While playing on SX OS EmuNAND, you accidentally selected "Update" on the update prompt that shows up EVERY SINGLE TIME you go from the homescreen to a game? Now your EmuNAND won't boot anymore?
Look no further, here's the solution to all your problems!!

This guide will show you how to retrieve your game saves from the dead EmuNAND files resting on your SD card and how to "downgrade" your EmuNAND back to the firmware version your SysNAND is on!

Don't forget to regularly backup BOTH your SysNAND and EmuNAND (by copy-pasting it from your SD card to your PC for the latter)!!


Here's what happened in my case :

EmuNAND was accidentally updated to 6.2.0 using Big-N's OTA update prompt.
SysNAND was on firmware 5.1.0.

EmuNAND would (obviously) not boot at all, while SysNAND was working fine. My fuses were not burnt as I have AutoRCM enabled.
I hope you had AutoRCM enabled too, as I think your fuses would burn when the console tries to reboot after the update if it was not enabled.
Although maybe the fuses wouldn't burn as your reboot would be on your SysNAND which is still on a lower firmware, but I think the update gives the command to the bootloader to burn the fuses regardless of the firmware that the Switch is being booted to.

I did a backup of the Emunand files on my computer by copy-pasting them from the SD card.

I merged the four parts of full.bin using windows cmd :

copy /b full.00.bin + full.01.bin + full.02.bin + full.03.bin full.bin

I then opened the newly created full.bin using hacdiskmount and double-clicked on the USER partition.
At the bottom of the previous screen, the log showed that the secondary GPT had an offset error.
I input the two parts of BIS Key 3 (I obtained them using biskeydump v7) and clicked to test them. The verification failed.
I mounted the USER partition anyway after installing the Virtual Drive driver.

I then used this tool to retrieve my game saves and unpack them :
I copied all the folders located in the "save" folder of the newly mounted EmuNAND USER partition to the "save" folder of the tool.
I double-clicked "run.bat".
All your saves are now located in the "out" directory.
I used a previous Checkpoint saves backup to figure out which folder corresponds to which game, and moved them all in their respective game folder (in the Checkpoint folder of my SD card).

I booted on SysNAND, restored the saves using Checkpoint, and confirmed that they were in working order.

I booted back on the SX Pro bootloader, deleted EmuNAND entirely and created a new Emunand (on firmware 5.1.0 since that's the firmware my SysNAND is on)!


Voilà, if you follow the same procedure I did (and have not burned your fuses because you had enabled AutoRCM before the accidental update), you now have a fully working EmuNAND back on a lower firmware and you can now forget about this whole ordeal!!

 

[Thesolcity]

Also keep regular backups of both your SYSNAND and EMUNAND. OP, why did you not mention this?

 

[PsychOsmosis]

Also keep regular backups of both your SYSNAND and EMUNAND. OP, why did you not mention this?

You're right, I forgot to do so. I added it to the OP.
Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[rafaelia]

This helped me out, thanks

 

[Bicihere]

Hello,
I followed your guide, merged all emunand's bin files, mounted user partition with hackdiskmount using biskey 3 extracted from the switch, but in the save folder there are a lot of file without extention named with a lot of zero and some final number and letter. I tried anyway to copy that in the save folder of the tool you linked but for each file it try to elaborate, it gives an error. You say in the save folder of emunand should be other folders, but i havent them. I missed something? I did something wrong?
Could you please help me?
Thanks a lot.

 

[PsychOsmosis]

in the save folder there are a lot of file without extention named with a lot of zero and some final number and letter. I tried anyway to copy that in the save folder of the tool you linked but for each file it try to elaborate, it gives an error.

That's normal behavior, it also gave me an error for each file in the command prompt but then it processed the files anyway and eveything works fine.
Just make sure you executed it as Administrator in case it matters (it usually does).

Basically after you processed the files of the save folder (the files with a bunch of zeros in the filenames), you will find your extracted game saves in the "out" folder, but the folder names are also made of a bunch of zeros. You need to use a previous Checkpoint backup to compare and find out which folder corresponds to each game. Then you put them all in their respective game's folder (in the Checkpoint folder of your SD card) and you use Checkpoint to restore the game saves.

