This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.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• Supported Firmware information is out of date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

 

[lolnintendoman]

Is the happy birthday demo title ID the same as the id of the full game?

 

[HoTsHoTz79]

@Mat37 @EmperorX thanks both.. finally got NSP to work but only thru Old LayeredFS Firmware...
by default i had auto boot to LayeredFS firmware and all donors crashed...

Tested using: SDFiles V5, Hekate 3.1

Poly Bridge
Pinball FX3 works
happy birthday day demo
captain toad demo crash

Enter the Gungeon
Pinball FX3 works
captain toad demo crash

----

Also instead of --romfsdir="romfs" ... i did --romfs="romfs.bin"
Just cause i prefer 1 .bin file over extracted files

 

[EmperorX]

@Mat37 @EmperorX thanks both.. finally got NSP to work but only thru Old LayeredFS Firmware...
by default i had auto boot to LayeredFS firmware and all donors crashed...

Tested using: SDFiles V5, Hekate 3.1

Poly Bridge
Pinball FX3 works
happy birthday day demo
captain toad demo crash

Enter the Gungeon
Pinball FX3 works
captain toad demo crash

----

Also instead of --romfsdir="romfs" ... i did --romfs="romfs.bin"
Just cause i prefer 1 .bin file over extracted files

I'm glad it worked for you

 

[Evoation]

Is the happy birthday demo title ID the same as the id of the full game?

I wouldn't think so but the demo title ID is : 010069700AF9C000

 

[ressit]

I use the SDNSP download NSP file Wizard of Legend [v0]
then I downloaded the NSP Wizard of Legend [v131072]
how can i import two files together
for use with LayeredFS

 

[Calevala]

Can I install eshop games via Devmenu? Without SX OS

 

[Mat37]

Can I install eshop games via Devmenu? Without SX OS

I don't know if you can install them, but you won't be able to play them anyways. We need to wait for sigpatches.

 

[PeterGemp]

Can I install eshop games via Devmenu? Without SX OS

Nope, atmosphere is not supporting sigpatches for now.
Also, Devmenu crashes under layeredfs without SX OS when pushing the button "Install from SD", sadly.

 

[ressit]

Can I install eshop games via Devmenu? Without SX OS

You can play but can not install

 

[HoTsHoTz79]

Can I install eshop games via Devmenu? Without SX OS

You can play eshop games via LayeredFS (i.e using Donor Titles)
DevMenu will fail because of signature patching as mentioned above

You need the eShop game in .nsp file
as well as the title key for it

Once you have those, follow these steps;
https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...-games-work-dont.507510/page-103#post-8124104

For me, Poly Bridge and Enter the Gungeon (eshop games) worked via 'Old LayeredFS' firmware using SDFiles V5 and Hekate 3.1

 

[Zumoly]

For me, Poly Bridge and Enter the Gungeon (eshop games) worked via 'Old LayeredFS' firmware using SDFiles V5 and Hekate 3.1

That's what I keep reminding people about. "Old LayeredFS" is more stable than "LayeredFS" option in hekate.

 

[Dmafra]

yooka laylee doesnt work for me with fortnite and pokemon quest as donor.
blossom tale works with pinball fx 3

 

[wodkamen420]

yooka laylee doesnt work for me with fortnite and pokemon quest as donor.
blossom tale works with pinball fx 3

i use yooka laylee with BoTW cart as my donor wrks great

 

[Dmafra]

i use yooka laylee with BoTW cart as my donor wrks great

just create a folder (01007EF00011E000) and put exefs and romfs.bin with patched main.npdm?

EDIT: now working with fortnite, old layered fs using hekate 3.1

 

[HoTsHoTz79]

just create a folder (01007EF00011E000) and put exefs and romfs.bin with patched main.npdm?

Sounds about right; also try "Old LayeredFS" as firmware option instead of "LayeredFS"

 

[wodkamen420]

just create a folder (01007EF00011E000) and put exefs and romfs.bin with patched main.npdm?

yea i altho my romfs is a folder with files instead of a bin but pretty sure it wrks the same way

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

Sounds about right; also try "Old LayeredFS" as firmware option instead of "LayeredFS"

Im not using old layered just the normal layered fs sometime i use the one with clear logs cause y not lol i got newest sd files 3.1 of hekate and im on 5.1 altho im pretty sure it wrkd when i was on 4.01 as well im not restoring tht dump tho took 4ever

 

[tottti1914]

so if i use the same donar for multiple game does it save or it save just one of theme (how save is handled for multiple game on the same donar)

 

[wodkamen420]

so if i use the same donar for multiple game does it save or it save just one of theme (how save is handled for multiple game on the same donar)

i use the same donor for a lot of games saves work fine for each

 

[Zumoly]

i use the same donor for a lot of games saves work fine for each

Each game will save in the same donor folder their portion.
However if the games have the same save filenames, then there will be conflict.
Better save often with Checkpoint.

 

[PeterGemp]

i use the same donor for a lot of games saves work fine for each

Each game has a certain save-folder size on the NAND (Switch's internal memory) assigned.
E.g. smaller games (1.5mb-8mb), games with bigger saving requirements have save spaces ranging up to 165mb. You can look that up in Settings - Data Management - Save Data/Screenshots and Videos - Delete Save Data.

Every game you are running over a donor has a different way of saving -> different kinds of save files.Therefore, using multiple games over one donor works (afaik) fine; they do not overwrite each other although they are located inside the same folder.

You won't run into complications up until the point when the donor's assigned save space on the NAND is full.
As a result, using many different games over the same donor will exhaust it's save space.
That is especially true for games like Skyrim or Minecraft, which save often -> Don't use a donor with small assigned save space (I had to live through that awful experience ).
Back to the brighter side: A lot of games with limited saves (take old adventures with 3 slots, for example) use very little space (100kb), even compared to the little 8mb.

Back in GameCube or PSX days all of this was represented beautifully with blocks on the memory card.