Hacking Homebrew Launcher Channel missing after restoring backup to SD card after corruption

[XBzombieMan1337]

Hello GBAtemp community, so I have kind of an odd situation. Recently, I was using my 3DS doing some modded things and my SD card ended up getting corrupted near completely. 10 months prior, I created an entire backup of my 3DS SD cards files. So I copied those files over to my SD card (cause you cannot boot with out CFW files on the SD card) and my 3DS loaded up, and things are missing...

As you can see, I still have the TWiLight Menu++ channel (a DS title) but all my 3DS modded channels are gone including the Homebrew channel. I CAN still access the luma menu through the button combo (which I how I took this screenshot) so luma CFW is still present, but I have no way to access the Homebrew channel. And YES, I tried setting a default app through luma as the Homebrew Channel and Homebrew DID load but whenever I attempted to load something (such as FBI) from the app it would freeze and I'd have to hard reset my 3DS.

So how can I get the Homebrew Channel back on my 3DS? As I cannot find a way get it installed, with what I have.

NOTE: When I booted my 3DS up the first time after copying the files, it gave me a message saying 'Creating Home Menu Data' or something along those lines.

 

[fmkid]

@XBzombieMan1337 Just try to redo this tutorial:

https://3ds.hacks.guide/finalizing-setup

 

[lone_wolf323]

And do the ctrnand boot.firm copy. it allows you to boot without sd card. its a very easy step to get done.

 

[XBzombieMan1337]

@fmkid @lone_wolf323

Thanks guys, got homebrew back on my 3DS an now can start the restoration process. Thank you very much!

 

[Deleted User]

If you have this problem and you don't want to re-download everything, first make sure your "Nintendo 3DS" folder was copied properly. Then, if your titles are still missing, you can go to GodMode9 (accessed by holding the "Start" button during boot on the new method) and search for titles on drive [A:]. You can then Build CIAs of the missing titles and install them with FBI. If you cannot access FBI, then use the built-in GodMode9 script to Inject FBI to H&S. If this doesn't work, then you will have to re-download everything.

 

[lone_wolf323]

If you have this problem and you don't want to re-download everything, first make sure your "Nintendo 3DS" folder was copied properly. Then, if your titles are still missing, you can go to GodMode9 (accessed by holding the "Start" button during boot on the new method) and search for titles on drive [A:]. You can then Build CIAs of the missing titles and install them with FBI. If you cannot access FBI, then use the built-in GodMode9 script to Inject FBI to H&S. If this doesn't work, then you will have to re-download everything.

You realize that doing that will overwrite any savefile for said game. And, that wasnt even what was asked here. What was asked was homebrew launcher .3dsx file was missing.

 

[Deleted User]

You realize that doing that will overwrite any savefile for said game. And, that wasnt even what was asked here. What was asked was homebrew launcher .3dsx file was missing.

He said that his Homebrew Launcher channel was missing, which implies that the launcher's ticket was missing or the CIA file itself was missing. If the boot.3dsx file was missing, then the Homebrew Launcher would still be there, but it would show an error message upon launch. (Also, following these steps would not erase the game data because the apps are already missing, so FBI would see it as a new install and wouldn't erase the save data.)

 

[fmkid]

He said that his Homebrew Launcher channel was missing, which implies that the launcher's ticket was missing or the CIA file itself was missing. If the boot.3dsx file was missing, then the Homebrew Launcher would still be there, but it would show an error message upon launch. (Also, following these steps would not erase the game data because the apps are already missing, so FBI would see it as a new install and wouldn't erase the save data.)

@fmkid @lone_wolf323

Thanks guys, got homebrew back on my 3DS an now can start the restoration process. Thank you very much!

Problem was solved already... Then, why to answer it again, and with another intrincated methods?

 

[Deleted User]

Problem was solved already... Then, why to answer it again, and with another intrincated methods?

I was attempting to give him a way to re-install everything without having to re-download everything.

 

[XBzombieMan1337]

Just to clarify, I DO believe that the 'Nintendo 3DS' folder was not copied properly. Leading to PART of this issue, but it's resolved so this thread is solved.

