Hacking Nintendo Switch Banning Hub & Warning

[Draxzelex]

what can I do now, some people say playing with mods offline isn't bad at all

The data & telemetry has already been transmitted to Nintendo's servers. Aside from trying to break into Nintendo's headquarters, there's nothing you can do.

 

[jigoku99]

The data & telemetry has already been transmitted to Nintendo's servers. Aside from trying to break into Nintendo's headquarters, there's nothing you can do.

Then why are people who play mods and go online with sysnand and didn't get banned

 

[dysphoria]

So, I'm probably gonna be banned as soon I connect to the internet, at least what I've read anywhere lol
It's been more than a week since I hacked my Switch using RCM, Hekate and Atmosphere. I followed the NH Hombrew guide to make an emunand partition on my SD, this emunand had all Wi-Fi connection deleted. I have a backup of my NAND previous to install CFW. After I installed Atmosphere and booted to emunand, I boot on OFW sysnand to redownload all the games I had to delete for make an space for the emunand, and also transfer all my game updates to internal memory. This was the last time I connected to Nintendo servers and Wi-Fi in general.
Then I made a new emunand with my game updates on internal memory to don't bother to install NSP files to update my games (I suppose that counts as a kind of piracy). After that I installed some homebrew apps like Simple Mod Manager, ReverseNX, sys-clk and FTPD. Set a custom theme, installed some graphical mods (to my legit carts), set Tesla, emulators, tested ReverseNX and do overclock a lot, all in emunand. Also set 90DNS, DNS MITM and exosphere in both emunand and sysnand. Although Rentry guide doesn't recommend 90DNS, I tested in both and the servers are supposedly blocked. My emunand is always on airplane mode and Wi-Fi connections deleted.

However, after playing a bit, I noticed that emunand and sysnand didn't share saves. So, next day, I boot OFW and played SMTV for a few hours (a completely offline game). The console still didn't have connect to the internet. I decided that I would take the risk to boot CFW sysnand and play mods with overclock there, that's the only game I've played on CFW sysnand since that. My CFW sysnand is always on airplane mode, and the Wi-Fi signal is turned off. The only CFW things I've did on CFW sysnand are activate/disable mods and overclock, I don't have any interest on piracy neither on pirating on emunand, so I haven't installed any NSP. Again, the console hasn't connected to the internet since the day I first hacked the Switch.

I still use emunand for the rest of homebrew stuff like custom themes or emulators.

After reading forums and discussions of bans and knowing that using mods is a 50/50, and all the homebrew stuff I already made on CFW sysnand, I'm convinced that I will be banned as soon as possible. I'm gonna "ban" myself by not connecting the Switch to the internet anymore (not even in OFW) at least until a new update prevents me to play a game. With this I have few questions:

1. Is it possible to transfer data to a brand new Switch?
2. A banned console can play locally?
3. Does YouTube or no-game apps can still be accessed with a ban?
4. If I use another Switch, can I set it as primary console and the banned one as secondary?
5. Does a banned console still recieved firmwares and game updates?
6. And the essential question: How much I screwed it? lol. I mean, I was aware of the consequences, but the fact that the legallity of using mods/overclock is kinda contraditory makes me skeptical too. Still, I'll leave the console offline until it's really necessary, just to delay the imminent (because, well, it seems that everyone who uses cfw will be eventually banned with no exceptions).

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

Then why are people who play mods and go online with sysnand and didn't get banned

Cfw itself is less of the problem, and more the potentially wrong serial in the logs because of blanking, fake tickets and title id's for pirated games in the switches data, or cheat / romhack detection when going online in a game. Also generally mismatched logs between the switch and nintendos servers, for example after restoring old backups or clearing the full log are problematic.

Atmosphere is build to be used online and without piracy, so as long as you as you don't pirate or fuck with the online service or your device informations in any way, you are normally relatively safe.

