ROM Hack Where are game updates stored when downloaded "via the internet"?

Winklepicker · Apr 18, 2019

Hi guys

I have trouble sometimes finding the most recent updates for the games I have on my switch, so I have to download the updates via the "software update" tab and select "via the internet" on the switch home screen.

I would just like where the actual "updates" for the games are stored on my switch?
as I would like to extract the update from the switch console and move it over to my pc to make a backup of the most up to date patch etc.

If anyone knows please let me know, would be highly appreciated. where is the location? and how would I go about finding it?
Is it even possible to move the update file from the switch game to my pc?

thanks

DocKlokMan · Apr 18, 2019

If you have an SD card inserted the update is installed (encrypted) to the Nintendo folder on your SD card. If you don't have an SD card it's installed (unencrypted) to your NAND user partition..

Winklepicker · Apr 18, 2019

AnalogMan said:
If you have an SD card inserted the update is installed (encrypted) to the Nintendo folder on your SD card. If you don't have an SD card it's installed (unencrypted) to your NAND user partition..

Thanks for the reply, I have an SD card inserted.

So is it possible to grab it from the "Nintendo" folder on the SD card, and copy it over to my pc for future backup? what is the difference between encrypted and unencrypted?

Sorry if its a noob question, still trying to find out as much info as I can about the switch scene.

templeofhylia · Apr 18, 2019

Winklepicker said:
Thanks for the reply, I have an SD card inserted.

So is it possible to grab it from the "Nintendo" folder on the SD card, and copy it over to my pc for future backup? what is the difference between encrypted and unencrypted?

Sorry if its a noob question, still trying to find out as much info as I can about the switch scene.

you can make a backup of the whole "Nintendo" folder to somewhere on your computer, and then restore it to the same SD card (or a different one if needed) in the future to access the same data.

encrypted data is...encrypted. the data is "locked and hidden" to prevent unauthorized access. it can't be "understood" or utilized in any useful way because of the layer of encryption, which means it needs to be decrypted first if you want to access any internal game files on a computer application, which of course requires the necessary keys. the switch will decrypt data from the SD card using these keys in order to actually boot it, whereas data installed on the switch's internal memory (NAND) can be booted as is because it is not encrypted.

unencrypted data is the data in its "truest" form and can be understood and utilized the way it is because there is no layer of encryption to obfuscate and protect the data.

i hope that makes sense, and if not i'd be happy to provide a more specific example.

Winklepicker · Apr 18, 2019

templeofhylia said:
you can make a backup of the whole "Nintendo" folder to somewhere on your computer, and then restore it to the same SD card (or a different one if needed) in the future to access the same data.

encrypted data is...encrypted. the data is "locked and hidden" to prevent unauthorized access. it can't be "understood" or utilized in any useful way because of the layer of encryption, which means it needs to be decrypted first if you want to access any internal game files on a computer application, which of course requires the necessary keys. the switch will decrypt data from the SD card using these keys in order to actually boot it, whereas data installed on the switch's internal memory (NAND) can be booted as is because it is not encrypted.

unencrypted data is the data in its "truest" form and can be understood and utilized the way it is because there is no layer of encryption to obfuscate and protect the data.

i hope that makes sense, and if not i'd be happy to provide a more specific example.

Thank you very much for the explanation, I appreciate any help. Makes it more clear for me.

I looked in the "Nintendo" folder on the switch, it looks like this "Nintendo\Contents\registered" and then inside "registered" folder there is many other numbered folders with files called "00" in them.
Are these the updates for the games? if so what can i use to decrypt these files? which application?

Just want to make them usable under "switch backup manager" tool? is that the correct tool to use? so I can see which update version they are. Ideally want to extract the "newest updates" and install it into the game file using nsp builder.

templeofhylia · Apr 18, 2019

Winklepicker said:
Thank you very much for the explanation, I appreciate any help. Makes it more clear for me.

I looked in the "Nintendo" folder on the switch, it looks like this "Nintendo\Contents\registered" and then inside "registered" folder there is many other numbered folders with files called "00" in them.
Are these the updates for the games? if so what can i use to decrypt these files? which application?

