Homebrew N3DS downgrade safety

[Ironknight]

Hey there, I want to know how safe it is to downgrade the N3DS. I have a N3DS XL with 9.6.0-24E, and I know that I need to format my 3DS, use Plaisysupdater and also format my SD-Card before downgrading. Is there anything else that I have to do, besides following the Plailect Guide? I really dont want to take too high risks of breaking it. Thanks in advance!

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Hey there, I want to know how safe it is to downgrade the N3DS. I have a N3DS XL with 9.6.0-24E, and I know that I need to format my 3DS, use Plaisysupdater and also format my SD-Card before downgrading. Is there anything else that I have to do, besides following the Plailect Guide? I really dont want to take too high risks of breaking it. Thanks in advance!

I've done 3 New 3DS XL so far my advice is to format the system 3 times and just run through the setup with random information then attempt the downgrade.

 

[rikumax25!]

There is always a risk, but read carefully the guide and you should be fine

 

[astrangeone]

I've done it to two n3DSes and it's an easy process, BUT read all the instructions at least once first. It's just asininely time consuming and the tools are a bit unstable in comparison to the o3DS (they tend to not start normally)...

 

[Seriel]

I would go with 90%.

Also

There is always a risk, but read carefully the guide and you should be fine

^This.

 

[Purge]

It seems like you already know what to do. You'll be fine

 

[Ironknight]

I would go with 90%.

Also

^This.

Thanks, but I read that the downgrade can only result in a frankenfirmware or a softbrick at worst. Is it possible to hardbrick, other than a crash while installing NATIVE_FIRM?

 

[Pikm]

Thanks, but I read that the downgrade can only result in a frankenfirmware or a softbrick at worst. Is it possible to hardbrick, other than a crash while installing NATIVE_FIRM?

There's no real chance of hardbricking on the initial 9.2 downgrade, unless it's user error. Because you can easily brick by using the wrong region's files, using o3ds files on a n3ds (and vice versa), and just plain doing something stupid.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Follow instrutions, and you should be okay, if you are not confident, ask someone who knows what they are doing.

The proceedure in the guide on github includes safety guides and FAQ incase of any problems.

 

[Ironknight]

There's no real chance of hardbricking on the initial 9.2 downgrade, unless it's user error. Because you can easily brick by using the wrong region's files, using o3ds files on a n3ds (and vice versa), and just plain doing something stupid.

Thanks buddy

 

[Timburpton]

Its inherently risk. Even the guide says so.

 

[Ironknight]

Okay guys, I tried it, and everything went well, but I got an error message that something went wrong (from nintendo, not plaisysupdater), and that I should reboot. As I read like a quadrillion threads, I took my SD card out, and now it says I am on 9.2.0-24E. Am I downgraded or do I have a frankenfirmware? I appreciate all help. By the way, everything still works.

 

[Ironknight]

Nevermind, I just did it again and it successfully flashed the NFIRM

 

[gnmmarechal]

Okay guys, I tried it, and everything went well, but I got an error message that something went wrong (from nintendo, not plaisysupdater), and that I should reboot. As I read like a quadrillion threads, I took my SD card out, and now it says I am on 9.2.0-24E. Am I downgraded or do I have a frankenfirmware? I appreciate all help. By the way, everything still works.

Ok. To see if you successfully downgraded (the important thing is NATIVE_FIRM), try to launch Browserhax. If it gives you Sliderhax, it should work. Install Menuhax for 9.2 and continue from there.

If you had to downgrade because of NATIVE_FIRM, you should now be ok to continue as NATIVE_FIRM has been downgraded.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Nevermind, I just did it again and it successfully flashed the NFIRM

Seems like it's common for it to crash on NATIVE_FIRM the first time, the same thing happened to me when I downgraded a 9.5 n3DS, and I've heard it mentioned several times by other people.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Seems like it's common for it to crash on NATIVE_FIRM the first time, the same thing happened to me when I downgraded a 9.5 n3DS, and I've heard it mentioned several times by other people.

But if it crashes WHILE installing NATIVE_FIRM, you're royally fucked.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Hey there, I want to know how safe it is to downgrade the N3DS. I have a N3DS XL with 9.6.0-24E, and I know that I need to format my 3DS, use Plaisysupdater and also format my SD-Card before downgrading. Is there anything else that I have to do, besides following the Plailect Guide? I really dont want to take too high risks of breaking it. Thanks in advance!

I got it to work on the first try with my non-XL N3DS. No issues there. My N3DS XL and O3DS were done in like December or January so they used the early downgrade tools, which was just a specific release of sysupdater (I think it was 0.4.2b).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

But if it crashes WHILE installing NATIVE_FIRM, you're royally fucked.

Thanks to there being 2 copies of FIRM, even then it shouldn't brick. If it crashes during writing to firm0 the system will just boot with firm1 instead.
Though if it crashes during installation of important system modules, the console will brick, but it should be fixable through recovery mode since that uses its own set of modules.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

iirc the only hard bricks are from user error.

 

[Swiftloke]

Thanks to there being 2 copies of FIRM, even then it shouldn't brick. If it crashes during writing to firm0 the system will just boot with firm1 instead.

What are the odds that it failing to install NATIVE_FIRM to firm0 actually somehow installs a9lh xD