Hardware Switch 101

[zomborg]

When it finally arrives, My hackable switch has had a previous owner. I am guessing they probably have a Nintendo account so they can use eshop. I am also guessing but fairly certain that they haven't used the account since early 2018. That is when their switch stopped charging.
With that in mind, I read somewhere on gbatemp, if nintendo bans you, they do not ban your account, they ban your console. As a side note, I have another switch that I use for online play. It is hackable but I'm not going to hack it. I think I will just leave my nintendo account on the console I currently use for online play.
So my question is, once I receive my switch that I will be hacking and have hacked it, did a nand backup and backed up anything else that's relevant (boot 0/1), if at some point I decide I want to do anything online with it and say I slip up and get banned, is it better to have the previous owners account linked to the banned switch versus having my account linked to it?
Also, since the switch is previously used, I suppose the nand is considered a dirty nand?

 

[Snomannen_kalle]

When it finally arrives, My hackable switch has had a previous owner. I am guessing they probably have a Nintendo account so they can use eshop. I am also guessing but fairly certain that they haven't used the account since early 2018. That is when their switch stopped charging.
With that in mind, I read somewhere on gbatemp, if nintendo bans you, they do not ban your account, they ban your console. As a side note, I have another switch that I use for online play. It is hackable but I'm not going to hack it. I think I will just leave my nintendo account on the console I currently use for online play.
So my question is, once I receive my switch that I will be hacking and have hacked it, did a nand backup and backed up anything else that's relevant (boot 0/1), if at some point I decide I want to do anything online with it and say I slip up and get banned, is it better to have the previous owners account linked to the banned switch versus having my account linked to it?
Also, since the switch is previously used, I suppose the nand is considered a dirty nand?

Isn't it possible to unlink the previous owner's account? And regarding the NAND -- it is only considered 'dirty' if you have ran any CFW on it, so if you back up the NAND in Hekate before you run ReiNX, Atmosphere or SX OS (and the previous owner didn't run CFW either), the NAND is clean

Edit: The previous owner's account can be unlinked from the device by deleting the user profile from the console. I would do that before you run any CFW on your Switch -- that way, you don't need to worry about account bans (they do occur, but I think console bans are more common). But you probably want to do that regardless, and make your own user accounts

 

[zomborg]

Thank you for the advice Snommanen_Kalle. I am almost 100% positive the lady who was the previous owner did not run CFW on it. She didn't play it at all. She bought it for her 8 year old child and it stopped charging not long after she bought it.
Also she is not a gamer so I think the only reason she created a Nintendo account was so her kid could play. She may never use the account again.
That's why I was wondering if I should just leave her account on there. That way if an account was going to be linked to a ban it would not be mine

 

[Snomannen_kalle]

Thank you for the advice Snommanen_Kalle. I am almost 100% positive the lady who was the previous owner did not run CFW on it. She didn't play it at all. She bought it for her 8 year old child and it stopped charging not long after she bought it.
Also she is not a gamer so I think the only reason she created a Nintendo account was so her kid could play. She may never use the account again.
That's why I was wondering if I should just leave her account on there. That way if an account was going to be linked to a ban it would not be mine

I see. You don't really need an account on it that is linked to Nintendo though, you could use different accounts on this Switch and your main Switch (i.e. one on your main Switch, linked to Nintendo, used for online play; and another account on your secondary Switch, not linked to Nintendo in any way, used for homebrew and CFW). That way, the account on your secondary Switch would not be associated with your primary Switch in any way in case of a ban

 

[zomborg]

I see. You don't really need an account on it that is linked to Nintendo though, you could use different accounts on this Switch and your main Switch (i.e. one on your main Switch, linked to Nintendo, used for online play; and another account on your secondary Switch, not linked to Nintendo in any way, used for homebrew and CFW). That way, the account on your secondary Switch would not be associated with your primary Switch in any way in case of a ban

That's true, I wouldn't even have to have a Nintendo account at all on the new switch. Thank you that's a great idea.
It just hit me, if the new switch has a ton of cool eshop games on it, what are my options before I delete her old account? Would there be any way to keep and play those games or back them up?

 

[Snomannen_kalle]

That's true, I wouldn't even have to have a Nintendo account at all on the new switch. Thank you that's a great idea.
It just hit me, if the new switch has a ton of cool eshop games on it, what are my options before I delete her old account? Would there be any way to keep and play those games or back them up?

Glad to be of help

If you do a NAND dump with the games installed, you can rip the .NSPs directly from the NAND dump (explained in this thread) and install them again after you delete the old account

 

[zomborg]

Glad to be of help

If you do a NAND dump with the games installed, you can rip the .NSPs directly from the NAND dump (explained in this thread) and install them again after you delete the old account

Ok thank you for the advice and the link. So after I dump them and delete the old account, once they are reinstalled, is there any way nintendo can know that I did not purchase them but instead they were purchased by someone else's account?

 

[Snomannen_kalle]

Ok thank you for the advice and the link. So after I dump them and delete the old account, once they are reinstalled, is there any way nintendo can know that I did not purchase them but instead they were purchased by someone else's account?

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that. You could try to ask that question here, the people answering questions in that thread might now

 

[zomborg]

Ok thank you anyhow. You've been very helpful