Tutorial  Updated

Recovering Games Saves from *NAND using NXNandManager and JKSV

This gets asked often enough that I figured I'd show how I do it.

Open to constructive feedback...if there are better ways to do this, pleae let me know. This is just what works for me.

Here is my current installation of Cuphead.

55B68577-33A9-4E33-81E5-8C1606DFA0AC.jpeg
I have a “special” 200% save that is about to have an unfortunate “accident”*

*(I’m going to delete both of my current saves for the purpose of this demonstration.)

Let's also simulate destruction of my game saves from Tunic as well (they are a little bit different content so it's worth it for demonstration sake.)

image.jpg




<tragic accident happens here>


Oh noes!

image.jpg

image.jpg

Everything is gone!


Fortunately I have a backup of my emunand. I extract all my data from the backup of my *NAND using NXNandManager and a copy of my prod.keys that I retrieved using LockPick_RCM. (can also use a Sysnand backup here)

1666457166714.png

Following the red numbers in the graphic above we will:
1) supply the prod.keys file
2) Highlight the USER partition
3) Click the Yellow folder to explore the USER partition. (folder greyed out? Check your keys in step 1)


You will now see the following (you might have to hit DropDown labeled "A" to get to the /saves directory)

1666457404334.png

Highlight the games you want to pull from your backup and then right click and select "Save as..."

You will get a popup asking which directory you'd like to extract files into. I typically create a new one (based on the date/time) so I can keep track of my extractions.

You should see the following if everything was done correctly so far..

1666458343685.png

Click the little red X on the progress popup so you can dismiss the window. you should now click File and then Unmount your backup. It’s important to do this if you have mounted a real filesystem...corruption hazard. Finally select Exit as we’re done with XNandManager.

You should now have a directory full of a bunch of files that start with "00000..." like so (I'm only doing two games for this demonstration...)

1666458433935.png

Grab the .rar file from here and unrar it unto a new directory.
(I creatively named mine "extract nand gamesave.")

Copy your 00000.. files into "extract nand gamesave/save/" directory.

Mine looks like this now:

1666458679909.png

Now go back up one level and click run.bat.

A black Command window will pop up and a whole bunch of text will stream by but once it disappears you will have the extracted saves in your out directory like this:

1666458885402.png

Back on your switch, fire up JKSV. In my case, you will see that since I’ve had a tragic accident and just reinstalled my games I have no game saves

jksv.jpg

You will need to press (X) User Option (see the bottom right.)

Now select Create All Save Data and press (A)

create.jpg

Press AND HOLD (A) for Yes to create your directory structure.

hold.jpg

Press (B) once it’s done and you should have some new icons in JKSV like so:

all.jpg

press (+) to exit out of JKSV and (Home) to get out of HBMenu.

Now comes the tricky bit…

Copy the contents of the .../out directory above onto your Switch under the /JKSV/<game name>.

I use sys-ftpd-light on my Switch to move files around but you could remove the SDCard and copy them using Windows just as well.

In my example the first set of files (Cuphead) look like this:

1666465037036.png

That data needs to be moved here:

74561337-E342-4BC5-A34B-542272FF383E.jpeg
(Directory path)

E65BDB3B-9F10-48A7-A71A-314DFA154977.jpeg
(Files)

And this set of files (Tunic):

1666465138370.png

Will go here:

481D5B08-E309-4998-AD95-B12308119AE7.jpeg
(Directory path)

2BFEABF2-687E-4B8F-9777-98F21549DD0F.jpeg
(Files)

The finale…

Now we fire up JKSV once more but this time things look a little different.

Click (A) on your profile and then (A) again on the game you want to select to restore:

image.jpg
(It’s our save directory we extracted from the Nand backup.)

Slice down to our restored directory but this time click (Y) again to restore it.

image.jpg

Press and HOLD the (A) button to confirm that Yes, you want to restore the backup games saves to the actual game installed on your Switch.


and

voila!

image.jpg

All that hard work is restored!

Let’s see it again for Tunic (because the files are a little different in their format…I’m simply showing the process is still the same,)

Fire up JKSV again, navigate to our game saves and click (Y) to restore again…

image.jpg

Press and hold (A) again to confirm restore processes…

exit out of JKSV and HBMenu, fire up Tunic and…

image.jpg

Once again all our save data has been restored!
 
Last edited by binkinator,

elecu

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Hi! Can I leave the folder name with the title ID, and JKSV will get it? I was searching on google for every title ID but I'm not sure if it's necessary.
 

binkinator

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Hi! Can I leave the folder name with the title ID, and JKSV will get it? I was searching on google for every title ID but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

The folder containing the saves can be named anything you‘d like once it’s under the game name directory.

sd:/JKSV/<GameName>/<WhateverYouWant>/<SaveFiles>

The WhateverYouWant bit can be, well, whatever you want. Everything else will need to be named according to the directory structure created by JKSV or game save file names that come from Ninty.
 

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Thanks a lot for this guide. I have an emunand I cannot get to boot on my friends switch and ended up replacing the microsd card and starting from scratch however lost all of his saves. I will continue messing with the card and seeing if I can get atmos to boot however if I am not having luck, I will have to try and go this route.

Is there any way to make this easier to do in bulk or will I have to go through game by game and create all the right folder structures and then restore? Seems like it will be quite a bit of work if there's tons of games but if I can't get into the system and backup with JKSV I'll have to spend the time doing it this way.
 

