Tutorial Simple Guide to Downgrading your 3DS

[Dylan the Tactician]

-snip-

it works

 

[Yhaby05]

Hi, i just downgraded my new 3ds xl from 9.7 to 9.2. Do i need to delete the files i put in my sd card? And are there any risks (hardbrick) in installing cfw? Thank you

 

[gallymimu]

Hi, i just downgraded my new 3ds xl from 9.7 to 9.2. Do i need to delete the files i put in my sd card? And are there any risks (hardbrick) in installing cfw? Thank you

you can delete whatever you want off the SD card I guess. It's up to you. Not sure what files you are talking about (updates? for FW 9.2 downgrade?)

There is always risk when you muck about with stuff. I do not think CFW is more risky than the downgrade but you can absolutely break your 3ds if you do something wrong like deleting a title that you need off SYSNAND, or if you install a CIA that breaks SYSNAND.

If you read and study the forums and the tutorials you should be fine. If you are looking for an easy way to piracy you are much more likely to permanently ruin your 3ds or to find that you put way more time into doing this stuff than it is worth.

 

[Yhaby05]

you can delete whatever you want off the SD card I guess. It's up to you. Not sure what files you are talking about (updates? for FW 9.2 downgrade?)

There is always risk when you muck about with stuff. I do not think CFW is more risky than the downgrade but you can absolutely break your 3ds if you do something wrong like deleting a title that you need off SYSNAND, or if you install a CIA that breaks SYSNAND.

If you read and study the forums and the tutorials you should be fine. If you are looking for an easy way to piracy you are much more likely to permanently ruin your 3ds or to find that you put way more time into doing this stuff than it is worth.

Hi, thank you for the response Yes, I'm talking about the 9.2 cia files and the sysupfate files, they still give me creeps!
I only want to play mhx english patched. And i believe theres no other way other than cfw or gateway cart. Thanks again

 

[RemixDeluxe]

So downgrading still works even after this maintenance that occurred today?

 

[waffletower]

Quick question: can I block my new 3DS from automatically downloading updates and spamming me with PLEASE UPDATE TEH CONSOLE via DNS or something? I don't have the message yet, but I don't want to eventually have it.

In sysNAND settings, you can set your DNS to Smealum's TubeHax DNS - 107.211.140.065 to allow internet access, but block Nintendo's update servers from connecting. You should not do this in emuNAND from what I've been told, though. Also, a rumor has it that Nintendo may be using a new URL for its updates soon, which will prevent the TubeHax DNS from blocking updates.

I literally don't know any of this as fact. With my degree of technical logic, I know that

1) Set DNS to 107.211.140.065
2) Magic stuff
3) Big bad Nintendo can't punish me for Yoho

 

[porko]

just did my 3rd today, o3ds, first try!

my 2ds took about 5 tries.

my n3ds took about 15, and sysupdater seemed to launch more often with the ftpbrony trick.

 

[XyracX]

Hey guys, just a quick question, don't want to open a new thread. I want to use a 64GB micro SD on my n3DS. Is it okay if it stays on exFat with 128kb cluster, or is FAT32 & 32kb cluster a must ? Want to use it inside the n3DS, no Gateway !

EDIT : Nevermind, found out that FAT32 is a must ! 32kb or 64kb cluster is okay.

 

[Horbz]

Well you guys are lucky. I have a European N3DS XL (Monster Hunter Edition). Trying it for 4 days now, about 2 hours every day. I tried different hax (Browserhax, Menuhax and Ninjhax), different sysUpdater versions and two different Micro SD cards. Freshly formatted in FAT32. First tries with Mac OS, then I changed to Windows to avoid any "._" files. I always made shure to pick the right CIA files for my system and double checked the MD5. Some combinations work better (at least to the point where I can press "Y" to downgrade). But I get this "failed to get CIA file info" error every damn time.

I think I'm done for now, this is way too frustrating for me.

 

[ArchangelPT]

Hey, i followed it to the letter but i get frozen in the sysupdater screen. I press Y or B and nothing happens.

I have an O3DS, my firmware is 10.3.0-28E and i'm using the browserhax as an entrypoint

 

[Faru]

I successfully (I think) downgraded my US N3DS yesterday.

I got stuck at "Rebooting in 10 seconds..." and decided to reboot it myself.
I'm in 9.2 now and everything seems fine, but something doesn't feel right because of what happened earlier. Am I fucked?

 

[escherbach]

Hey, i followed it to the letter but i get frozen in the sysupdater screen. I press Y or B and nothing happens.

I have an O3DS, my firmware is 10.2.0-28E and i'm using the browserhax as an entrypoint

Have you turned wifi on?

I didn't realise wifi had to be on (and successfully connected to an access point) and had the problem you describe, after setting up wifi from the nintendo home menu I then rebooted into menuhax (by holding L + down while booting), checked wifi light was on then system updater ran first time (Y to downgrade)

I was on 10.3.0-28E on an old 3ds xl and am now back on 9.2.0-20E (I had disabled wifi to prevent accidental system update from nintendo)

edit: additional step that might help is to open FTbrony and press B to exit - I think I did that as well after all the posts reporting that it helps (for some unknown reason)

 

[hirvimies]

I successfully (I think) downgraded my US N3DS yesterday.

