Can I recover saves with just an sd card backup of a lost console?

Modular511

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Hello! I am trying to help out a friend, He recently lost his console - but it turns out that he still has an sd card backup from when he upgraded sd cards recently, he got a new console - is there any chance i could pull the saves from the folder he dumped the sd card to?? would love to save them for him potentially! :)
 

lone_wolf323

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Hello! I am trying to help out a friend, He recently lost his console - but it turns out that he still has an sd card backup from when he upgraded sd cards recently, he got a new console - is there any chance i could pull the saves from the folder he dumped the sd card to?? would love to save them for him potentially! :)
did he have cfw on the console?
 

Modular511

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did he have cfw on the console?
yeah i got essential.exefs too, I just learned that I can use that to restore the sd card to another similar console, is that the only route? or is there a way to just decrypt it all and then pull the saves desired and move it along? lol
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If those saves are decrypted then you can use them.
I got essential.exefs. mainly wondering if their are ways to decrypt saves on pc IG
 

Ryccardo

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I got essential.exefs
Good (if it's indeed from the same console that wasn't factory restored or screwed with in similar ways in the meanwhile), you can extract the movable.sed and use that to mount the .sav's in the various subfolders of "Nintendo 3DS" and get saves in extracted format, it's tedious but certainly possible

All with fuse-3ds :)
 
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Modular511

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Good (if it's indeed from the same console that wasn't factory restored or screwed with in similar ways in the meanwhile), you can extract the movable.sed and use that to mount the .sav's in the various subfolders of "Nintendo 3DS" and get saves in extracted format, it's tedious but certainly possible

All with fuse-3ds :)
yup! i verified! there is a full sd card backup here from helping upgrade sd cards lol It was just a modded n3dsxl - any tutorials on going about that? does the program have a gui? lol
 

Modular511

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Haven't used it in many years (ha, least remarkable games and modding scene, lots of utilities but no interesting programs like on DS/Wii/PSP) but it either has one or a third party frontend, that I'm sure :)
I got the save pulled out with ninfs, But it doesnt seem to work, qq its also 1mb vs 472kb like it should be :(
 

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Kwyjor

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All with fuse-3ds
fuse-3ds changed its name to ninfs years ago. And while it still has its uses, threeSD is considerably more straightforward.

any tutorials on going about that?
Did Google not direct you to https://gbatemp.net/threads/restore-save-data-from-dead-3ds-2ds.606907/ ? There should be links to it everwhere now. (Be sure to read the first few posts in the thread.)

I got the save pulled out with ninfs, But it doesnt seem to work, qq its also 1mb vs 472kb like it should be
If you use ninfs you have to use 3ds-save-tool afterwards to get usable data. That's why threeSD is preferable.
 
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Modular511

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fuse-3ds changed its name to ninfs years ago. And while it still has its uses, threeSD is considerably more straightforward.

Did Google not direct you to https://gbatemp.net/threads/restore-save-data-from-dead-3ds-2ds.606907/ ? There should be links to it everwhere now. (Be sure to read the first few posts in the thread.)

If you use ninfs you have to use 3ds-save-tool afterwards to get usable data. That's why threeSD is preferable.
1709251826338.png



I got the save but its a wierd size and doesnt open in save tools or restore with checkpoint, any ideas? saves in the rar in the post above yours if your curious in looking, ninfs worked quite well for accessing the saves
 

lone_wolf323

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View attachment 423066


I got the save but its a wierd size and doesnt open in save tools or restore with checkpoint, any ideas? saves in the rar in the post above yours if your curious in looking, ninfs worked quite well for accessing the saves
that looks like a encrypted save file. May I ask what game the save file is for that you are after?
 

Modular511

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that looks like a encrypted save file. May I ask what game the save file is for that you are after?
the same as the above title id, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (usa) - does ninfs just decrypt the nintendo 3ds folder and you have to use something else to decrypt the save once its accessible in that mess?
 

Kwyjor

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I got the save but its a wierd size and doesnt open in save tools or restore with checkpoint, any ideas?
Did you bother reading my post at all..? :sad: If you want to do anything with that file, you will have to use 3ds-save-tool. If you use threeSD instead of ninfs, you will get the correct file right away.
 

Modular511

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Did you bother reading my post at all..? :sad: If you want to do anything with that file, you will have to use 3ds-save-tool. If you use threeSD instead of ninfs, you will get the correct file right away.
Sorry been a long day, I don't mean to be annoying, Just not fully used to here despite being a member so long! I really appreciate the help! It would seem that ThreeSD wants it to be on an sd card if I am understanding how it works, Got it installed and am looking at it, I sadly only have a folder with a backup of everything, not the actual sd card - that was lost with the console
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1709255999098.png



Says this when I try and point to a folder to pull saves.
 

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Modular511

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Why don't you try looking at it first, see what you can figure out, and then post..?
Does the screenshot above not indicate I am doing just that? - It seems the tool only works with sd cards and not folders, Unless I am missing something?

https://github.com/zhaowenlan1779/threeSD/wiki/Quickstart-Guide

The documentation even specifically only mentions sd cards? (not folders with the contents of them)

(that tool doesnt work with anything but sd cards)

3ds-save-tool was the savior like I was originally told it seems!
 
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Kwyjor

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It seems the tool only works with sd cards and not folders
It doesn't require an SD card any more than ninfs does! Files stored on an SD card are no different than files stored anywhere else.

If you read the first few posts in the thread I linked to, like I said, you would see how other people have addressed the "SDMC root" issue.
 

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