Hacking Gateway Downgrading

[Haymose]

I have successfully restored nand on Zelda XL as well as downgraded with emunand unlinked and eshop working. Awesome.

 

[Classicgamer]

Did you use another DS Mode flashcart or Gateway to apply cia? I only have an ak2i and it's blocked on 4.5... Would love to use it again.

I used gateway and bbb dev menu.

 

[purupuru]

I'll be interested to see if gateway will be able to pull off 4.X firmware downgrades for 2ds and n3ds when they've never had 4x firmware. There is no 4x firmware for those consoles. They'll have to make a CFW.

 

[kubago]

Really great guide to downgrade. Thanks for it!

Ok, but one question is still in my mind.
What if I downgrade and I will have the software update screen? (I have EU console)
Yes, according FAQ I can format my 3DS and I loose my link, so eshop in emuNAND will not work.
How can I make the eshop start working?

I just want a downgraded 3DS 4.5 with eshop working on 9.4 emuNAND and with no software update screen after 3DS boot.
Is it possible?

 

[Samwix]

unfortunately this is due you saved the game in higher version .. me also occurred thankfully have two 3ds one in 7.2 and 4.2 in another so everything working .

WHAT? So if I've saved a game on higher version than 4.x (5.1), I'll lost my save?

 

[Apache Thunder]

WHAT? So if I've saved a game on higher version than 4.x (5.1), I'll lost my save?

You don't lose it. You only lose the ability to use that save in gateway mode should you dump that game to rom file. Gateway mode isn't using the new save keys yet (despite it running on sysnand fw that supports it....Gateway being stupid.. )

Classic mode however uses the new encryption so your retail games WILL work properly on post 4.5 fw.

For example, if you saved a game while on 9.2 fw, it will still work in Classic mode when you use the new Gateway exploit. It's only when you try to dump the game and save and use it in Gateway mode is where you will have problems with your save.

Also, if you had 4.5 and you used Gateway to fool retail cartridges into booting. You saved your games using the old keys. Thus using Classic mode on 9.2 would result in their saves not working anymore. I guess this is one reason why Gateway provided the downgrade feature. Personally, I never owned a Gateway until a week ago and have been on 9.2 fw for a good 3 months now. So it's not an issue for me. I have little reason to downgrade. The only reason I did, was to format sysnand without unlinking NNID which I did successfully after downgrading to 4.2. So now I got my emunand unlinked but my friend code and NNID still work on it. I then just used my Alpha Sapphire game to update back to 7.2.

Why go back to 4.5? So the blue card will work again? Please! I plan to buy a DSTWO at some point and I haven't had a need to run DS games/homebrew in ages.

 

[0bvious]

It will not work.
Like you said, you where using emuNAND classic (and probably played these games without emuNAND at all), so it's using 6+ keys to encrypt the savegame.

now that you downgraded, the 4.x console doesn't know the 6.x key (even with emuNAND above 6), so your savegame can't be decrypted.


There's maybe a chance to convert it with Savedata filler?
I don't know if it deals with unencrypted data.

- restore your 9.x
- use savedata manager (illegal tool) to backup the save from your cartridge (I don't know if it will be unencrypted)
- downgrade
- restore save (to cartridge or to ROM).
I suggest playing from ROM. Dump your cartridge to ROM file, it's easier to backup .sav

use the Gateway savegame extraction tool to keep a backup of your current progress.

I understand the predicament. Can't find either of these tools you mention though. Any hints?

 

[Samwix]

You don't lose it. You only lose the ability to use that save in gateway mode should you dump that game to rom file. Gateway mode isn't using the new save keys yet (despite it running on sysnand fw that supports it....Gateway being stupid.. )

Classic mode however uses the new encryption so your retail games WILL work properly on post 4.5 fw.

For example, if you saved a game while on 9.2 fw, it will still work in Classic mode when you use the new Gateway exploit. It's only when you try to dump the game and save and use it in Gateway mode is where you will have problems with your save.

I didn't understand ^^'

 

[Arkansaw]

That's why we need a detailed breakdown of the various save scenarios, even I am getting a little confused o.o

I'm using a new system for gateway so it is not an immediate problem. But still I want to find out if I can play normal carts on the gateway 3ds

 

[Cyan]

I understand the predicament. Can't find either of these tools you mention though. Any hints?

I mentionned only one tool : Savedata filer. this is a Devkit tool, so you won't find any link here.

The other one is part of the gateway menu (keep L pressed when booting gateway, there's a menu to extract/inject saves to cartridge)

 

[Bakuryu42]

I downgraded successfully. from 9.2 to 4.2. Emunand is still linked as far as I can tell. Of coarse my goal was to format sysnand without unlinking NNID. Thus the reason I downgraded. Afterwords I then used Pokemon Alpha Sapphire to upgrade back to 7.2 and plan to use Super Smash Bros. 3DS to update to 8.x something. Not sure exactly what version that one updates me to, but it will be the latest available from a game card update.

The reason you don't really want to stay on 4.x fw is that if you played any retail games on 7.x+ fw then their saves will NOT work in classic mode nor in non-gateway mode (basically virgin 3DS without gateway exploit, though the game would just force you to update if you booted without using the gateway exploit).

The new Gateway Ultra 3.0/3.0.1 update still doesn't use the current save game encryption (however Classic Mode in the new update does use the new encryption), so once you dump your games (might effect mainly card2 games) the saves won't work in gateway mode. There's no way around this currently.