I there are for example multiple switches I modded or helped to mod for friends and family, and they all use it for thinks like streaming with sysdvr, overclocking, custom themes, save game backups or emulators, all while staying in cfw 100% of the time and normally going online. Nobody got banned by now, and some are modded multiple years by now.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

So, I'm probably gonna be banned as soon I connect to the internet, at least what I've read anywhere lol
It's been more than a week since I hacked my Switch using RCM, Hekate and Atmosphere. I followed the NH Hombrew guide to make an emunand partition on my SD, this emunand had all Wi-Fi connection deleted. I have a backup of my NAND previous to install CFW. After I installed Atmosphere and booted to emunand, I boot on OFW sysnand to redownload all the games I had to delete for make an space for the emunand, and also transfer all my game updates to internal memory. This was the last time I connected to Nintendo servers and Wi-Fi in general.
Then I made a new emunand with my game updates on internal memory to don't bother to install NSP files to update my games (I suppose that counts as a kind of piracy). After that I installed some homebrew apps like Simple Mod Manager, ReverseNX, sys-clk and FTPD. Set a custom theme, installed some graphical mods (to my legit carts), set Tesla, emulators, tested ReverseNX and do overclock a lot, all in emunand. Also set 90DNS, DNS MITM and exosphere in both emunand and sysnand. Although Rentry guide doesn't recommend 90DNS, I tested in both and the servers are supposedly blocked. My emunand is always on airplane mode and Wi-Fi connections deleted.

However, after playing a bit, I noticed that emunand and sysnand didn't share saves. So, next day, I boot OFW and played SMTV for a few hours (a completely offline game). The console still didn't have connect to the internet. I decided that I would take the risk to boot CFW sysnand and play mods with overclock there, that's the only game I've played on CFW sysnand since that. My CFW sysnand is always on airplane mode, and the Wi-Fi signal is turned off. The only CFW things I've did on CFW sysnand are activate/disable mods and overclock, I don't have any interest on piracy neither on pirating on emunand, so I haven't installed any NSP. Again, the console hasn't connected to the internet since the day I first hacked the Switch.

I still use emunand for the rest of homebrew stuff like custom themes or emulators.

After reading forums and discussions of bans and knowing that using mods is a 50/50, and all the homebrew stuff I already made on CFW sysnand, I'm convinced that I will be banned as soon as possible. I'm gonna "ban" myself by not connecting the Switch to the internet anymore (not even in OFW) at least until a new update prevents me to play a game. With this I have few questions:

1. Is it possible to transfer data to a brand new Switch?
2. A banned console can play locally?
3. Does YouTube or no-game apps can still be accessed with a ban?
4. If I use another Switch, can I set it as primary console and the banned one as secondary?
5. Does a banned console still recieved firmwares and game updates?
6. And the essential question: How much I screwed it? lol. I mean, I was aware of the consequences, but the fact that the legallity of using mods/overclock is kinda contraditory makes me skeptical too. Still, I'll leave the console offline until it's really necessary, just to delay the imminent (because, well, it seems that everyone who uses cfw will be eventually banned with no exceptions).

As long as prodinfo blanking wasn't enabled it doesn't look like you really did something ban worthy, you didn't romhack online, and it seems you didn't install any nsps or xcis, so without prodinfo blanking on sysnand you should be around 99.9% safe.
Like I wrote already before, atmosphere is build to be used online, the devs use it 24/7, and many others use it 24/7.
My switches are by now probably online in CFW 24/7 for nearly 4 years, no ban, just don't install any nsps or cheat/modify games while playing online, and don't modify save games of games like splatton.

About the other questions,
1 I'm not sure about the extend you can use nintendos transfer tool in case of a ban, but every game supporting cloud saves can be transfered to an unmodded switch with the help of a trustworthy person with cfw, by dumping them from a banned console, and uploading them on an not banned cfw switch.
Besides that just using cfw for a manual transfer is also possible.
2 Local play is not affected by being banned.
3 YouTube needs to be patched to be used on a banned switch, if I remember it correctly.
4 Never changed the primary console, so I'm not sure, but in the worst case a support call might be needed.
5 A banned switch often is still able to receive firmware update, but no game updates from nintendos servers, but local transfer of game updates is still possible.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

If it was the worst case scenario and I booted cfw with prodinfo blanked/sigpatches on, rebooted on sys stock before even getting online, do you think I will get banned ? You was on this thread for a long time now, did someone reported to get banned after something similar ?

