Hacking SWITCH NOOB PARADISE - Ask questions here

[Hayato213]

Hi! Great community you guys have here! Loving the forums, so much information!

TL;DR; Can *any* Nintendo Switch be softmoded? I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

I am dying to buy a Nintendo Switch for me and my daughter to play together for quite some time, and now I finally can afford one. I live in Brazil and the estratospherical taxes plus the devalued currency makes it very costy. Sadly, it also makes the games very expensive. That's why I'm looking for soft mod solutions so I can have some games to play from the start.

The problem is that I can't really find a definitive answer to my question: can *any* Nintendo Switch model/version be soft modded or I may end up with a expensive console without any games to play?

You need a V1 unpatched unit. If you get a V1 patched or V2 Motherboard you would need a SX OS Modchip very hard to source.

Use the link to use a reference to unpatch serial #.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/switch-...he-first-post-before-asking-questions.481215/

 

[JBizzle3rd]

You need a V1 unpatched unit. If you get a V1 patched or V2 Motherboard you would need a SX OS Modchip very hard to source.

Use the link to use a reference to unpatch serial #.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/switch-...he-first-post-before-asking-questions.481215/

Hi! Great community you guys have here! Loving the forums, so much information!

TL;DR; Can *any* Nintendo Switch be softmoded? I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

I've been dying to buy a Nintendo Switch for me and my daughter to play together for quite some time, and now I finally can afford one. I live in Brazil and the estratospherical taxes plus the devalued currency makes it very costy. Sadly, it also makes the games very expensive. That's why I'm looking for soft mod solutions so I can have some games to play from the start.

The problem is that I can't really find a definitive answer to my question: can *any* Nintendo Switch model/version be soft modded or I may end up with a expensive console without any games to play?

edit: I've read the FAQ and most likely any new Switch will be 100% patched, but I also read in other places that you can use CFW+emuNAND with these patched devices. So I can't get to a conclusion.

I believe if you can find a mario kart bundle switch it will be an unpatched one. all that inflation and economic collapse is coming to America soon thanks to joe biden so we will be in the same boat soon my friend. Stay strong

 

[Xzi]

After the following the guide linked in OP, I can't seem to boot into Atmosphere for the first time. After accessing RCM and injecting the payload, I get the Atmosphere logo and splash screen to appear for a couple seconds, but then it changes to the Nintendo Switch logo and boots into OFW. I'm on firmware 12.0.2, using Atmosphere 0.19.3, and I tried both the latest Hekate payload (5.5.6) and fusee_primary with the same result. I'm using a 200GB exFAT SD card, but I also tried with a 16GB FAT32 card, no different.

Anybody know what I'm missing here?

 

[Draxzelex]

After the following the guide linked in OP, I can't seem to boot into Atmosphere for the first time. After accessing RCM and injecting the payload, I get the Atmosphere logo and splash screen to appear for a couple seconds, but then it changes to the Nintendo Switch logo and boots into OFW. I'm on firmware 12.0.2, using Atmosphere 0.19.3, and I tried both the latest Hekate payload (5.5.6) and fusee_primary with the same result. I'm using a 200GB exFAT SD card, but I also tried with a 16GB FAT32 card, no different.

Anybody know what I'm missing here?

How are you sure it is OFW? Booting into Atmosphere doesn't change the way the Home menu screen looks like so initially, it will look like OFW but in reality you would be in CFW. Does trying to launch the Album boot into the homebrew menu?

 

[Xzi]

How are you sure it is OFW? Booting into Atmosphere doesn't change the way the Home menu screen looks like so initially, it will look like OFW but in reality you would be in CFW.

Oh okay, so all my games from OFW should appear on the home menu as normal in Atmosphere? I'll have to double-check, but I don't think I had icons for any of the utilities I included with my setup package.