If you don't have a previous Checkpoint backup, you can run all the games on SysNAND to create a new save and use Checkpoint to create a backup so you can compare with what you extracted.

 

[reinaldox_]

im having the same problem as bicihere had. I only have a batch of files without extension. i try to do the .bat file and only convert one of them (they are like 4 or 5 files)

 

[reinaldox_]

everytime i try to convert the saves, gives me this message

 

[iLL wiLL]

I have a question.I've been on 6.2.0 fw and was thinking about using emunand.it worked great on 3ds but not so sure with switch and I'm a little afraid because I don't want to mess it up.I got sxos and I wanna play games like blaster Master zero 2 and modern combat but blaster Master wants 7.0.1 to run and modern combat wants me to update my account or merge my switch account which I never did or else I can't even play it.should I back up my NAND then install emunand to 7.0.1 and stay on 6.2.0??? Just curious what other ppl are doing.I've been googling this but can't seem to find a up to date answer.everything on Google is basically in February.we're at the end of March so can someone point me in the right direction.thanks

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

While playing on SX OS EmuNAND, you accidentally selected "Update" on the update prompt that shows up EVERY SINGLE TIME you go from the homescreen to a game? Now your EmuNAND won't boot anymore?
Look no further, here's the solution to all your problems!!

This guide will show you how to retrieve your game saves from the dead EmuNAND files resting on your SD card and how to "downgrade" your EmuNAND back to the firmware version your SysNAND is on!

Don't forget to regularly backup BOTH your SysNAND and EmuNAND (by copy-pasting it from your SD card to your PC for the latter)!!


Here's what happened in my case :

EmuNAND was accidentally updated to 6.2.0 using Big-N's OTA update prompt.
SysNAND was on firmware 5.1.0.

EmuNAND would (obviously) not boot at all, while SysNAND was working fine. My fuses were not burnt as I have AutoRCM enabled.
I hope you had AutoRCM enabled too, as I think your fuses would burn when the console tries to reboot after the update if it was not enabled.
Although maybe the fuses wouldn't burn as your reboot would be on your SysNAND which is still on a lower firmware, but I think the update gives the command to the bootloader to burn the fuses regardless of the firmware that the Switch is being booted to.

I did a backup of the Emunand files on my computer by copy-pasting them from the SD card.

I merged the four parts of full.bin using windows cmd :

copy /b full.00.bin + full.01.bin + full.02.bin + full.03.bin full.bin

I then opened the newly created full.bin using hacdiskmount and double-clicked on the USER partition.
At the bottom of the previous screen, the log showed that the secondary GPT had an offset error.
I input the two parts of BIS Key 3 (I obtained them using biskeydump v7) and clicked to test them. The verification failed.
I mounted the USER partition anyway after installing the Virtual Drive driver.

I then used this tool to retrieve my game saves and unpack them :
I copied all the folders located in the "save" folder of the newly mounted EmuNAND USER partition to the "save" folder of the tool.
I double-clicked "run.bat".
All your saves are now located in the "out" directory.
I used a previous Checkpoint saves backup to figure out which folder corresponds to which game, and moved them all in their respective game folder (in the Checkpoint folder of my SD card).

I booted on SysNAND, restored the saves using Checkpoint, and confirmed that they were in working order.

I booted back on the SX Pro bootloader, deleted EmuNAND entirely and created a new Emunand (on firmware 5.1.0 since that's the firmware my SysNAND is on)!


Voilà, if you follow the same procedure I did (and have not burned your fuses because you had enabled AutoRCM before the accidental update), you now have a fully working EmuNAND back on a lower firmware and you can now forget about this whole ordeal!!

While playing on SX OS EmuNAND, you accidentally selected "Update" on the update prompt that shows up EVERY SINGLE TIME you go from the homescreen to a game? Now your EmuNAND won't boot anymore?
Look no further, here's the solution to all your problems!!