There is probably not much left then just trying it out yourself.
It might help to stay in cfw by now, but only after you disabled sysnand prodinfo blanking, since atmosphere prevents a lot of telemetry to be send.
With luck it didn't even boot into cfw with prodinfo blanking, in that case you might be 100% safe.
If it bootet in cfw with blanking enabled, you might be lucky, and nothing using the serial got written, or you might be out of luck, and the spoofed serial got written to some kind of log. If that log was already send to nintendo, the switch might be banned in the near future, if it didn't get send yet, atmosphere might protect you and will prevent the sending. I would guess it's aroung 50/50 at that point.

So yeah, just use the switch, and be prepared to be banned at one point, and if you aren't banned in half a year, you are probably safe for now.

 

[dysphoria]

As long as prodinfo blanking wasn't enabled it doesn't look like you really did something ban worthy, you didn't romhack online, and it seems you didn't install any nsps or xcis, so without prodinfo blanking on sysnand you should be around 99.9% safe.
Like I wrote already before, atmosphere is build to be used online, the devs use it 24/7, and many others use it 24/7.
My switches are by now probably online in CFW 24/7 for nearly 4 years, no ban, just don't install any nsps or cheat/modify games while playing online, and don't modify save games of games like splatton.

About the other questions,
1 I'm not sure about the extend you can use nintendos transfer tool in case of a ban, but every game supporting cloud saves can be transfered to an unmodded switch with the help of a trustworthy person with cfw, by dumping them from a banned console, and uploading them on an not banned cfw switch.
Besides that just using cfw for a manual transfer is also possible.
2 Local play is not affected by being banned.
3 YouTube needs to be patched to be used on a banned switch, if I remember it correctly.
4 Never changed the primary console, so I'm not sure, but in the worst case a support call might be needed.
5 A banned switch often is still able to receive firmware update, but no game updates from nintendos servers, but local transfer of game updates is still possible.

Uh, prodinfo is blank. The video I followed said that setting blank_info on both sysnand and emunand didn't matter, that it depended on what -nand you usually use. This is what appears on my exosphere.ini file:

blank_prodinfo_sysmmc=1
blank_prodinfo_emummc=1

I made this before starting to use CFW Sysnand to enable mods and overclock. Is it too late to revert it?
On the NH Hombebrew there is a step that involve something named "Lockpic RCM" which backup the file "prod.keys". I wonder if it's related to prodinfo.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

Uh, prodinfo is blank. The video I followed said that setting blank_info on both sysnand and emunand didn't matter, that it depended on what -nand you usually use. This is what appears on my exosphere.ini file:

blank_prodinfo_sysmmc=1
blank_prodinfo_emummc=1

I made this before starting to use CFW Sysnand to enable mods and overclock. Is it too late to revert it?
On the NH Hombebrew there is a step that involve something named "Lockpic RCM" which backup the file "prod.keys". I wonder if it's related to prodinfo.

If you have a nand backup from after the last time you connected to the internet, but before you stated cfw, you should restore it. It's important that it's from AFTER you last connected to the imternet, otherwise it will just create other possible ban causes.

If you don't have a matching nand backup, just boot cfw from now on, and hope atmosphere blocks whatever logs might (or might not) have been created containing the wrong serial from being send to nintendo. And be prepared for a possible ban in the future.

Either way disabled blanking for the sysnand, it's dangerous to use it on the nand you want to go online with.

Its sad that there are tutorials and packs that seem to contain this, without full explanation, resulting in problems for people not knowing better.

Also lockpick rcm dumps the device keys, allowing to decrypt the nand, or create a new one from scratch after a total fuckup. So its not helpful in this case, unless you want to try to manually find and remove the potential logs, which would probably be far to much work to be worth it.

 

[dysphoria]

If you have a nand backup from after the last time you connected to the internet, but before you stated cfw, you should restore it. It's important that it's from AFTER you last connected to the imternet, otherwise it will just create other possible ban causes.

If you don't have a matching nand backup, just boot cfw from now on, and hope atmosphere blocks whatever logs might (or might not) have been created containing the wrong serial from being send to nintendo. And be prepared for a possible ban in the future.

Either way disabled blanking for the sysnand, it's dangerous to use it on the nand you want to go online with.

Its sad that there are tutorials and packs that seem to contain this, without full explanation, resulting in problems for people not knowing better.

