Hacking Need Help Restoring Tomodachi Life Save (Maybe?)

[Witchtress]

So I just bought a old/original 3DS and modded it with cfw (Homebrew apps etc.)

CONTEXT : Earlier today I performed a CTRTransfer as I had been reading around that doing so can help out with the heavy memory games startup time faster/making them actually work. I had done this to get super smash brothers working (And it still doesn't work)

Anyways I read the (3DS hacks guide CTRTransfer guide) and I'm not sure if I'm just a terrible reader or did something wrong but I'm 90% sure it says download the CTRT file for the region and language the 3DS originated in. So I did that (Because I bought a Japanese 3DS) and went through the whole process correctly.

The first time I performed this, I only had 3 games that managed to show up on the home menu instead of all 6-7 and it also happened when i did the english one

And then I went to the (3DS hacks guide region change guide) and saw you had to get the CTRT file for the language and region you wanted to CHANGE to. So I redid the process again to get everything in english (Still backing up things)

Anyways I wasn't really thinking when I realized last second that i had gotten somewhat far in Tomodachi life and actually cared about where I was in the game progress wise (Every other game I hadn't even opened or really touched yet)

So while I do have the sysnand backup on my computer - It's the one of the japanese version which I obviously don't want to use.

Actual Issue Below

So my 3DS recognizes all my games that I downloded previously and some even have .sav files in them. However, the Tomodachi Life (When I used gm9 to get the cia) didn't restore to it's original save file.

There seems to be indications within the files making it seem like the old save file is still there but I don't know how to get it back.

Is it possible?

The .sav file is from today so there is no older save file anymore. However, there are still lingering ext data files from the other day -

I also have opened the game upon restoring/redownloading the cia file from gm9. (But not going past the save startup screen)

Some extra info would be that before redownloading tomodachi life, the actual 3DS data management area recognized there was previous data for the game with the little x and greyed out box. (This is actually the case for most of the games I had previously downloaded)

Which to my knowledge means the 3DS knows its there with data but was missing tickets or the ticket.

I just hope I can get things back for the game

I tried doing things on my own but I just can't find the solution. (First time modding something that isn't my pc games so)

Help would be awesome

Post automatically merged: Jun 1, 2023

Also to add I did NOT use checkpoint or anything similar to actually "Save save" or backup the save.

I'm simply going off the in-game (saving do not turn off system) and (Would you like to save and exit the game now)

I would hope that still counts as a save to my SD Card

 

[Kwyjor]

This is all rather difficult to understand...

I performed a CTRTransfer as I had been reading around that doing so can help out with the heavy memory games startup time faster/making them actually work.

I for one have never read that before.

So my 3DS recognizes all my games that I downloded previously and some even have .sav files in them.

Please explain exactly what you mean by ".sav files".

Also, are you always installing the English version of Tomodachi Life, or do you have more than one version?

Also to add I did NOT use checkpoint or anything similar to actually "Save save" or backup the save.

So what happens if you try using Checkpoint now?

I would hope that still counts as a save to my SD Card

Save data is always stored to the SD card.

 

[Witchtress]

I for one have never read that before.

Not sure I was seeing a ton of Reddit posts and I believe even some older posts on here talking about it specifically for Smash bros problems

Please explain exactly what you mean by ".sav files".

Also, are you always installing the English version of Tomodachi Life, or do you have more than one version?

While I don’t know everything I believe the .sav files in the folders (When I check the SD card on my computer) are the save files for the games? Or the latest save file (?)

And yes, every installation has been North America/USA

So what happens if you try using Checkpoint now?

Looking at Checkpoint now there is only the recent backups (save and ext) I made/attempted to make (because I was attempting to follow other posts to try and fix the issue)

Mostly I made the one save backup and the ext backup so I could attempt to insert something from the old save file into these backup files (When I put the SD card back into my computer)

Before I made them though there was nothing in there

That is also probably not how it’s done but you know..

 

[Kwyjor]

While I don’t know everything I believe the .sav files in the folders (When I check the SD card on my computer) are the save files for the games? Or the latest save file (?)

I said "explain exactly". What folders are you looking at?

Looking at Checkpoint now there is only the recent backups (save and ext) I made/attempted to make (because I was attempting to follow other posts to try and fix the issue)

Does Checkpoint say you have Tomodachi Life installed at this point? What happens if you hold B to refresh the list of titles?

 

[Witchtress]

I said "explain exactly". What folders are you looking at?

My bad it’s:

SD/NINTENDO 3DS/ID0/ID1/title/[game id #]/data/00000001.sav

That’s found in multiple game ID folders I have

Does Checkpoint say you have Tomodachi Life installed at this point? What happens if you hold B to refresh the list of titles?

Yes, it says I have it installed, holding B just reloads Tomodachi (and the other 3 games)

Nothing changes after that

 

[Kwyjor]

The .sav file is from today so there is no older save file anymore. However, there are still lingering ext data files from the other day

It's not clear exactly what Tomodachi Life does with extdata (see for instance https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/comments/bprxlt/how_recover_tomodachi_life_save_data_after/), but the save editor doesn't use the extdata at all, so I don't think leftover extdata is going to help you much.

 

[Witchtress]

Damn so do you think the save data is just gone at this point?

Unfortunate, I’m glad I know to back up everything on checkpoint and my computer from now on though

Post automatically merged: Jun 1, 2023

Damn so do you think the save data is just gone at this point?

Unfortunate, I’m glad I know to back up everything on checkpoint and my computer from now on though

Although what sucks is that the guide I used (both CTRT guides on 3DS Hacks Guide website) said that the data from games and such wouldn’t be affected by doing all that but somehow it did.

 

[Kwyjor]

You wrote something about "redownloading" the game. It's not clear exactly what you did, but that's probably when the old save data was overwritten.

 

[Witchtress]

So what I did was download the stored game file from godmode9 (And built it as a cia)

After doing so, I used FBI to download said cia (Because I presumed it was the cia for my Tomodachi save file and stuff)

And then I launched the game which prompted the "Creating Save File on SD - Do Not Turn Off"

From that point forward I knew my game didn't go back to the way it was before and allowing it to go further (I guess?) caused a new save file to be written.

From what you're saying.

My question is - is there no possible way to revert back to my save file/previous game using stored data (Perhaps elsewhere in the SD?) or did it just get completely overwritten when I redownloaded the game.

More Context

Before doing the FBI reinstall, I went to hshop to test if I should redownload the game there and the 3DS acknowledged I already had the game installed.

 

[Kwyjor]

Your use of the word "download" is very confusing. "Downloading" implies connecting to the Internet. Godmode9 doesn't "download" anything.

Anyway, no, save data is not somehow stored elsewhere on the SD, unless maybe you used the backup function in the System Settings app.

The only thing that might work is if you try using an unerase program on your PC. It's conceivable that the old data is still there and hasn't been overwritten, but that's very unlikely.

 

[Witchtress]

Fair enough, I’ll just restart the game then

Thanks for the info/help!