This guide will show you how to retrieve your game saves from the dead EmuNAND files resting on your SD card and how to "downgrade" your EmuNAND back to the firmware version your SysNAND is on!

Don't forget to regularly backup BOTH your SysNAND and EmuNAND (by copy-pasting it from your SD card to your PC for the latter)!!


Here's what happened in my case :

EmuNAND was accidentally updated to 6.2.0 using Big-N's OTA update prompt.
SysNAND was on firmware 5.1.0.

EmuNAND would (obviously) not boot at all, while SysNAND was working fine. My fuses were not burnt as I have AutoRCM enabled.
I hope you had AutoRCM enabled too, as I think your fuses would burn when the console tries to reboot after the update if it was not enabled.
Although maybe the fuses wouldn't burn as your reboot would be on your SysNAND which is still on a lower firmware, but I think the update gives the command to the bootloader to burn the fuses regardless of the firmware that the Switch is being booted to.

I did a backup of the Emunand files on my computer by copy-pasting them from the SD card.

I merged the four parts of full.bin using windows cmd :

copy /b full.00.bin + full.01.bin + full.02.bin + full.03.bin full.bin

I then opened the newly created full.bin using hacdiskmount and double-clicked on the USER partition.
At the bottom of the previous screen, the log showed that the secondary GPT had an offset error.
I input the two parts of BIS Key 3 (I obtained them using biskeydump v7) and clicked to test them. The verification failed.
I mounted the USER partition anyway after installing the Virtual Drive driver.

I then used this tool to retrieve my game saves and unpack them :
I copied all the folders located in the "save" folder of the newly mounted EmuNAND USER partition to the "save" folder of the tool.
I double-clicked "run.bat".
All your saves are now located in the "out" directory.
I used a previous Checkpoint saves backup to figure out which folder corresponds to which game, and moved them all in their respective game folder (in the Checkpoint folder of my SD card).

I booted on SysNAND, restored the saves using Checkpoint, and confirmed that they were in working order.

I booted back on the SX Pro bootloader, deleted EmuNAND entirely and created a new Emunand (on firmware 5.1.0 since that's the firmware my SysNAND is on)!


Voilà, if you follow the same procedure I did (and have not burned your fuses because you had enabled AutoRCM before the accidental update), you now have a fully working EmuNAND back on a lower firmware and you can now forget about this whole ordeal!!

Also keep regular backups of both your SYSNAND and EMUNAND. OP, why did you not mention this?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Seems like you know what your doing.you mind giving me a hand.I got 6.2.0 can't play games like modern combat because I get merge my account message need to update and can't play 7.0.1 games.what do you suggest doing??I can't find a 0 day answer for this.most the posts are older.thanks

 

[thetechdoc]

Hi, I am struggling a bit here, my switch unfortunately fried and I have no way of turning it on, im sending it in for warranty but would love my saves back, I have followed your steps but I have no way to dump the bis key files, all I have are the keys.txt or keys.py files needed to convert xci to nsp, I have mounted the user parition but windows explorer sees it as a floppy drive that cannot be opened, hacdisk doesnt even list it under "physical disk" I have no idea how to proceed, is there any way to backup with what I have? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Blackguedes]

Thanks. Take a lot of work, but works! My emunand 8.1 stop run, so copy emunand broken to PC and i replace SD for a previosly backup CFW 7.01. Then I use this method to extract saves. inst more easy, because the hactool cant put name of games on folders.

 

[Cory321]

I'm trying to rescue my saves from a partially corrupted EmuNAND using this method, but I'm running into a problem. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice.

I am using SX OS 2.8 BETA

I am trying to retrieve game saves from a 8.1.0 EmuNAND that won't boot anymore after accidentally modifying the USER partition with blawar's tinfoil. I copied a NSP to the user:/Album/ folder, didn't delete or modify anything else.

The Nintendo and Switch logos show up, but quickly afterwards I get a crash error and I have to turn off the console.


So I figured I could use HacDiskMount by Rajkosto to read the EmuNAND on a Windows PC.

