Tutorial  Updated

How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading + What Games Work/Don't

This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.
If you have time, and have Staff permission, feel free to edit this thread and remove this statement once necessary.

Some information that needs to be addressed:
  • SX OS and Atmosphere now supports proper LayeredFS, instructions for using it has changed since this tutorial was made
  • Supported Firmware information is out of date
  • LFSKit needs to be updated to properly support non 5.x.x firmware
  • Compatability chart needs to be re-made
-PRAGMA


WARNING
  • DO NOT GO ONLINE WHEN DOING THIS (YOU WILL BE BANNED)


How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading

Firmware Supported: ONLY 5.x.x
Use the PRAGMA LFS Kit below.

PRAGMA's LFS Kit

DOWNLOAD
SOURCE

  • Go from NOTHING in your SD Card to playing a game backup in a few clicks!
  • Decrypt .XCI -> romfs/exefs folder with main.nmpd auto edited aswell as folder's name auto renamed to donor titleid
  • Download NOTHING except LFSKit!
ENJOY!

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Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!


    1. A donor title is the application we will run to open the backup.
      Pick a game you don't care about (Download a Demo or a free game from eShop, for example Octopath Demo)
      saves are something no one knows much about, we don't fully know where or how they are stored.
      They might overwrite the donor titles save, so seriously pick a game you DONT care about, not a game you rarely play.

    2. I also recommend picking a donor title/game combo that has been tested and reported working just so you know if YOU did something wrong or not.
    3. Find the TitleID of the donor title you chose from http://nswdb.com or http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
      Region must be the same, choose the TitleID for the base-game NOT for the update title, even if your updated.

    1. Once again, boot into Hekate-IPL (Step 1).
    2. Enter "Launch firmware" and select "RomFS".
    3. Your now in your system's home menu.
    4. Open the Donor Title you set the TitleID of on that folder and .npmd file earlier.
    5. The game will load up flawlessly.
      If you opened the Title lets say, Fortnite, and Fortnite booted, the titleid of the folder in sd:/atmosphere/titles/{fortnitetitleid} doesnt exist, or doesnt start with 0100.
      If it gives you an error screen, either you didnt edit the main.npmd properly, or its an incompatible title/donor combo.
    To see which games work and which dont using which donor titles, look below.
    If you notice that you used a combination of Game and Donor title that isnt in the list below, post in the thread and I will add it. (look under to see what I need to add to chart).


Troubleshooting

  • Black Screen/Infinitely Loading
    Leave it for around 5 minutes then press the home button and go back into the game without closing it. Often this can do the job.
  • Freeze when Loading
    Close the game and try again, its a common occurence, you may have to try up to 4-5 times before getting it to work, sometimes you may even have to reboot between retries.
 
Last edited by PRAGMA,

Evoation

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I was wondering if anyone knew the Title ID for Dragon Quest Builders DEMO, I've been looking for a while now and can't seem to find it.
 

andeers

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Well. Now I have tried two games. Both with the same results. I tried running Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze with Fallout Shelter and Fortnite as doner and I have tried running Super Strret Fighter 2 with kitten squad. Both games crash with a error and then if I try launching anything a 2nd time it crashes my switch. I don't know what I did wrong :(. The program always ends successfully and I have all the master keys now....Please somebody help (Ive spent way too many hours on this :()
How did you patch .npdm?
 

SecureBoot

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Am I just supposed to split a large .bin file to get it to fit on the SD card?

Why does it keep giving me errors when I try to play the games. I boot into cfw with heckate and it crashes when I pick a game
 
Last edited by SecureBoot,

Albytrozz

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Am I just supposed to split a large .bin file to get it to fit on the SD card?

Why does it keep giving me errors when I try to play the games. I boot into cfw with heckate and it crashes when I pick a game

Is your card formatted to Fat32 and not FatEx? You'll only be able to fit files up to 4GB on your card if it's only Fat32.

I had an issue dumping my carts and figured out it was because my SD card was still formatted to the old Fat32 format before FW 4.10. I fixed that by copying everything to PC, formatting the card to FatEx and then copying everything back. The Switch read everything fine again and I was able to dump carts bigger than 4GB onto my card as a large single file. Could it be related to that?
 

Don Jon

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how long does it take to boot the RomFS CFW? mine freezes at

Rebuilt and loaded package2
Booting...

left it for a few mins but nothing happened.
check that you dont have any 0 byte files in sdcard from layerfs
and use xci2converter to convert your games
i had a similar issue and found out that a corrupted game(converted incorrectly) will make you freeze after booting
 

VashTS

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check that you dont have any 0 byte files in sdcard from layerfs
and use xci2converter to convert your games
i had a similar issue and found out that a corrupted game(converted incorrectly) will make you freeze after booting

i noticed a file fs_mitm.kip is 0 byte, ill remove it
 

Don Jon

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the ones from pragma that are generated incorrectly
its
loader
ft_mip
and sm

you need to grab them from thelayerfszip file and replace them
im not sure where the layerfs files go for pragma 2
but if you open the hekate ipl ini with wordpad
it will tell you where the kernel patch file goes and where the romfs files go
that is the location you need to put the correct files

take a screen shot of your hekate ipl ini and posted up here if youre not sure
 

VashTS

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the ones from pragma that are generated incorrectly
its
loader
ft_mip
and sm

you need to grab them from thelayerfszip file and replace them
im not sure where the layerfs files go for pragma 2
but if you open the hekate ipl ini with wordpad
it will tell you where the kernel patch file goes and where the romfs files go
that is the location you need to put the correct files

take a screen shot of your hekate ipl ini and posted up here if youre not sure

i cherry picked the files from LayeredFS.zip with the files that pragmas kit copies over, and it at least boots but it failed to launch a game. i hate the early homebrew and hack scenes lol.
 

Don Jon

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i cherry picked the files from LayeredFS.zip with the files that pragmas kit copies over, and it at least boots but it failed to launch a game. i hate the early homebrew and hack scenes lol.
remember some games dont work over others
also use xci2converter to convert from xci to exefs/romfs as it works flawlessly
 

DaveMode

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Is there a fix to the "error section 0 is corrupted" message when decrypting an xci? Apparently I'm missing keys in my keys.ini file, but the creation of that file seems to be the one step this tool can't do.
 

VashTS

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remember some games dont work over others
also use xci2converter to convert from xci to exefs/romfs as it works flawlessly

that is what i used and i tried kirby star allies over fortnite, just errors.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Is there a fix to the "error section 0 is corrupted" message when decrypting an xci? Apparently I'm missing keys in my keys.ini file, but the creation of that file seems to be the one step this tool can't do.
you need to find master_key's - google will help, we can't post them here. same issue until i found the answer.

i think there are 4 total?
 

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