Misc Changing the Wii U Region (not just changing the language!)

[1vb]

Like the 3DS, the Wii U now has a way to change its region, however it requires you to be REALLY careful and know what you are doing.

(And unlike the 3DS, region changing on the Wii U is much harder - and with (irreversible) brick risks coming with it.)

I currently am waiting for my RP2040 board to arrive, so I can try this method out for myself. It should arrive in a few days.
If all works, I'll write a more in-depth guide about what to do, before and after the region change.

This guide was written by Lazr/Ivy, and I am not affiliated with her or her written guide.

Link to the guide: lazr1026.github.io/regionchange

 

[Ettino]

Why would anyone want this when Aroma lets you play Wii U games from anywhere already? Brick free to add. But hey, you do you!

 

[1vb]

Mostly for Japanese consoles where switching the language files doesn't 100% translate all the errors, pop-ups and other untranslatable parts related (Mii Maker is an example).

 

[Lazr1026]

no way its my guide

 

[Ysecond]

no way its my guide

Encounter a master, let's take a photo together.

 

[fringle]

Like the 3DS, the Wii U now has a way to change its region, however it requires you to be REALLY careful and know what you are doing.

(And unlike the 3DS, region changing on the Wii U is much harder - and with (irreversible) brick risks coming with it.)

I currently am waiting for my RP2040 board to arrive, so I can try this method out for myself. It should arrive in a few days.
If all works, I'll write a more in-depth guide about what to do, before and after the region change.

This guide was written by Lazr/Ivy, and I am not affiliated with her or her written guide.

Link to the guide: lazr1026.github.io/regionchange

Did you happen to try this yet? Just curious as I have found a Japanese WiiU console locally that I can buy for 30 dollars and eager to pick it up. And bricking is a risk I can handle for 30 dollars. The guy has 3 of them so can always get another if the first one bricks.

 

[1vb]

Did you happen to try this yet? Just curious as I have found a Japanese WiiU console locally that I can buy for 30 dollars and eager to pick it up. And bricking is a risk I can handle for 30 dollars. The guy has 3 of them so can always get another if the first one bricks.

Yes, actually!

 

[fringle]

Yes, actually!View attachment 382628

Slick. Will probably give this a try on the weekend when I get access to a device that can run UDPIH.

 

[fringle]

Just wanted to say thanks again for the guide. It worked perfectly. Used my kids unpatched switch to run Udpih and followed everything exactly. Thank you Lazr1026 for your easy to follow instructions.

​

 

[lufeig]

I have a japanese Wii U with a japanese gamepad.

I want to change it's region to USA and I don't have a USA gamepad.

Following @Lazr1026 guide, I should install Aroma after what step, exactly? I'm afraid of changing the region and not being able to pair the gamepad.

 

[1vb]

I have a japanese Wii U with a japanese gamepad.

I want to change it's region to USA and I don't have a USA gamepad.

Following @Lazr1026 guide, I should install Aroma after what step, exactly? I'm afraid of changing the region and not being able to pair the gamepad.

after you have installed the new system menu, use udpih to reconnect your gamepad, that seems to be the better way for now

 

[lufeig]

after you have installed the new system menu, use udpih to reconnect your gamepad, that seems to be the better way for now

thank you very much, I'll try it. I thought the pair gamepad option would work only for the recovery menu.

well, if anything goes wrong, I'll have some soldering to do to restore my nand backup.

Post automatically merged: Jul 15, 2023

so I followed all steps from the guide, now I receive a message that the gamepad has to be updated, but then there's an error code 165-9901 stating that it's not possible to update a wii u gamepad manufactured for a different region, and I have to reboot the console.

it boots and then I receive the same update message and error.

is there a way to bypass this message and continue to hack the console again?

EDIT: ok, so I paired a wiimote and I'm finishing settings with the gamepad turned off.

 

[fringle]

thank you very much, I'll try it. I thought the pair gamepad option would work only for the recovery menu.

well, if anything goes wrong, I'll have some soldering to do to restore my nand backup.

Post automatically merged: Jul 15, 2023

so I followed all steps from the guide, now I receive a message that the gamepad has to be updated, but then there's an error code 165-9901 stating that it's not possible to update a wii u gamepad manufactured for a different region, and I have to reboot the console.

it boots and then I receive the same update message and error.

is there a way to bypass this message and continue to hack the console again?

EDIT: ok, so I paired a wiimote and I'm finishing settings with the gamepad turned off.

