moving save file from old SD card

[fenderjaguar]

my N3DS would not boot with a some luma error, so I simply took the SD card out, and put a new one in completely blank apart from the luma boot.firm and the 3ds folder with fbi.3dsx in it

I've tried 'fixing the old SD card, but the only way to do it seems to be to remove the "nintendo" and "private" directories...

can I take my tomadachi life save from the old SD card and put it on the new one? I know the saves are encrypted, so it's a real noob question

 

[CoolMe]

my N3DS would not boot with a some luma error, so I simply took the SD card out, and put a new one in completely blank apart from the luma boot.firm and the 3ds folder with fbi.3dsx in it

I've tried 'fixing the old SD card, but the only way to do it seems to be to remove the "nintendo" and "private" directories...

can I take my tomadachi life save from the old SD card and put it on the new one? I know the saves are encrypted, so it's a real noob question

Can you access the home menu at all? What led to the 3ds not boot and show the Arm11 error?
Anyway, it could be just your sd card got corrupt or something, so it's better to download clean Luma3DS files from the internet and not use the one from your old sd card. This is the latest version, it should work if your 3ds is on a recent fw.
But before you do that, test the new sd card for errors with h2testw, to make sure it's not faulty or fake. Do the test with the "read and verify" setting. If it passes the test, format it as FAT32 32kb clusters, and copy the latest Boot.firm to the root and test if it boots to the home menu. If it does, copy your Nintendo 3ds folder from the old sd card, and run Checkpoint to backup your game save, and pray that folder is not corrupt.

 

[fenderjaguar]

thanks. but I can't boot from the old card with the nintendo 3ds folder from the SD card. I've tried those folders on the new card and it won't boot either. I can boot to godmode9 with the card in, and I can even browse titles. Is there no way to boot checkpoint or jksm from godmode 9 or fastboot3ds?

 

[CoolMe]

thanks. but I can't boot from the old card with the nintendo 3ds folder from the SD card.

Just forget about the Nintendo 3ds folder for a sec, until you get the 3ds to boot to the home menu with just the necessary Luma3DS file.

I've tried those folders on the new card and it won't boot either.

Are you getting an arm11 specifically? Are you on the latest fw?

Is there no way to boot checkpoint or jksm from godmode 9 or fastboot3ds?

Not that i know of, no.

 

[Kwyjor]

my N3DS would not boot with a some luma error

Don't you think it would be helpful to provide some details there? Surely you don't think you're the first person ever to see whatever error you're seeing?

I can't boot from the old card with the nintendo 3ds folder from the SD card.

There are some cases where the Home menu extdata or theme data can get corrupted, in which case the solution is to clear that data, as discussed at the bottom of https://3ds.hacks.guide/troubleshooting . But those problems will not cause "some Luma error".

If you're getting an error message about the "boss" process, then unfortunately no one really knows what causes that error, but you shouldn't have to start over with a fresh SD card. Standard procedure is to copy everything off the card (Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier is suggested), format the card, test the empty SD card with h2testw, and then copy everything back to the card again if the test is okay. You wouldn't expect that to do anything, but sometimes that is enough.

Alternatively some people solve the "boss" error by doing a firmware update in safe mode. (This will not affect CFW.) I should also add that the "boss" error will go away if you disable wifi, which would at least let you access Checkpoint if you want to do things that way.

Regardless, if you're just concerned about your Tomodachi Life save data, then since you haven't formatted the 3DS at all, you should be able to copy the save file off the SD card directly and onto another SD card. (These files are encrypted, but you're not changing the encryption at all in this case.) The file will be stored in /Nintendo 3DS/<ID0>/<ID1>/title/00040000/0008C300/ , as per https://hax0kartik.github.io/3dsdb/ .

 

[fenderjaguar]

There are some cases where the Home menu extdata or theme data can get corrupted, in which case the solution is to clear that data, as discussed at the bottom of https://3ds.hacks.guide/troubleshooting .

arhh, thank god! it works, I can boot the SD card