I joined the full.01.bin + full.02.bin + ... + full.07.bin into a single full.bin file. I can open the SYSTEM and SAFE successfully (with the respective BIS keys) except the USER partition. I get the FAILED message when I try to Test the BIS Key 3 pair with the USER partition. I try to mount the USER partition anyway but it can't be read by the computer (unlike the SYSTEM and SAFE partitions, which can be mounted and read successfully using the respective BIS 1 and 2 Key pairs).

I'm using my console's dumped keys.

1. Is there any way I can repair or at least be able to mount my USER partition?

2. Why is my USER partition not recognizing the BIS 3 Key? Is this really happening just because I moved a file to user:/Album/ folder?


Any kind of help is appreciated.

 

[PsychOsmosis]

Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry for the previous posters. I have no idea how I didn't notice people had replied to this thread over the last year...
I hope you found a way to get your saves back!

2. Why is my USER partition not recognizing the BIS 3 Key? Is this really happening just because I moved a file to user:/Album/ folder?

I believe this is due to the dirty merging of the multi-part bin file.
Frankly, when I tried this, I had no idea by what process the file was multi-parted. Couldn't find any information online about it.
So I read somewhere about this dirty merge method, tried it, and despite the BIS key authentication failing, it just worked regardless.
If someone has some expertise in splitting files into multiple parts on a UNIX OS and joining them together, I would appreciate your input, as I believe this can be done properly so we can get the BIS keys to work.

I'm pretty sure the BIS key authentication failing has anything to do with the file you moved.
BIS keys are not a hash of the partition's content. If that was the case, you would need to generate new BIS keys every time you move/add/modify a file.
Therefore, it has nothing to do with the thing you did.

If I understand correctly, the keys worked for the two other partitions in your case?
I don't know what the respective sizes of the partitions are off the top of my head, but if they are smaller than a single part of the bin file, it would make sense that they have a good chance not to be affected by the dirty merging, therefore leading to a successful decryption using the BIS key.

So I'm not sure what you should do, but I find it weird that it would lead to an impossible mounting of the partition altogether, since in my case, it worked regardless of the BIS key authentication failing.
It might have something to do with which files were damaged by the dirty merging of the bin file (which files were located at the extremities of the bin parts, and therefore cut in half and corrupted during the merge).

So, once again, if someone had expertise on how the splitting is done and how to properly merge it back together (is there an utility for this? a console command?), any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Oby]

While playing on SX OS EmuNAND, you accidentally selected "Update" on the update prompt that shows up EVERY SINGLE TIME you go from the homescreen to a game? Now your EmuNAND won't boot anymore?
Look no further, here's the solution to all your problems!!

This guide will show you how to retrieve your game saves from the dead EmuNAND files resting on your SD card and how to "downgrade" your EmuNAND back to the firmware version your SysNAND is on!

Don't forget to regularly backup BOTH your SysNAND and EmuNAND (by copy-pasting it from your SD card to your PC for the latter)!!


Here's what happened in my case :

EmuNAND was accidentally updated to 6.2.0 using Big-N's OTA update prompt.
SysNAND was on firmware 5.1.0.

EmuNAND would (obviously) not boot at all, while SysNAND was working fine. My fuses were not burnt as I have AutoRCM enabled.
I hope you had AutoRCM enabled too, as I think your fuses would burn when the console tries to reboot after the update if it was not enabled.
Although maybe the fuses wouldn't burn as your reboot would be on your SysNAND which is still on a lower firmware, but I think the update gives the command to the bootloader to burn the fuses regardless of the firmware that the Switch is being booted to.

I did a backup of the Emunand files on my computer by copy-pasting them from the SD card.

I merged the four parts of full.bin using windows cmd :

copy /b full.00.bin + full.01.bin + full.02.bin + full.03.bin full.bin

I then opened the newly created full.bin using hacdiskmount and double-clicked on the USER partition.
At the bottom of the previous screen, the log showed that the secondary GPT had an offset error.
I input the two parts of BIS Key 3 (I obtained them using biskeydump v7) and clicked to test them. The verification failed.
I mounted the USER partition anyway after installing the Virtual Drive driver.