Just as a side note, your vWii will still be Japanese. You can change it by editing the settings.txt file(there is a guide on here somewhere but having trouble finding it at the moment.) You can also use decaf for vwii but I was having issues making that work and ended up bricking my vwii. Was able to get it back with vwii restorer though and then switch the region with the settings.txt edit.

If you install tiramisu afterwards your only option will be to the Japanese health and safety app and that will stop you from enabling autobooting. At least it did for me. So I would suggest using the browser exploit to load tiramisu first and using that to get in to homebrew so you can delete the Japanese apps. Just be careful not to delete anything else but what is listed in the region free guide. Once you remove the Japanese apps you can inject to the USA health and safety menu and use autobooting. This is at least what I had to do.

Didn't have any of the other issues since my gamepad is a US version.

EDIT:
Just don't forget to do a full nand backup before deleting anything in case something goes terribly wrong.

 

[lufeig]

so my wii u is bricked after deleting the japanese titles from lazr1026's guide. after trying to boot and waiting some time, I get a 160-0101 error.

I'm not at home with my tools right now, so I'll try to recover it later.

 

[fringle]

so my wii u is bricked after deleting the japanese titles from lazr1026's guide. after trying to boot and waiting some time, I get a 160-0101 error.

I'm not at home with my tools right now, so I'll try to recover it later.

It sounds like you accidentally deleted something you shouldn't have. I was able to delete all the titles and not brick. You may need to hard wire a programmer to flash the nand back to a working state with your backup. You should start a new thread with that problem and someone with more knowledge than myself would see it and be able to offer some help. I just recently got back into tinkering with the Wii U after not having one for quite a few years so I'm not fully up to date on all of the recent developments.

 

[lufeig]

It sounds like you accidentally deleted something you shouldn't have. I was able to delete all the titles and not brick. You may need to hard wire a programmer to flash the nand back to a working state with your backup. You should start a new thread with that problem and someone with more knowledge than myself would see it and be able to offer some help. I just recently got back into tinkering with the Wii U after not having one for quite a few years so I'm not fully up to date on all of the recent developments.

thanks for the help, my friend

first I'll try to recover it by downloading the encrypted titles of the USA firmware and write them using the recovery_menu. if it doesn't work, I'll do the same for the JAP titles I deleted. if it still doesn't boot, I'll unbrick it using the teensy mod. I already have it, just like the nand backup.

I'll report here later. thank you!

Post automatically merged: Jul 16, 2023

UPDATE: I managed to unbrick it by downloading the encrypted USA Wii U Menu, Title ID 00050010-10040100, using JNUSTool command "java -jar JNUSTool.jar 0005001010040100 -dlEncrypted", saving it to "install" folder on sd root.

then I installed it using UDPIH recovery menu and Install WUP option. reboot. profit!

thank you very very much everybody!

Post automatically merged: Jul 16, 2023

EDIT: it seems I celebrated too early. lots of titles are missing. on the home menu I have only the following channels:

WII U Chat
Daily Log
Mii Maker
Parental Control
Settings

it's missing disc channel, health and safety information, amiibo, vwii and many others.

I posted a dedicated thread asking for specific help to restore the stock channels, since my problem is offtopic.

 

[lufeig]

UPDATE: everything is back and running, just like a stock 5.5.6U system.

I downloaded all the MLC and SLC titles of the USA firmware update using MLCRestorerDownloader and installed them one by one using UDPIH Install WUP option.

 

[PCR25]

no way its my guide

Hey how's it going! My name is Pablo and I really need your help to answer some questions, in the past I translated my Japanese wiiu into my language, and during the FTP process my internet went down, and my Japanese settings were corrupted and I lost full access to it, so at that time At the time, I had an idea to install the American configurations through NUSspli and it worked again, remembering that I have all the duplicate wups from the Japanese and American wiiU whenever I turn on the WiiU, it turns on the Amarican automatically, and when I enter the channel health and safety activates AROMA and the WiiU returns to Japanese automatically, I would like to know if I can format the WiiU using the American settings so that I can successfully change the region?, since I do not have access to the Japanese settings, in true, I changed the region without formatting, but it didn't work, but I didn't format it out of fear, because I don't have access to the Japanese settings which are corrupted, I can only format it using the American settings if I come to the format, my question is Next, can I format it using American settings?

 

[dannyFields]

Why would anyone want this when Aroma lets you play Wii U games from anywhere already? Brick free to add. But hey, you do you!

Please tell me I can still change the language using ftpiiu_everywhere with the english files..

 

[KelSolaar]

Habe anyone done this successfully on a PAL Wii U and changed region to NTSC?