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This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.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  • Supported Firmware information is out of date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,

HoTsHoTz79

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ianlittle2000

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I got this error, I can only assume this is some sort of error with the .xci but I have tried a few and they all do the same thing. Do I have to prepare them in any way before running these?
 

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fanapathy

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^I also get these error messages. Just really confusing this whole thing and the whole "get games running in a few clicks" which is completely misleading. This a waste of effort trying to get it working, better off waiting till someone with better instructions or competence come along
 

HoTsHoTz79

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I got this error, I can only assume this is some sort of error with the .xci but I have tried a few and they all do the same thing. Do I have to prepare them in any way before running these?

ok another user reported that error in the other tool thread, issue is with your keys file

response by dev was:
"mmm I deleted the main.npdm filecheck, so i think there is something wrong with your keys. Search Nintendo Switch keys at google to have all, then try it."

then the user reported:
"thanks yea for some reason my keys werent working. i had copied pasted all the keys into my keys.txt but when i removed them all except the master keys it was allgood! thanks"
 
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fanapathy

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ok another user reported that error in the other tool thread, issue is with your keys file

response by dev was:
"mmm I deleted the main.npdm filecheck, so i think there is something wrong with your keys. Search Nintendo Switch keys at google to have all, then try it."

then the user reported:
"thanks yea for some reason my keys werent working. i had copied pasted all the keys into my keys.txt but when i removed them all except the master keys it was allgood! thanks"
Thank you. I'll try adding just the master keys and nothing else to the generated keys file, if that doesn't work I'm done.
 

naed06

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Here's how I got this working...

Setup your Nintendo switch to support LayeredFS - I used the Kernelpatcher.exe method, other methods include patching on the fly, or you could just search for the patched_kernal.bin and use that (can't link as it includes Nintendo code)

(I found this the most difficult part as the tutorial in the first post didn't work for me and couldn't find a pre patched kernel at the time)


To inject games...

download 'that' key file that is mentioned several times in this thread (Google 'underground skull and crossbones nintendo package')

extract the contents of the rar to a location of your choosing

download XCI2TitleConverter (https://github.com/javilobo8/XCI2TitleConverter/releases/tag/1.1.0) and extract into the same folder as the key rar you extracted earlier

rename keys-only.dat to keys.txt

Copy the XCI backup you want to inject to the same folder

run XCI2TitleConverter - fill in all the info (it's pretty obvious)

Copy files created from your computer to your switch SD card

Profit $$$

Hope this helps
 
Last edited by naed06,

naed06

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I don't have a clue about this. There's no "do this, then do this next" like what switch.guide did.

I guess it's more of me wanting to boot up dev menu. Also this seems to be just drag and drop stuff.

If you need a step by step guide for setting this up then I'd stay away from the devmenu
 

CecilioX3

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Getting an "Error has occured, press the POWER button to reboot the console" after booting into ROMFS from hekate. Any Ideas?
 

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