Replacing eMMC using a backup.

[Captain_Tid]

Hi all,
A month or so ago I discovered my emmc was totally fried and unusable. After some help from the forum I ordered myself a triwing and a new emmc, which I've successfully replaced inside my switch.
Hekate is capable of reading the new emmc, it's all good on the hardware end.

Now what I need to do is restore my backup to the new emmc. I have my backup:

(goes down to .14)
and prod.keys as well:

My understanding was that I basically needed to put the backup files in 85ebb4a5/restore/ on my sd card and then I could use the restore functions in Hekate to restore my old files to this new hardware chip, but it's not working and I'm not sure what I need to do first.
What happens now is that it creates a new folder in the sd card with a different switch ID (not 85ebb4ab), instantly finishes and does nothing. So what I assume is that I need to do something to make the emmc know that it needs to be looking for my switch's ID, not whatever ID it already has loaded (?) onto it.

I would really appreciate if any experts could help me understand! Thank you!

 

[Captain_Tid]

Side note: I also noticed that the last of my backup files is a significantly smaller size than the others?

Not sure if this is normal or if it means my backup failed originally when I made it.

 

[Deleted member 585564]

Put your files in the new folder that it creates? You swapped the chip, naturally it doesnt have the same eMMC hardware ID as your original chip.

The last file is smaller because it's just a 29GB backup split into 2GB chunks. The last chunk is smaller because the nand contents don't evenly split into chunks of 2.

Note there is a chance you might end up getting banned due to eMMC ID not matching up with factory, but it's either that or having a completely non-functional console, so this is the lesser of two evils really.

 

[Captain_Tid]

Okay neat, so my understanding was just a little wrong of how the IDs worked. I thought when you swapped specifically the emmc you had to trick the system somehow into looking for the old ID. I was led astray in the switch hacking discord lol.

Is there anything you'd recommend regarding avoiding getting banned? I don't ever play online games on this switch, but I do let it connect to the internet so that I can use the DLC characters in Smash.

Or alternatively I guess if you know of a better solution to handling this situation where I've had to replace the emmc that would be awesome too. Let me know and thanks for your help!

 

[Deleted member 585564]

Go online with it without properly blanked prodinfo and/or 90DNS and you will get a ban sooner or later, because Nintendo can and will detect the hwid change.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/rcm-payload-hekate-ctcaer-mod.502604/page-90#post-8220936

It may be possible to spoof emmc id so Nintendo thinks you're still using the original one, this would only work while on cfw though. Going online with ofw would send new emmc id --> ban

It's stupid, and goes against right to repair, but it is what it is.

I wouldn't worry about a ban though, if you don't care about playing online it doesn't matter. You don't need an online connection to get DLC working unless you intend on installing the ones you legitimately purchased.

You might be able to avoid a ban just long enough to download and install your stuff from the eshop. From there I recommend backing up everything as nsp, so if you ever need to reinstall later while banned, you can just reinstall from nsp.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

Go online with it without properly blanked prodinfo and/or 90DNS and you will get a ban sooner or later, because Nintendo can and will detect the hwid change.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/rcm-payload-hekate-ctcaer-mod.502604/page-90#post-8220936

It may be possible to spoof emmc id so Nintendo thinks you're still using the original one, this would only work while on cfw though. Going online with ofw would send new emmc id --> ban

It's stupid, and goes against right to repair, but it is what it is.

I wouldn't worry about a ban though, if you don't care about playing online it doesn't matter. You don't need an online connection to get DLC working unless you intend on installing the ones you legitimately purchased.

You might be able to avoid a ban just long enough to download and install your stuff from the eshop. From there I recommend backing up everything as nsp, so if you ever need to reinstall later while banned, you can just reinstall from nsp.

There's plenty of people using replacement eMMCs online, larger 64GB ones even.
I'd be very surprised if they've ever actually banned anyone from that alone. They track loads of things but generally won't give a fuck about anything unless you're pirating or being an ass online.

 

[Deleted member 585564]

Well there you go, in that case you're probably fine

there's always a risk further down the line, that being said. they may or may not start banning people based on that, one day.

 

[Captain_Tid]

Thanks both. Sounds like if I'm careful I'll be ok based on my usage of this switch and the fact that I don't need to be online really more than once to make sure the DLC is working. Will let the thread know how I go!

 

[Captain_Tid]

All good so far! The issue I'm having now, if it can be called that even, is that my Switch keeps doing the 'checking this software can be played' check when I try and open smash. I own the game digitally but to avoid this potentially unnecessary internet connection I've started playing a physical cartridge copy. Even when it's in there though I get the same check and am unable to play the game unless all the digital data is downloaded. Any ideas?

 

[Deleted member 585564]

Wouldn't it be easier to avoid unnecessary internet connections by keeping no connections saved on your console? Or do you have a lan cable plugged into your dock at all time?

If you own the content digitally, this is probably expected if this particular console is registered on your account as a secondary console rather than a primary console. Did it work when you tried playing the pure digital copy?

I don't really know much about trying to play physical copies over digitally-installed content... all I know is that games installed onto secondary consoles don't get a ticket (correct?), I believe horizon handles this by prompting an internet connection on launch to verify ownership and possibly also fetch title key, before allowing the game to run?

I'm sure I read about that before but I'm not able to find the source right now... will keep looking, though.

edit: this might be relevant https://gbatemp.net/threads/question-sigpatching-a-secondary-switch.564800/

sounds like sig patches may not be an option after all

It -might- be possible to bypass this using signature patches, but if a title key is required that isn't present on the console, then sig patches wouldn't help with that.

If primary console/secondary console is an issue: unlink your actual primary console, and link this switch as your primary console. Then enable prodinfo blanking with exosphere + 90DNS urls with dns mitm just to be safe, then you can log onto your nintendo account on your computer to manually unlink this switch from your account.

Then you can re-link your account as primary on a different console. The modded one will keep thinking it's the primary console, and without a way of connecting to the servers to force-disconnect it, it'll happily stay connected forever. I do this with mine, just to ensure I'll never have issues with my legit content on my modded unit, and I can still link it as the primary console on another switch later, if I ever feel like getting a switch lite or something.

The main risk here is that ofw will not have the prodinfo blanking or dns mitm active, so even accidentally booting into ofw while it's connected to the internet would be enough to log your account out. you can mitigate this by using emummc, then it wont matter what happens on ofw, the emummc will stay linked and connected. Otherwise you can use hard prodinfo blanking with incognito instead of soft blanking, this would prevent your console from connecting to Nintendo's servers even in ofw (actually, would ofw even boot with incognito? I have no idea.) If you do hard incognito blanking though, you must make sure to never lose your backup, otherwise you're screwed. Atmosphere makes an automatic backup for you, just in case.

 

[ds34]

hi @Captain_Tid would you mind writing down which steps you took to get your switch working again?
I am in a similar situation like you.

 

[Draxzelex]

All good so far! The issue I'm having now, if it can be called that even, is that my Switch keeps doing the 'checking this software can be played' check when I try and open smash. I own the game digitally but to avoid this potentially unnecessary internet connection I've started playing a physical cartridge copy. Even when it's in there though I get the same check and am unable to play the game unless all the digital data is downloaded. Any ideas?

Is your console set as the Secondary Account?