I got lucky in my case. There was a way to decrypt PowerSaves saves and I managed to decrypt mine and reimport it into my Pokemon Alpha Sapphire dump (dumped from my personal copy which was the same cart I used on PowerSaves) using SaveDataFiler, and now got my Pokemon save transferred into Gateway mode. The same I can do with Pokemon X once I get that out of the pawn shop.

I personally wouldn't recommend staying on 4.x firmware. It's really old and the only thing you lose by not being on it is the ability to run free CFW (which if you already own a Gateway, this is useless to you) and generating xorpads which requires a custom launcher.dat and currently no custom launcher.dat exists that works with the new ultra 3.x update. I genned xorpads to Pokemon Omega Ruby while I was still on 4.2, but have already updated back to 7.2 this morning. That's how fast I want to get off 4.2.

This doesn't really answer my questions (or maybe it does and I'm not understanding?)

I'm not dumping my physical cards I'll just pop them in if I want to play them, but I am worried about their saves, same with my Animal Crossing eshop game which as far as I know is not on my emunand right now just sysnand, but not on there technically because I didn't have room for both on my sd card.

Basically my goal/fear is to have the correct sysnand with all my saves working and an emunand with the latest firmware and all my gateway saves working. Is this possible.

Mainly why do I want to downgrade is probably the better questions. What am I getting out of it? I'm just worried right now that the saves I have on emunand will become useless which makes me fear playing anything right now in case I have to loose my progress.

 

[Vengenceonu]

Anyone else when downloading CIA's to emunand, they also now appear in system nand? (4.2). Every time I boot up the 3ds I see bb menu, saveFL and play inserted on my sysnand even though they can't open.

 

[Apache Thunder]

This doesn't really answer my questions (or maybe it does and I'm not understanding?)

I'm not dumping my physical cards I'll just pop them in if I want to play them, but I am worried about their saves, same with my Animal Crossing eshop game which as far as I know is not on my emunand right now just sysnand, but not on there technically because I didn't have room for both on my sd card.

Basically my goal/fear is to have the correct sysnand with all my saves working and an emunand with the latest firmware and all my gateway saves working. Is this possible.

Mainly why do I want to downgrade is probably the better questions. What am I getting out of it? I'm just worried right now that the saves I have on emunand will become useless which makes me fear playing anything right now in case I have to loose my progress.

Then you have nothing to worry about. You can only boot them in Classic Mode. Thus since Classic mode supports the new encryption they will still work. HOWEVER!

If you downgrade now, You will NOT be be able to play them anymore as they would report corrupted saves and force you to start a new game. If you saved them while on new firmware, DO NOT DOWNGRADE!

Hopefully that should be easier to understand.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Anyone else when downloading CIA's to emunand, they also now appear in system nand? (4.2). Every time I boot up the 3ds I see bb menu, saveFL and play inserted on my sysnand even though they can't open.

Format your sysnand, This will unlink your emunand from sysnand (be sure to have the SD card removed before you do this).

Afterwords, reinsert your SD card and it will generate a new folder for it's own apps. That means they are seperate now and you shouldn't be seeing anything from emunand showing up on sysnand anymore.

 

[Bakuryu42]

Then you have nothing to worry about. You can only boot them in Classic Mode. Thus since Classic mode supports the new encryption they will still work. HOWEVER!

If you downgrade now, You will NOT be be able to play them anymore as they would report corrupted saves and force you to start a new game. If you saved them while on new firmware, DO NOT DOWNGRADE!

Hopefully that should be easier to understand.

So basically I have no real reason to downgrade?

 

[Arkansaw]

This doesn't really answer my questions (or maybe it does and I'm not understanding?)

I'm not dumping my physical cards I'll just pop them in if I want to play them, but I am worried about their saves, same with my Animal Crossing eshop game which as far as I know is not on my emunand right now just sysnand, but not on there technically because I didn't have room for both on my sd card.

Basically my goal/fear is to have the correct sysnand with all my saves working and an emunand with the latest firmware and all my gateway saves working. Is this possible.

Mainly why do I want to downgrade is probably the better questions. What am I getting out of it? I'm just worried right now that the saves I have on emunand will become useless which makes me fear playing anything right now in case I have to loose my progress.

For real carts, if you don't downgrade the sysnand after you start to use gateway, the saves should work as before (assuming gateway doesn't do anything stupid). If you attempt to downgrade the sysnand, you may need to find a way to "downgrade" the save games as well (gateway does not do this), if they don't work on the older firmware.

The main reason to downgrade is to obtain 4.x functionality and to avoid going online at all while in sysnand, but in situations like yours you will have to decide which is the lesser evil

 

[BufferOverflow]

Thanks works fine. Now i have 4.5.0-8E AWESOME!! THANKS TO GATEWAYZ AND GBATEMP USERS!

 

[AmeenX]

Successfully downgraded:
Console: Euro 3DS XL Pokemon XY Edition blue
Original FW: 6.1E
DG FW: 9.2E
DG to: 4.5.8E
https://www.dropbox.com/s/803y3t2qkiwpg5i/DSC_0475.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ph1loypr9bg7uze/DSC_0476.jpg?dl=0

 

[Ray305]

Why would they be crying? Their cart still works with all games released thus far.

The only crying I hear is from Gateway users bricking their systems and corrupting their game saves. No Sky3DS users, yet.

No bricked systems as of yet. Considering the fact that Sky3DS's mimicry of a retail cart is not 1:1, it will be patched in a future system update.

 

[retry88]

Downgraded successfully and got DS Profile exploit working yesterday afternoon. This morning the DS profile exploit no longer works but the browser exploit still does (Still on 4.2) - has this happened to anyone else?
Should I just install the exploit again with the blue cart?