This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.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• Supported Firmware information is out of date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

Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!

1. 
   
   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.
2. 
   
   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.

 

[Dmafra]

There's no docked mode support yet?

 

[Chrisw329]

Can someone point me in the right direction to get fs_mitm.kip mine is 0kb and i cant find it anywere i think that is what is causing all my problems. Been working on this all day haha

 

[Skater4599]

After you have the nca, run this:

hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs\ --romfs=romfs.bin --titlekey=f28...(should be in the NFO) -k keys.txt -t nca 32a23f30763ca916909399fc03c57bd2.nca

the MD5 of my NCA is b60d4b346beef465fd23f7c53d25f355

Tried this, my NCA has a matching MD5. It gave me a romfs.bin file. But in the cli i got an "Error: section 0 is corrupted!" and Section 1 at the end as well. This normal or is something wrong?

 

[tomhanks69]

still having "failed to launch firmware" issue when trying to launch romFS

 

[Zumoly]

still having "failed to launch firmware" issue when trying to launch romFS

Some of your SD files must be corrupt. Check it!

 

[serenewarfare]

There's no docked mode support yet?

?

Once you have a game loaded you can dock the Switch

 

[Zumoly]

?

Once you have a game loaded you can dock the Switch

Actually you can do it witchever you please. Start before/after getting into docked mode and switch to handheld.

 

[Nerdtendo]

I had to leave before I could finish up but something wasnt working. There were two numbers I needed to jot down and put in later, but I got an error saying I needed to put in values with 36 hexadecimal characters. The numbers I had only contained 32. Which strings were a supposed to use?

 

[Zumoly]

I had to leave before I could finish up but something wasnt working. There were two numbers I needed to jot down and put in later, but I got an error saying I needed to put in values with 36 hexadecimal characters. The numbers I had only contained 32. Which strings were a supposed to use?

Your keys are incomplete.

 

[WuskyDingo]

Tried this, my NCA has a matching MD5. It gave me a romfs.bin file. But in the cli i got an "Error: section 0 is corrupted!" and Section 1 at the end as well. This normal or is something wrong?

I had this problem too. Get the newest hactool. You also might need something I cannot give out on this forum. Message me on twitter @DingoTech

 

[luca1]

Using pragma's program is not working for me. Tried it with kirby star allies, crashes the program as soon as I open it. Using the batch file + rewriting the TID manually worked. Skyrim crashes too with the program, will test it with the manual path now and see if it works.

 

[Zumoly]

Hi guys
Just a heads up
Delete the savegame of donor title!
Sometimes it'll hang and not boot (it's actually trying to load savegame of donor title which is wrong!)
So for the first launch, be sure to delete the savegame from under system. 90% of my games are compatibles that way.

 

[serenewarfare]

Actually you can do it witchever you please. Start before/after getting into docked mode and switch to handheld.

Yeah, I just wasn’t sure how to respond to the question. lol

 

[arthur_bleme]

After you have the nca, run this:

hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs\ --romfs=romfs.bin --titlekey=f28...(should be in the NFO) -k keys.txt -t nca 32a23f30763ca916909399fc03c57bd2.nca

the MD5 of my NCA is b60d4b346beef465fd23f7c53d25f355

Yooka-Laylee work perfectly with Fornite donor for me too, thank you very much ! i spent the night trying to extract this damn nca, I had forgotten the titleKey argument...

 

[Nerdtendo]

Your keys are incomplete.

How do I fix that?

 

[F1NATIK]

um so is no one going to look into thjs???????????

"Is it possible layeredfs is failing for some titles because of the titleid offset o.o Holy fuck think about it, whats a title that hasnt run at all yet? 1-2-Switch. What offset is that using? 0x430, not 0x440 like almost every other title.
If anyone can, try verify im correct on this topic.
I dont have lfs source so I cant do any tests.
It's very possible the titles that isn't running is caused by this."

 

[Miqote]

Mine just hangs at

Rebuilt and loaded package2

Booting...

I waited 20 minutes, nothing.

 

[Zumoly]

Mine just hangs at

Rebuilt and loaded package2

Booting...

I waited 20 minutes, nothing.

Are you trying to boot the Switch into romFS?

 

[Miqote]

Are you trying to boot the Switch into romFS?

Yeah, as the OP says.

 

[idenfox]

I got this error while decrypting the xci also only create a folder with tittle id romfs.bin but nothing of exefs. I tought it was my keys.ini but I rebuild them twice.
"you can not find a part of the path tittleid / exefs / main.npdm"
I think something about section 0 corrupted also in cmd window