I then used this tool to retrieve my game saves and unpack them :
I copied all the folders located in the "save" folder of the newly mounted EmuNAND USER partition to the "save" folder of the tool.
I double-clicked "run.bat".
All your saves are now located in the "out" directory.
I used a previous Checkpoint saves backup to figure out which folder corresponds to which game, and moved them all in their respective game folder (in the Checkpoint folder of my SD card).

I booted on SysNAND, restored the saves using Checkpoint, and confirmed that they were in working order.

I booted back on the SX Pro bootloader, deleted EmuNAND entirely and created a new Emunand (on firmware 5.1.0 since that's the firmware my SysNAND is on)!


Voilà, if you follow the same procedure I did (and have not burned your fuses because you had enabled AutoRCM before the accidental update), you now have a fully working EmuNAND back on a lower firmware and you can now forget about this whole ordeal!!

I know this is old but I hope this works in my situation.

I unpatched Switch nand is on 9.0 and the emunand was also on this version.

While on the phone distracted, I accidentally pressed the update button when booting up Pokémon Sword and now I’ve lost my legitimate Zamazenta and Rillaboom that I had transferred over from my vanilla Switch to help with raids

I don’t have autorcm, I normally use the jig and just leave it on sleep mode all the time while in emunand.

Anyways, I will try this after Christmas and see how it goes cause my jig is at home. What a bummer, I really hope I can restore my saves back with my Pokémon...

 

[Evilengine]

Hello, thank you a lot for explaning and giving information on how to get the save files, it really worked.
But these hard to identify numbers and letters as folder names is really hard, I started so many games, it would take me several hours if not days to figure all of them out, probably with some form of duplicate finder, but even then.
Isn't there any tool, that helps to identify those recovered save files somehow? Hoped the Switch Backup Manager had a function like that, but nope...

edit: https://switchbrew.org/w/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
This also is not helping, as the numbering is not identical to the usual title ID's..
It seems more like they are numbered one after another in a way...

edit²: I was wondering, if it is just possible to take those extracts from the old SXOS emuNAND and just put them into the completely redone atmosphere emuNAND? I dont know if this numbered titles are always the same or generated by install order...
edit³: Probably will try that route described here:

 

[ZeRoX98]

Hello, thank you a lot for explaning and giving information on how to get the save files, it really worked.
But these hard to identify numbers and letters as folder names is really hard, I started so many games, it would take me several hours if not days to figure all of them out, probably with some form of duplicate finder, but even then.
Isn't there any tool, that helps to identify those recovered save files somehow? Hoped the Switch Backup Manager had a function like that, but nope...

edit: https://switchbrew.org/w/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
This also is not helping, as the numbering is not identical to the usual title ID's..
It seems more like they are numbered one after another in a way...

edit²: I was wondering, if it is just possible to take those extracts from the old SXOS emuNAND and just put them into the completely redone atmosphere emuNAND? I dont know if this numbered titles are always the same or generated by install order...
edit³: Probably will try that route described here:

I am actually in the same situation right now. My switch wouldn't boot into atmosphere all of a sudden (stuck on Nintendo Logo). Had to just format the entire card and start from scratch. Obviously, I copied all the files/folders from the SD card before doing so. I'm able to boot in fine now, but couldn't backup my more recent saves via Checkpoint before this occurred.

So as I was using that tool to extract the saves, I noticed that some of text running through the bat file had some names of the games. So I ran the bat file via CMD (and not by clicking on the bat file), so that the CMD window would not close when it completed. Copied the text into notepad to read through it. So what I've noticed is that some of the file names references the name of the game and you may be able to figure out what the saves belong to.

Here's a small sample I copied here.