 

[Draxzelex]

Oh okay, so all my games from OFW should appear on the home menu as normal in Atmosphere? I'll have to double-check, but I don't think I had icons for any of the utilities I included with my setup package.

CFW is merely an alternative way of booting the console. Any games installed to the console will appear no matter how you boot it up. Any homebrew applications that you may have downloaded do not appear on the Home menu screen unless manually installed first; they initially populate the homebrew menu which you can access by tapping the Album icon.

 

[Xzi]

Any homebrew applications that you may have downloaded do not appear on the Home menu screen unless manually installed first; they initially populate the homebrew menu which you can access by tapping the Album icon.

Gotcha, guess I just assumed there would be some clear indicator on the home menu that I was using Atmosphere and not OFW.

 

[Draxzelex]

Gotcha, guess I just assumed there would be some clear indicator on the home menu that I was using Atmosphere and not OFW.

It will not be different on the home menu but under System Settings, if you scroll down to where your firmware version would be listed, it will appear different if you are using Atmosphere versus OFW.

 

[Xzi]

It will not be different on the home menu but under System Settings, if you scroll down to where your firmware version would be listed, it will appear different if you are using Atmosphere versus OFW.

Got it working, thanks for your help. I wasn't even seeing the Hekate menu on my Switch previously, injecting the payload would just send it straight to Atmosphere, but after I dropped the sigpatches from this forum onto my SD everything appears to be working properly.

 

[HMiranda]

I ended up buying a second hand Switch, it came unlocked (atmosphere) but I'm quite sure it's not using emuNAND (it was unlocked a little over 2 years ago) but directly on sysNAND.
Also, he didn't had a backup of the original NAND. And the firmware version is quite old (3.1 iirc).

I was thinking of resetting it in order to update the firmware and re-unlock it while maintaining sysNAND and emuNAND so I could play online and use NSO. Can it be done without the original NAND backup? COuld someone link me to a guide for it?

Edit: the previous owner garanteed that the console haven't been banned since he never used it online after he unlocked it.

 

[Draxzelex]

I ended up buying a second hand Switch, it came unlocked (atmosphere) but I'm quite sure it's not using emuNAND (it was unlocked a little over 2 years ago) but directly on sysNAND.
Also, he didn't had a backup of the original NAND. And the firmware version is quite old (3.1 iirc).

I was thinking of resetting it in order to update the firmware and re-unlock it while maintaining sysNAND and emuNAND so I could play online and use NSO. Can it be done without the original NAND backup? COuld someone link me to a guide for it?

Edit: the previous owner garanteed that the console haven't been banned since he never used it online after he unlocked it.

While you certainly can perform a factory reset, this alone will not guarantee that the console will become clean. It has been well known that factory resets do not prevents bans and people have been banned even after performing one. That being said, without a clean eMMC backup, you don't stand to lose anything by not performing a factory reset but you should be aware that it alone is not sufficient to prevent a ban depending on what the previous owner did. Even if its not banned now, with no way to effectively remove all traces of CFW or homebrew has the potential to get you banned one day.

 

[HMiranda]

So I can never safely have a EmuNAND and SysNAND running at the same time if I don't have the clean backup, right?
Is it the only time I can have a clean backup? Before the first unlock? Not even by upgrading the firmware I can get another?

 

[Draxzelex]

So I can never safely have a EmuNAND and SysNAND running at the same time if I don't have the clean backup, right?
Is it the only time I can have a clean backup? Before the first unlock? Not even by upgrading the firmware I can get another?

There is no clean method of removing traces of CFW or homebrew without an eMMC backup. Using official means won't remove all traces and the console can track any wipes that a potential homebrew app may try to clean up. Updating the firmware has no effect on what was previously done to it.

 

[HMiranda]

There is no clean method of removing traces of CFW or homebrew without an eMMC backup. Using official means won't remove all traces and the console can track any wipes that a potential homebrew app may try to clean up. Updating the firmware has no effect on what was previously done to it.

