Hacking Easiest way to back up .CIA saves?

[Nephiel]

I need some help with backing up .CIA saves so I don't lose all my game progress if something bad happens to the card or the console.

Right now I'm using:

• Regular New 3DS
• sysNAND 9.0
• emuNAND 9.5
• .3DS/.3DZ ROMs with private header

I wanted to switch some of those from 3DZ ROM to the legit CIA version.
Already managed to convert the saves following the savedatafiler tutorial.

Now, I like to make regular backups of all my saves. When using .3DS/.3DZ, that's simple enough: power off, take out the 3DS microSD, copy every .sav file from it to the computer. If something happens, I can restore any of these saves, as long as their ROMs still use my private header.

However, I can't figure out how to do the same with .CIA. So, my questions:

[1] I see games in .CIA format also create .sav files on the root of the console microSD card. Would it be enough to back up these .sav files, just like I was doing? (I'm guessing not, but I'm not sure)

[2] If not, according to the tutorial, I should use SaveDataFiler to extract saves from .CIA, but I'm not sure how. Which of the three tabs do I even start from? Where are the saves stored in the end?

[3] There is an option in the settings, under Data Management, to make a back up of the saves. How exactly does this work? Should I use this to make regular backups instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MichiS97]

Okay so the sav-files on the root of your µSD aren't of much use, since the games don't load these files. You can, however keep these sav-files anyway and use them as backups and convert them to the actual cia save files with the tutorial you linked to. The best way to backup your cia save files is with savedatafiler. You just need to choose the right tab, select the game's title ID and press Y. You can check the title ID of your CIA games on 3ds.essh.co, just enter the name of the game in the search box and the ID will be displayed alongside of it

 

[VerseHell]

Just use savedatafiler, the saves will be in the filer folder.

 

[Nephiel]

The right tab (SD) only shows the saves I exported from .3DS/.3DZ before while following the tutorial. I assume you mean the middle (Ext) tab?

So I go to the middle tab, and for every game save I want to back up, select its titleID, press Y, then A. When done, copy the entire "filer" folder from the microSD card to the computer. Right?

BTW, on the middle tab, on top of the games I have, I also see some titleIDs that don't seem to match any game:

00000098
00000220
00000227
00000228
00000229
0000022b
0000022d
000002ce

I guess I should just ignore those. But, any clue what they are?

Thanks again.

 

[VerseHell]

No. To extract your saves go to the first tab (except for Fantasy Life save which is on the second one), to backup them just copy the filer folder from your sd card to your pc. To restore them go to the sdf third tab.

 

[MichiS97]

The right tab (SD) only shows the saves I exported from .3DS/.3DZ before while following the tutorial. I assume you mean the middle (Ext) tab?

So I go to the middle tab, and for every game save I want to back up, select its titleID, press Y, then A. When done, copy the entire "filer" folder from the microSD card to the computer. Right?

BTW, on the middle tab, on top of the games I have, I also see some titleIDs that don't seem to match any game:

00000098
00000220
00000227
00000228
00000229
0000022b
0000022d
000002ce

I guess I should just ignore those. But, any clue what they are?

Thanks again.

I meant the left tab, sorry

 

[Nephiel]

Alright, I think I got it, thanks.

As for those title IDs, they turned out to be the stock apps that come preinstalled such as the Camera, Mii Plaza, AR Games... I found their IDs listed here.

BTW, I wondered if there was a way to clear or wipe the Activity Log using SaveDataFiler, but the log's title ID (00000222) is not shown.