Just want to make them usable under "switch backup manager" tool? is that the correct tool to use? so I can see which update version they are. Ideally want to extract the "newest updates" and install it into the game file using nsp builder.

yes, those folders make up the data installed on the SD card. i believe data installed to the SD card is split up across different directories however, for example when i installed disgaea 1 on my friend's totally blank SD card, it created the Nintendo\Contents\registered directory with 4 folders inside. i personally do not know how to discern which folders make up which data.

however, for what you wish to do, which is determine the update data version and merge it with the game data, you actually don't need to worry about discerning which folders belong to the data and decrypting it yourself, since the process can be automated using SDtool to dump data installed on your SD card to the NSP format, and then using NSCbuilder to determine the version of the file by using FILE-INFO mode and then choosing to display GAME-INFO. i think SDtool renames the file to have the version number in the name in the format of vXXXXXX, but NSCbuilder will provide that number as well as the build number, which is more likely the number you're after. this process will make it compatible with applications such as the switch backup manager or data exploration programs such as XCI explorer. you can also use NSCbuilder to merge the update with the game data, and pack the final result as another NSP file containing the update data as well as the base game that can be installed on your console.

as i mentioned though, decryption requires keys. you may already have a dump of the required keys in the format of keys.txt/keys.dat/prod.keys, which are all the same file just renamed differently. links to these keys or the keys themselves can't be shared on GBAtemp, but you can acquire them yourself by using lockpick_RCM.

don't hesitate to PM for more help!

Winklepicker · Apr 19, 2019

Thanks for the info, really appreciate it.

ATM I am trying to get the keys, but I cant seem to get "Lockpick RCM" to get the keys for me, as I'm using "sx os".

I read somewhere "lockpick RCM" dosent work or is not compatible with "SX OS" not entirely sure if thats true or not?

i had a look at SDtool, it looks like there is alot of things to do first to get it working, in the "readme". Says I need to get the keys first which I'm having trouble with.

templeofhylia · Apr 19, 2019

Winklepicker said:
Thanks for the info, really appreciate it.

ATM I am trying to get the keys, but I cant seem to get "Lockpick RCM" to get the keys for me, as I'm using "sx os".

I read somewhere "lockpick RCM" dosent work or is not compatible with "SX OS" not entirely sure if thats true or not?

i had a look at SDtool, it looks like there is alot of things to do first to get it working, in the "readme". Says I need to get the keys first which I'm having trouble with.

no worries, glad to help.

i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶e̶.̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶i̶n̶l̶o̶a̶d̶ ̶L̶o̶c̶k̶p̶i̶c̶k̶_̶R̶C̶M̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶S̶X̶ ̶O̶S̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶d̶i̶r̶e̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶T̶e̶g̶r̶a̶R̶C̶M̶G̶U̶I̶ ̶(̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶e̶q̶u̶i̶v̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶)̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶.̶
EDIT: i just tested chainloading Lockpick_RCM through the latest beta SX OS (v2.6.2) and i did not run into any problems dumping the keys. if you are on firmware 7.0/7.0.1, you will need to put the sept folder (and only the sept folder, unless you plan to utilize Atmosphere) from the latest Atmosphere release (the .zip file, fusee-primary.bin can be ignored) onto the root of your SD card. i can't provide a link to the latest SX OS due to copyrighted keys being displayed within the data in plaintext, but i trust you know where to get it. try booting Lockpick_RCM directly without chainloading using TegraRCMGUI (or your operating system's equivalent of it) if for some reason you still can't dump the keys, but make sure you still have the sept folder on your SD card.

SDtool does require some setup, yes. it's fairly simple though.

Winklepicker · Apr 24, 2019

templeofhylia said:
no worries, glad to help.

i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶e̶.̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶i̶n̶l̶o̶a̶d̶ ̶L̶o̶c̶k̶p̶i̶c̶k̶_̶R̶C̶M̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶S̶X̶ ̶O̶S̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶d̶i̶r̶e̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶T̶e̶g̶r̶a̶R̶C̶M̶G̶U̶I̶ ̶(̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶e̶q̶u̶i̶v̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶)̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶.̶
EDIT: i just tested chainloading Lockpick_RCM through the latest beta SX OS (v2.6.2) and i did not run into any problems dumping the keys. if you are on firmware 7.0/7.0.1, you will need to put the sept folder (and only the sept folder, unless you plan to utilize Atmosphere) from the latest Atmosphere release (the .zip file, fusee-primary.bin can be ignored) onto the root of your SD card. i can't provide a link to the latest SX OS due to copyrighted keys being displayed within the data in plaintext, but i trust you know where to get it. try booting Lockpick_RCM directly without chainloading using TegraRCMGUI (or your operating system's equivalent of it) if for some reason you still can't dump the keys, but make sure you still have the sept folder on your SD card.

SDtool does require some setup, yes. it's fairly simple though.

Thanks very much for the info, its really been very useful to me.

I've sucessfully managed to get the keys dumped with the TegraRCMGUI

Next step for me is to get the SDtool working so I can extract the update files. Will report how that goes.

Thanks very much

ROM Hack Where are game updates stored when downloaded "via the internet"?

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