Is it necessary to hack a PS vita in order to put a save file on it?

[jirachiband]

Ive been struggling for like 2 hours now trying to get a save file on my laptop onto my PS vita. First I tried to use the regular CMA which i couldnt install, so i tried QCMA instead, but it doesn't recognize my vita when its plugged in and apparently neither does my laptop. And it looks like I might need to install vitashell in order to get it to work, but that requires a hacked vita and I am just not in the mood right now to go through yet another homebrew attempt on another console, at least at the moment.

Im curious if im missing something, is it not possible to transfer stuff to and from a computer without a hacked vita? This seems like a pretty basic function. If it doesnt require a hacked console, i'd appreciate a link to a guide on how to do it. If it does require a hacked console, i'd also appreciate a link to where to get started, and maybe an estimate of how long it takes to do it. I remember it took me like a full day and a half to hack my 3DS so if I have to do it im hoping and praying it's at least one of the less complicated homebrews.

 

[CompSciOrBust]

It depends. Did you get the save file on your laptop from CMA? Or did you download the file from the internet? If you got it via CMA you can restore it via CMA. If you got it via the internet you can either restore it using CMA (although it takes some extra work since you have to get the decryption key for your console) or you can restore it using custom firmware.

Tbh unless it's a backup you made with CMA (which I'm doubtful since you can't get CMA to work) it's probably going to be easier to just hack the vita and do it that way instead of messing around trying to get the key and stuff.

Spoiler: Why?

Modifying CMA backups to inject save files is a very obscure thing to do, in fact in trying to find the key generator: http://cma.henkaku.xyz/ I was only able to find it linked on YifanLu's blog. It seems no one ever made an easy to follow guide for this because it's a pain in the ass to deal with CMA. As far as I can tell that link isn't even indexed by Google because so few websites reference it. That's how obscure this method is. If you do decide to do it that way you can read Yifan's blog here: https://yifan.lu/2017/02/19/psvimgtools-decrypt-vita-backups/

To hack the console you can use this guide: https://vita.hacks.guide/

I've only ever hacked a firmware 3.60 vita, which is different to hacking a vita on firmware above 3.60, but I've heard it's relatively easy and there are tools that automate most of the process.