 

[jalaneme]

ive went thru the final setup in that link provided but i'm not able to launch fbi app therefore can't install any.cia files to fix anything or continue further "an exception occurred" in homebrew channel the fbi icon has a question mark before i select it and get the "an exception occurred" error i've replaced both boot files on the root of the sd card that didn't help, all my homebrew icons have disappeared from the home menu after i attempted to restore my settings folder created from using a different micro sd, after i merged both folders that's when the icons disappeared.

any help would be appreciated, i've wasted 3 days on all this progress and it's all about to go in the crapper because of this issue

 

[Kwyjor]

Why are you bumping a two-year-old thread on a largely unrelated topic? Also, please try to use some punctuation when writing a post. Your message is very hard to read.

You will also need to be more precise. Can you load the Homebrew Launcher at all? Are you loading it using the Rosalina menu?

all my homebrew icons have disappeared from the home menu after i attempted to restore my settings folder created from using a different micro sd

What "settings folder" are you referring to? There is no folder named "settings". (How can you expect someone to help you if we have to make guesses about what you are doing?)

i merged both folders that's when the icons disappeared

How did you merge the folders? If you just copied the contents of one "Nintendo 3DS" folder into another "Nintendo 3DS" folder, then that will never work.

 

[jalaneme]

i'm desperate, exhausted. found this topic via google, had no sleep trying to fix this dam thing,

yes i can load the homebrew channel from the ds download play via Rosalina menu, but as soon as i select the fbi icon, the 3ds freezes to a black screen with the error i mentioned, all my homebrew icons on the home screen are missing.

i first installed the cfw without restoring all my files from my sd card backup thinking i was able to restore it later, proved to not be the case, i had to follow this guide found here;

https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/2012/01/19/how-to-upgrade-your-nintendo-3ds-sd-card/

and that worked all my data and current theme was back but the homebrew icons on the home menu had disappeared and i am unable to install .cia files anymore via the homebrew channel, also all icons in the homebrew channel are question marks with no icons no matter how many times i replace the 3dsx files

no i didn't merge the folders themselves i got my old folder (unique number and letters including contents in this folder) from my old sd card and brought the data WITHIN the folder with the current newly created folder created on my new micro sd card, this worked but this resulted in the homebrew icons on the home screen disappearing.

i also deleted the whole current Nintendo 3DS folder and restored from a backup of my old data i copied to a external and my data was intact like before but i was still not able to use the fbi app via the homebrew channel regardless of this change, the black screen and error code still persists, at this point i'm gonna sell this new 3ds xl for scraps on ebay

i can upload a dump file of the crash if needed

 

[Kwyjor]

i first installed the cfw without restoring all my files from my sd card backup thinking i was able to restore it later, proved to not be the case, i had to follow this guide found here;

https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/2012/01/19/how-to-upgrade-your-nintendo-3ds-sd-card/

That is baffling advice. You should never use an SD card in a 3DS before copying files to it from another SD card. Nintendo has their own guide here:
https://en-americas-support.nintend...ansfer-data-between-sd-cards-or-microsd-cards

CFW does not really change anything. The only files you absolutely need for CFW are boot.3dsx and boot.firm.

(It's also an article from nine years ago and while some things do not change, you should sometimes try to make sure you are following something up to date.)

i also deleted the whole current Nintendo 3DS folder and restored from a backup of my old data i copied to a external and my data was intact like before

This is the correct way of doing things. To be clear, did you have the "homebrew icons on the home menu" when you did this and the correct icons in the Homebrew Launcher?

The Homebrew Launcher icons are stored in .smdh files that are supposed to be in the same folder as the .3dsx files, so did you not copy everything at some stage?

But most importantly, did you check your SD card for errors while it was empty using h2testw, as in https://3ds.hacks.guide/h2testw-(windows) ?

at this point i'm gonna sell this new 3ds xl for scraps on ebay

Wasn't everything working fine before you tried to switch to a new SD card?

 

[Kwyjor]

(Double post.)