I got stuck at "Rebooting in 10 seconds..." and decided to reboot it myself.
I'm in 9.2 now and everything seems fine, but something doesn't feel right because of what happened earlier. Am I fucked?

No you're not fucked. I had one of my N3DS acting the same way and I turned it off after 5 or maybe 10 minutes. It works like a charm now, got .cias installed and everything so you can feel safe.

 

[Faru]

No you're not fucked. I had one of my N3DS acting the same way and I turned it off after 5 or maybe 10 minutes. It works like a charm now, got .cias installed and everything so you can feel safe.

That takes a load off my chest.

Thanks

 

[SmashMan4]

Decided to downgrade my 3ds so I can play more games. Did it with success. So what do I do now?

 

[inhenccee]

Decided to downgrade my 3ds so I can play more games. Did it with success. So what do I do now?

Install rxtools and fbi to install .cia files.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-installing-rxtools-custom-firmware-3ds-and-2ds.390867/

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

this probably isnt the place, but what do you use to install cia files in sysnand? Im trying to play gba games, and I already have the .cia file of it.

 

[OmegaPikachu]

So this works on the latest 10.3 firmware correct?

I was gonna try to get one of those Pokemon New 3DS this february and if they come with 10.x I wanted to make sure this worked on them.

 

[hirvimies]

So this works on the latest 10.3 firmware correct?

I was gonna try to get one of those Pokemon New 3DS this february and if they come with 10.x I wanted to make sure this worked on them.

That depends. If you're going to use browserhax on them, and 10.4 already is out, Nintendo can force you to update if you want to use the browser which make the hax unusable for you. Pray to the spirit of Iwata that Nintendo doesn't release a new FW before releasing the console.

 

[Nazosan]

Uhm, since when does it require an update to use the browser? I just used BrowserHax on the 9.1 Japanese N3DS I just got to setup MenuHax and all. It just worked right out of the box. sysNAND remains on the 9.1 it shipped with and I neither upgraded nor downgraded. (Which really takes a load off my mind because the N3DS is still quite a lot more likely to fail than the O3DS it seems, even if it's usually a soft-brick.) It was only some really old systems that didn't ship with the full browser pre-loaded as I understand it.

But Nintendo is probably considering all this khax stuff to be a huge priority. It may well be that something coming out this coming month will be updated even if they have to pull them out of boxes and do it manually...


BTW, on the DNS blocking thing, I saw a much better method suggested a long time ago on a Reddit article. Setup a free OpenDNS.com account. Setup a network and block these addresses in the blocking settings (with the blocking level set to "none" so it only blocks these addresses): c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.cdn.c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.cdn.shop.wii.com nus.cdn.wup.shop.nintendo.net nus.wup.shop.nintendo.net Then just set the system to use both of their DNS servers for DNS. The cool thing about this method is if things go horribly wrong you can just delete those blocks temporarily and put them back when you're done. Much safer than the Tubehax server and probably a lot faster since it's a real major DNS service. If Nintendo gets new DNS addresses you can block those the same way. Though this begs the question of if they'll do DNS at all. If they're smart they'll probably hardcode some specific IP addresses (or perhaps just one and have in redirect as needed.) That would have to be blocked in router settings I guess. But this wouldn't matter for us because they can't actually push changes like that into older system files somehow. Meaning either way our systems will still use the old addresses which can still be blocked in the same manner as always. Thus we can just use this and be safe regardless.

 

[hirvimies]

Uhm, since when does it require an update to use the browser? I just used BrowserHax on the 9.1 Japanese N3DS I just got to setup MenuHax and all. It just worked right out of the box. sysNAND remains on the 9.1 it shipped with and I neither upgraded nor downgraded. (Which really takes a load off my mind because the N3DS is still quite a lot more likely to fail than the O3DS it seems, even if it's usually a soft-brick.) It was only some really old systems that didn't ship with the full browser pre-loaded as I understand it.

But Nintendo is probably considering all this khax stuff to be a huge priority. It may well be that something coming out this coming month will be updated even if they have to pull them out of boxes and do it manually...


BTW, on the DNS blocking thing, I saw a much better method suggested a long time ago on a Reddit article. Setup a free OpenDNS.com account. Setup a network and block these addresses in the blocking settings (with the blocking level set to "none" so it only blocks these addresses): c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.cdn.c.shop.nintendowifi.net nus.cdn.shop.wii.com nus.cdn.wup.shop.nintendo.net nus.wup.shop.nintendo.net Then just set the system to use both of their DNS servers for DNS. The cool thing about this method is if things go horribly wrong you can just delete those blocks temporarily and put them back when you're done. Much safer than the Tubehax server and probably a lot faster since it's a real major DNS service. If Nintendo gets new DNS addresses you can block those the same way. Though this begs the question of if they'll do DNS at all. If they're smart they'll probably hardcode some specific IP addresses (or perhaps just one and have in redirect as needed.) That would have to be blocked in router settings I guess. But this wouldn't matter for us because they can't actually push changes like that into older system files somehow. Meaning either way our systems will still use the old addresses which can still be blocked in the same manner as always. Thus we can just use this and be safe regardless.

From version >9.9 what I've read so it's no problem for your 9.1 N3DS. So if OmegaPikachu wants to upgrade his 10.3 N3DS, and 10.4 has been released, the browser is going to ask him to update before using it.