will be established very soon (cf. wiiu or 3ds). But for now, I can't find a good source. For scientific purposes, of course.

All i can say is that when i was testing earlier to apply update for Xenoblade... i fouind a list of titlekeys that had just over thousand records
for my testing purposes, i was able ot find all the Right ID + Titlekey for xenoblade update and dlcs

----------------------

Before anyone asks about DLC... here are my findings for that;

Section Partition Type must match!

Voice Pack DLC = Only has Section 0 and Partition type is "RomFS"
Xenoblade 13GB .nca = Section 0 is ExeFS and Section 1 is Partition type of "RomFS"

Therefore mismatch! Hactool results in RomFS.bin from Voice Pack (under 1 GB file size) and not combined/merged from original base .nca file

Update file for Xenoblade has Section 1 as Partition type of "Patch RomFS"
and so it works
(another user got Zelda update to work as well)
 
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D

Deleted-188346

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Quick question, when using Pokemon as a doner title, should it be installed to the Switch internal storage or the micro SD?

For some reason my Pokemon install was corrupted and showed as 0mb in the system settings. I don't want to risk a ban, so I'm doing a full NAND restore before I go back online to try and grab another copy of it .
 

HoTsHoTz79

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Quick question, when using Pokemon as a doner title, should it be installed to the Switch internal storage or the micro SD?

For some reason my Pokemon install was corrupted and showed as 0mb in the system settings. I don't want to risk a ban, so I'm doing a full NAND restore before I go back online to try and grab another copy of it .

if you are planning to NAND restore then go eshop to download Pokemon Quest... wouldn't it just directly to your internal storage? i mean you dont get a option to download to SD Card (unless i missed something?)
 
D

Deleted-188346

Guest
if you are planning to NAND restore then go eshop to download Pokemon Quest... wouldn't it just directly to your internal storage? i mean you dont get a option to download to SD Card (unless i missed something?)
I downloaded it while the SD card was in the Switch, which sent it to the SD card.

When I bought games on my legit Switch I swear it would send downloaded game data to the SD if it was inserted at the time of the download starting. I could be wrong though, never paid much attention to it.

Edit: I looked it up, and this is indeed what the Switch does. If an SD is inserted, digital games will be sent to the SD.

2nd edit: I fixed my issue. My Pokemon Quest download was indeed downloaded to my SD card. Not sure what corrupted it. Doing a full NAND restore and then removing my SD card when installing Pokemon Quest forced it to download to the internal storage (which is highly unlikely to corrupt obviously).
 
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Deleted member 451920

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I downloaded it while the SD card was in the Switch, which sent it to the SD card.

When I bought games on my legit Switch I swear it would send downloaded game data to the SD if it was inserted at the time of the download starting. I could be wrong though, never paid much attention to it.

Edit: I looked it up, and this is indeed what the Switch does. If an SD is inserted, digital games will be sent to the SD.

2nd edit: I fixed my issue. My Pokemon Quest download was indeed downloaded to my SD card. Not sure what corrupted it. Doing a full NAND restore and then removing my SD card when installing Pokemon Quest forced it to download to the internal storage (which is highly unlikely to corrupt obviously).

ahhhh, yes, never i repeat NEVER INSTALL DONORS TO YOUR SD CARD, saves wont work and it will crash more often - this is to all who dont know
 

Icrolex2

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And did it worked ? (i don't think)

This database is outdated. Xenoblade is showed as not working while it is.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Can someone help me? no matter what i do i can't make Xenoblade run with octopath demo with XCI2TitleConverter

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And did it worked ? (i don't think)

This database is outdated. Xenoblade is showed as not working while it is.

Bow did you manage to make Xenoblade work?
 
D

Deleted-188346

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ahhhh, yes, never i repeat NEVER INSTALL DONORS TO YOUR SD CARD, saves wont work and it will crash more often - this is to all who dont know
Yep, I learned my lesson! Was a massive pain to have to do a full NAND backup, try and figure out what the issue was, and then restore the NAND backup in a single night. To the people of the future, take out your SD before installing games that are intended to be donors. The NAND is a much safer place for these titles to live.
 
D

Deleted User

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Has anyone else been having issues ever since updating to SDFiles v5? everything seems to be crashing.

Edit: Seem to have gotten a little SD corruption with the modules folder :unsure: scanning and repairing seems to have fixed it for now. Weird how it happened after I used the updater.
 
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Nightopian

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Battle Chasers: Night war
Donor that didn't work: Fallout, Fortnite, Kitten squad (Cannot create save at the beginning, so you can't move into the game )
Donor that work: happy birthdays demo
 

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