D:\Temp\Consoles\Switch\extract nand gamesave>hactoolnet.exe -t save "save/000000000000002f" --outdir "out/000000000000002f"
Header hash is Valid
/MarioGalaxy/GameData.bin
/MarioSunshine/B1317A6632265CF763766CF6339AC8D1.cache
/MarioSunshine/A.sav
/Mario64/Mario64.sav
/StardustLauncher/game_data.sav
/PlayReport/account.prsav

So clearly, for this save, it's for Super Mario 3D All Stars. Unfortunately, a good majority of file names are still quite vague like this one below:

D:\Temp\Consoles\Switch\extract nand gamesave>hactoolnet.exe -t save "save/000000000000003d" --outdir "out/000000000000003d"
Header hash is Valid
/system_backup
/system

If you figure out more information, I would love to know as well. I would really like to get my saves back but if it's too much, then I'll have have to bite the bullet and start some of my games all over again.


Update #1: I think this might work as this just came to me.
1. Start up game. Create an entirely new save file for it.
2. Back it up via Checkpoint.
3. Go to the folder of that game in Checkpoint folder (eg. \SD\switch\Checkpoint\saves\[TitleID]\
4. Take a look at the name of some of the files and copy one of the file names. Take a note of the names of the files, the file types and number of files.
5. If you copied the text from the bat file I mentioned earlier, you can do a search for some of the file names in there. You'll have to compare the file names, the file types, and number of files.

For example, I just tried it for the game: Steam World Dig. In the checkpoint save folder, it has 4 files:

controls.cfg
profile_0.xml
savegame_0.dat
session.xml

Just by looking at the names, it's not very clear as to what game they belong to if you didn't already know beforehand. However, I did a search in the text I gathered from the bat file earlier and it matches up with this:

D:\Temp\Consoles\Switch\extract nand gamesave>hactoolnet.exe -t save "save/0000000000000080" --outdir "out/0000000000000080"
Header hash is Valid
/savegame_0.dat
/session.xml
/profile_0.xml
/controls.cfg

So I think it's a very good chance that this save belongs to Steam World Dig.

I have yet to attempt a restore but I think this is a good step in the right direction.

Update #2: I can confirm what I described above works. I managed to locate the save files for the associated game.

1. I created a new save for a game, backed it up with Checkpoint.
2. Looked at the file names/types. Did a search for one of the file names against the text gathered from the bat file.
3. Compared the names, types, and number of files. All checked out.
4. Located the folder and copied over to the switch via Goldleaf (USB) and placed it in the proper Checkpoint save folder.
5. Started up Checkpoint and restored the save.
6. Booted up the game, checked the save and it was my most recent save.
7. Save loads properly and all is well it seems.

It's not the most elegant solution but this definitely seems to work. Give it a try. Let me know if you're not understanding what I have done here.

 

[Evilengine]

Thank you for your long explaining answer.
Actually, that tool mentioned in the Reddit thread, found here:
https://gbatemp.net/attachments/libhac-with-saveextractscript-v2-zip.164018/
Is very much, like the one used before BUT it separates folders for different users and the folders have the actual title id, which makes coordination way easier!
If you already extracted the "save" folder from that old system, just drag it into the saveextractscript v2 folder and start the "run.bat"

 

[ZeRoX98]

Thank you for your long explaining answer.
Actually, that tool mentioned in the Reddit thread, found here:
https://gbatemp.net/attachments/libhac-with-saveextractscript-v2-zip.164018/
Is very much, like the one used before BUT it separates folders for different users and the folders have the actual title id, which makes coordination way easier!
If you already extracted the "save" folder from that old system, just drag it into the saveextractscript v2 folder and start the "run.bat"

Oh nice. This is definitely better and saves some leg work. Unfortunately, it seems that the switchbrew database doesn't have all the Title IDs so you may still need to do my method above for the ones not listed.

However, I found that tinfoil's database seems to have more up to date information and a better user interface:
https://tinfoil.io/Title/

Just plug in the Title ID in the search text box.

This may not have all the Title IDs but I've found significantly more matches with this database than switchbrew's.

 

[Evilengine]

its exactly what I did. ^^ Having the Title ID is a big help for sure, sadly my Undermine save was not there, I guess its in another NAND, but I spent some 40 hours with it and I dont want anyone elses save :F