Hacking Accidental Formatted SD - Can saves be reobtained with old nand backup and the Nintendo 3ds folder?

[Muxles]

I accidentally formatted my 3ds's flash card a couple weeks ago and as a dork before messing around I of course was too lazy to copy everything off the micro sd as I didn't want to do it over slow network or get a screw driver. My fault, lazy.

I do have the old nand backup I did right before I was messing with it and the Nintendo 3DS folder and it's content with the 0000001.sav files. Is there any way to still use these? I tried just copying them over but it says that save isn't initialized and then performs initialization.

It's the same n3ds with luma3ds and I restored the old NAND backup before I messed with it. I know it's a long shot but figured someone here might know the answers. I'd really love to get my bravely second, bravely default and pokemon saves back. I did a search but couldn't find anything that matched my question.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Quantumcat]

If the NAND backup matches the Nintendo 3DS folder then the saves will work, if it doesn't, they won't. If you already restored the NAND backup and the folder and it didn't work, then it looks like you formatted the console sometime between when you made the NAND backup and backed up the Nintendo 3DS folder, so you won't be able to get the saves back.

 

[Muxles]

It was done right before the format. Only other time it was formatted was when I did cfw on the then new console but NAND was restored during the installation process then.

Am I missing a step? Do the .sav files in those folders not correspond to save files?

 

[Quantumcat]

It was done right before the format. Only other time it was formatted was when I did cfw on the then new console but NAND was restored during the installation process then.

Am I missing a step? Do the .sav files in those folders not correspond to save files?

Is the Nintendo 3DS folder you have from before your format or after? If before it should work, if after it won't. The console uses encryption on game installs and save data, and that encryption changes when you format. So the folder and the NAND backup have to be from the same time (can't be a format between them). Hope that makes sense.

 

[Muxles]

From before. I even tried one folder from when I first put cfw on it and that worked perfectly. Just this latest set wants to be a butt. I had them decrypted but didn't think the SD was going to be formatted. I do understand the encryption parts.

Only thing I can think of is all I have are the files without the app content included. So the titledb and 000001.sav and the like are included. But that should be the important bits ya? I reinstalled the game and put the files over and the names all match up but just says no data.

Edit: I had it all but it was too much on my ssd in my laptop so I thought I kept the important bits.

 

[Quantumcat]

From before. I even tried one folder from when I first put cfw on it and that worked perfectly. Just this latest set wants to be a butt. I had them decrypted but didn't think the SD was going to be formatted. I do understand the encryption parts.

Only thing I can think of is all I have are the files without the app content included. So the titledb and 000001.sav and the like are included. But that should be the important bits ya? I reinstalled the game and put the files over and the names all match up but just says no data.

Edit: I had it all but it was too much on my ssd in my laptop so I thought I kept the important bits.

You really need the whole folder (or at least the one inside the Nintendo 3DS folder that corresponds to the current NAND) or to have decrypted/exported them already with JKSM.
Edit: I could be wrong so don't throw away the files

 

[jimmyj]

.cias don't use .sav I'm not sure if you are trying to say a gateway or something

 

[Quantumcat]

.cias don't use .sav I'm not sure if you are trying to say a gateway or something

They do. Inside the Nintendo 3DS folder, in the 2 folders with random characters, in folders for each game.

 

[jimmyj]

They do. Inside the Nintendo 3DS folder, in the 2 folders with random characters, in folders for each game.

oh,sorry I had no idea

 

[Muxles]

I did have them in jksm and checkpoint but I didn't copy them over. Wasn't trying to format the sd so didn't think it would be a big deal.

The folder 32bit character hash names match up perfectly still. I can't recover the full contents either as the ssd wiped them when I deleted them to get some free space back.

Not one of the saves work. But same style folders from when I just got the 3ds worked. So I don't know and have run out of ideas. I did however recover my bravely default save from last years save files. So one down just 4 to go (Bravely Second, Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Omega Ruby, Pokemon X)

I wonder how the saves are encrypted, are they the same key for all saves or different per game? Has anyone been able to brute force them successfully?

 

[Deleted User]

I did have them in jksm and checkpoint but I didn't copy them over. Wasn't trying to format the sd so didn't think it would be a big deal.

The folder 32bit character hash names match up perfectly still. I can't recover the full contents either as the ssd wiped them when I deleted them to get some free space back.

Not one of the saves work. But same style folders from when I just got the 3ds worked. So I don't know and have run out of ideas. I did however recover my bravely default save from last years save files. So one down just 4 to go (Bravely Second, Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Omega Ruby, Pokemon X)

I wonder how the saves are encrypted, are they the same key for all saves or different per game? Has anyone been able to brute force them successfully?

you can brute force them
but it will take forever
don't try to unless you have alot of time

 

[Muxles]

Yeah figured, just put it out there.

Anyone else have an idea?

 

[Majickhat55]

If you don't have the complete "N3DS" folder, than you're not going to be able to retrieve your saves the ticket and the 00001.sav is not the full information the console needs to read a save file. If you don't have the "content" folder along with the .cmd and .app data it can't read the save file period.

The only way to get them back is to recover the entire "Nintendo 3DS" folder or try something like 3DsaveTool....

 

[Muxles]

Thank you Majickhat55, I think I did try it with all content before i deleted it but I could be wrong. Darn that sucks. Thanks for all of your help, you too QuantumCat!

However if anyone else has ideas I'm willing to try them.