Also lockpick rcm dumps the device keys, allowing to decrypt the nand, or create a new one from scratch after a total fuckup. So its not helpful in this case, unless you want to try to manually find and remove the potential logs, which would probably be far to much work to be worth it.

Welp, no, my NAND backup it's just from before the last internet connection. When I played SMTV on OFW was before doing exosphere, but I think I also booted OFW after doing it to take note of my actual serial number. A log should be created with both boots, I suppose.

Well, then I think I'll still "banning" myself :^)

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

Welp, no, my NAND backup it's just from before the last internet connection. When I played SMTV on OFW was before doing exosphere, but I think I also booted OFW after doing it to take note of my actual serial number. A log should be created with both boots, I suppose.

Well, then I think I'll still "banning" myself :^)

I mean why not just go online with it, and test it. If its now in a ban worthy state, you will get banned anyway, afterwards you won't need to be carefull on that switch anymore.
If you don't get banned, because in the end either no log got created using the spoofed serial, or you stay in cfw and atmosphere blocks sending this type of log, you can enjoy online normally.

But in the end its you decission.

 

[dysphoria]

I mean why not just go online with it, and test it. If its now in a ban worthy state, you will get banned anyway, afterwards you won't need to be carefull on that switch anymore.
If you don't get banned, because in the end either no log got created using the spoofed serial, or you stay in cfw and atmosphere blocks sending this type of log, you can enjoy online normally.

But in the end its you decission.

Before I do something and connect it to the internet, blanking prodinfo prevents to connect to the eShop, right?
If I wanted to be online again would be to use NSO services and go to the eShop. I've read some comments that with exosphere they have problems accessing the eShop.

 

[ezkitty]

Before I do something and connect it to the internet, blanking prodinfo prevents to connect to the eShop, right?
If I wanted to be online again would be to use NSO services and go to the eShop. I've read some comments that with exosphere they have problems accessing the eShop.

blanking the prodinfo prevents any Nintendo connection to the switch including the eshop. its best to use it only in a emuMMC if you're gonna pirate games. I dont see any reason to use it on a sysMMC unless you're up to no good. Which may end up flagging the switch for a ban the next time you connect to the online servers

 

[dysphoria]

blanking the prodinfo prevents any Nintendo connection to the switch including the eshop. its best to use it only in a emuMMC if you're gonna pirate games. I dont see any reason to use it on a sysMMC unless you're up to no good. Which may end up flagging the switch for a ban the next time you connect to the online servers

I blanked it on emu and sys because a video tutorial said that "it didn't matter"... What a waste...
I'm not planning pirating anything, i just want to use graphical mods, overclock and emulators. Like I said on previous messages, I haven't connected to the internet since the first day I hacked my Switch. And according to Rednaxela it's dangerous to set blank_prodinfo_sysmmc to '0' back again right now.
Booting OFW to connect online also seems dangerous to me now, but I don't know.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

I blanked it on emu and sys because a video tutorial said that "it didn't matter"... What a waste...
I'm not planning pirating anything, i just want to use graphical mods, overclock and emulators. Like I said on previous messages, I haven't connected to the internet since the first day I hacked my Switch. And according to Rednalexa it's dangerous to set blank_prodinfo_sysmmc to '0' right now.
Boot OFW to connect online also seems dangerous to me now, but I don't know.

Your nand might have logs now containing the blanked serial, so yeah, its not fully safe to disable it and connect to nintendos servers, but it will get worse, the more you use it with blanking enabled.
The shorter you use the sysnand with blanking enabled, the lower is the chance that a log gets created containing the spoofed serial number.

But like I mentioned you might be in luck, depending on what would use the serial, and what gets send, since atmosphere blockes the creation of quite a bit of log, and also the sending of quite a bit of log. So by staying in CFW, but with prodinfo blanking disabled, you might be able to stay unbanned, but its only a chance, not a guarantee.

 

[dysphoria]

Your nand might have logs now containing the blanked serial, so yeah, its not fully safe to disable it and connect to nintendos servers, but it will get worse, the more you use it with blanking enabled.
The shorter you use the sysnand with blanking enabled, the lower is the chance that a log gets created containing the spoofed serial number.