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Thanks a lot for this guide. I have an emunand I cannot get to boot on my friends switch and ended up replacing the microsd card and starting from scratch however lost all of his saves. I will continue messing with the card and seeing if I can get atmos to boot however if I am not having luck, I will have to try and go this route.

Is there any way to make this easier to do in bulk or will I have to go through game by game and create all the right folder structures and then restore? Seems like it will be quite a bit of work if there's tons of games but if I can't get into the system and backup with JKSV I'll have to spend the time doing it this way.
Yeah…this is a bit of a last ditch effort for when all else has failed you. We might be able to play with the numbering and install order in hopes we could match a straight up :USER/saves restore, but to be honest I’ve not played with that so I don’t know how Ninty makes up the number order. Of course you’re welcome to play with it and find out. Best of luck on your efforts!
 
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Lunatics

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Thanks for the help. I feel better knowing that there should at least be a way for me to recover these files if I really can't get emunand to boot, which I don't think I will be able to. If I can't get into the system to do it with jksv then I will try these 2 methods. The second method seems like it will be a little easier to get everything in bulk in the proper folder structures/names if I am understanding it correctly, then will just have to deal with importing with jksv. Looks like I have my work cut out for me but thanks for both the guides.
 
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Lunatics

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So I am having some issues. I dumped the keys from my friends switch, although I think I dumped sysnand keys vs emunand, should I be dumping emunand keys?

When I try to run the nxnandmanager application, it won't let me browse the files saying the keys are not good.

When I try to do the second method posted by BaamAlex, I get "An Error occurred"

"Err: 13
Line: 00
File: source/storage/mountmanager
Desc: NO FAT"

I have also tried the bit repair from Hekate etc, aside from trying to dump the emunand keys I am not sure what else to try and fear that something is corrupt in the emunand and won't allow me to read it.
 

binkinator

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So I am having some issues. I dumped the keys from my friends switch, although I think I dumped sysnand keys vs emunand, should I be dumping emunand keys?

When I try to run the nxnandmanager application, it won't let me browse the files saying the keys are not good.

When I try to do the second method posted by BaamAlex, I get "An Error occurred"

"Err: 13
Line: 00
File: source/storage/mountmanager
Desc: NO FAT"

I have also tried the bit repair from Hekate etc, aside from trying to dump the emunand keys I am not sure what else to try and fear that something is corrupt in the emunand and won't allow me to read it.

They are often the same if you recently hacked your system. If you’ve updated your Firmware you would typically want your emunand keys but in this case the part they are using should be the same on both.

You can use Hekate to make a backup of your emunand and then copy the resulting files to your PC and see if you can mount it using the files option instead of disk.
 
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Lunatics

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Depends on which system your friend is using. Does he use an emuMMC or sysMMC? You can see it in the system settings behind the firmware version string. S is for sysMMC, E is for emuMMC.
He uses emuMMC, however I thought the keys would be the same, but his emunand is on 14.1 and sysnand is on like 9.0 so when I see him again, I will try to dump the emukeys instead and give that a shot.

You can use Hekate to make a backup of your emunand and then copy the resulting files to your PC and see if you can mount it using the files option instead of disk.
I was trying to mount it this way with the nxnand app. when I choose disk it does not find anything. emummc is set up as a file/folder on the SD not as a partition. I used the app to navigate to the emummc folder and tried to open "00" and it shows me all of the parts of the emunand but doesn't let me browse them. The emunand is updated as the system was previously working and then broke at some point after updating so I will try to dump the emu keys instead and try again, if this doesn't work I am out of ideas and feel like we might be screwed.
 
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BaamAlex

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He uses emuMMC, however I thought the keys would be the same, but his emunand is on 14.1 and sysnand is on like 9.0 so when I see him again, I will try to dump the emukeys instead and give that a shot.
That's the reason why hekate can mount the "real" eMMC or the emuMMC stuff. There is a difference I would say. But i'm not sure.
 

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Finally ran H2testw which confirms my suspicion that I thought the sd card was going bad.

"Warning: Only 49986 of 243954 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
4.0 GByte OK (8525606 sectors)
44.7 GByte DATA LOST (93845722 sectors)
Details:0 KByte overwritten (0 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
44.7 GByte corrupted (93845722 sectors)
0 KByte aliased memory (0 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000001042e4c00
Expected: 0x00000001042e4c00
Found: 0x13711d62acaeaaee"

so I feel like it is fairly safe to assume this is why emummc won't boot into atmosphere and hekate can't mount it to browse for saves. I will try to dump the emummc keys and access it one more time through nxnandmanager however if I keep having issues, I am assuming I am completely SoL?
 
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urherenow

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edit: lol, I need sleep. You’re on the right track. If you can’t get anything useful with the nand manager, you’re pretty much screwed. You want to copy the emuemmc to pc first, and not try to access it directly from the card. Last resort would be recovery software, but if it comes to that, chances are extremely low.
 

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Nice guide. Could this be use to push a save into the sysNAND as well? Or can you only extract saves?
 

BaamAlex

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Nice guide. Could this be use to push a save into the sysNAND as well? Or can you only extract saves?
When you go online with saves like this, there is a relatively high chance getting banned I would say. You can inject them into the sysMMC, but I wouldn't recommend that.
 
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