But like I mentioned you might be in luck, depending on what would use the serial, and what gets send, since atmosphere blockes the creation of quite a bit of log, and also the sending of quite a bit of log. So by staying in CFW, but with prodinfo blanking disabled, you might be able to stay unbanned, but its only a chance, not a guarantee.

How often is a log created? I have been using it blanked for days just for the reasons I said (mods+overclock). Also has been boot between emunand and CFW sysnand, I only boot OFW two times: to re-download my games after hacking for the first time, and to check the serial number after blanking prodinfo in emunand and sysnand.

 

[Kanakops]

There is probably not much left then just trying it out yourself.
It might help to stay in cfw by now, but only after you disabled sysnand prodinfo blanking, since atmosphere prevents a lot of telemetry to be send.
With luck it didn't even boot into cfw with prodinfo blanking, in that case you might be 100% safe.
If it bootet in cfw with blanking enabled, you might be lucky, and nothing using the serial got written, or you might be out of luck, and the spoofed serial got written to some kind of log. If that log was already send to nintendo, the switch might be banned in the near future, if it didn't get send yet, atmosphere might protect you and will prevent the sending. I would guess it's aroung 50/50 at that point.

So yeah, just use the switch, and be prepared to be banned at one point, and if you aren't banned in half a year, you are probably safe for now.

I don't think atmosphere was used since I didn't saw any atmosphere logo. But if I actually booted from hekate it's possible that I got sigpatches enabled. What do you think of that ?

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

How often is a log created? I have been using it blanked for days just for the reasons I said (mods+overclock)

There are multiple things that get logged, for example the error codes, playtime and crashes, but these are the only once I specifically know. Error codes shown and crashes are blocked by atmosphere from being written and send to nintendo, so they won't be a problem, and the gametime is probably not using the serial, so these are not a problem, but there might be more.
So like I said, you might be safe, or not, but you will never know until you tried.

I don't think atmosphere was used since I didn't saw any atmosphere logo. But if I actually booted from hekate it's possible that I got sigpatches enabled. What do you think of that ?

Signature patches itself are not a problem, unless you actually use them to install nsps or xcis.
Since there was no atmosphere logo its probably either normal stock, or hekates stock, where later uses atmospheres exosphere. But I checked hekates code, and it doesn't seem to use the exosphere.ini in stock mode, so either way blanking was probably disabled, so it should be safe.

 

[dysphoria]

There are multiple things that get logged, for example the error codes, playtime and crashes, but these are the only once I specifically know. Error codes shown and crashes are blocked by atmosphere from being written and send to nintendo, so they won't be a problem, and the gametime is probably not using the serial, so these are not a problem, but there might be more.
So like I said, you might be safe, or not, but you will never know until you tried.

Fine, it seems that the possible logs has could made aren't dangerous enough. The last error code I get was for writting an incorrect password on a Wi-Fi signal (a day before I even got my jig, so original serial number is there). I'll try to set blank_prodinfo_sysnand as 0 in the exosphere.ini and boot CFW Sysnand from now on airplane mode.

I'm still convinced that I'll get banned soon or after, so I'm still not connecting to the internet until it's really necessary.

 

[switch21]

I have a question.

I have been transfering my pokemon saves from sysnand to emunand for editing. I do this by backing up my save with JKSV in cfw sysnand while in airplane mode, then rebooting to emunand where I use ftp to transfer the file to my PC. Later after I restore my edited save in cfw sysnand with airplane mode enabled I reboot to ofw sysnand to interact with Pokemon home and play online.

I have had zero issues doing this, it does take time to reboot so many times. Do you think it is as safe to just booti into cfw sysnand while connected to wifi to transfer files with ftp to my PC?

 

[ezkitty]

I have a question.

I have been transfering my pokemon saves from sysnand to emunand for editing. I do this by backing up my save with JKSV in cfw sysnand while in airplane mode, then rebooting to emunand where I use ftp to transfer the file to my PC. Later after I restore my edited save in cfw sysnand with airplane mode enabled I reboot to ofw sysnand to interact with Pokemon home and play online.

I have had zero issues doing this, it does take time to reboot so many times. Do you think it is as safe to just booti into cfw sysnand while connected to wifi to transfer files with ftp to my PC?

It's safe to run CFW on sysMMC. Just don't pirate on sysMMC. Putting the switch on airplane is also pointless while CFW