What about Haku33? I just learned about it, it's a cleaning tool that is supposed to clean a unlocked NAND. Doesn't it works anymore?

Edit: I can't post links but it has it's own topic here on gbatemp.

 

[Draxzelex]

What about Haku33? I just learned about it, it's a cleaning tool that is supposed to clean a unlocked NAND. Doesn't it works anymore?

Edit: I can't post links but it has it's own topic here on gbatemp.

As I stated previously, the console can track any wipes that a potential homebrew app may try to clean up. In fact, someone has already been banned after using it so it is possible that it causes more harm than good.

 

[Hayato213]

What about Haku33? I just learned about it, it's a cleaning tool that is supposed to clean a unlocked NAND. Doesn't it works anymore?

Edit: I can't post links but it has it's own topic here on gbatemp.

Haku33 isn't an effective method, the only effective method is clean NAND backup.

 

[SkyDX]

How do I update Atmosphere with Sigpatches correctly? My emuMMC is still on 11.0. Should I update Atmosphere just by replacing the files and then use Daybreak to update and then apply the new Sigpatches or should I update the Sigpatches first?

EDIT: I updated Hekate and Atmosphere now and it still launches my 11.0 emuMMC but I can't launch any Homebrew. I can get into the Homebrew Loader via the Gallery but if I launch Checkpoint for example everything crashes :/

EDIT 2: Okay it's just Checkpoint which crashes the system, if I launch HBL through a game and try to launch Checkpoint the whole system doesn't crash but I get "An error occured" and I get booted back to the Home Menu.

I updated Checkpoint to the latest version too and I really need it right now. Is it because I still run emuMMC on 11.0?

I wouldn't mind updating my emuMMC but I'll absolutely not launch sysMMC with Atmosphere.

EDIT 3: JKSV did the trick

But yeah is there a way to update my emuMMC with Daybreak without booting sysMMC with Atmosphere?

 

[masdler1]

If you have a clean eMMC backup, now would be the time to restore it. And just as an aside, even if you did burn fuses, this would not prevent you from restoring your backup. This would only prevent you from being able to boot up the console without RCM. And since consoles hackable via RCM can always be hacked, fuses become a non-issue as long as you don't mind using the RCM exploit for your console's lifespan.

I see. I still checked and havent burnt any fuses after I did the clean nand backup. So I can have autoRCM mode on when doing the nand restore and everything should be fine?

Also the emunand is completly separated from sysnand so I can have different fw on each partitions? Like after I restore my nand, could I update my switch to the newest version and then do the emunand or would it be better to do the emunand as soon as I have restored the nand?

 

[Draxzelex]

How do I update Atmosphere with Sigpatches correctly? My emuMMC is still on 11.0. Should I update Atmosphere just by replacing the files and then use Daybreak to update and then apply the new Sigpatches or should I update the Sigpatches first?

EDIT: I updated Hekate and Atmosphere now and it still launches my 11.0 emuMMC but I can't launch any Homebrew. I can get into the Homebrew Loader via the Gallery but if I launch Checkpoint for example everything crashes :/

EDIT 2: Okay it's just Checkpoint which crashes the system, if I launch HBL through a game and try to launch Checkpoint the whole system doesn't crash but I get "An error occured" and I get booted back to the Home Menu.

I updated Checkpoint to the latest version too and I really need it right now. Is it because I still run emuMMC on 11.0?

I wouldn't mind updating my emuMMC but I'll absolutely not launch sysMMC with Atmosphere.

EDIT 3: JKSV did the trick

But yeah is there a way to update my emuMMC with Daybreak without booting sysMMC with Atmosphere?

Its good you were able to resolve your problem because quite frankly, there is no reason for homebrew to stop working after simply updating Atmosphere. Anyway, to answer your final question, Daybreak updates whatever it is running in so you don't need to do anything special outside of running Daybreak in emuMMC to update emuMMC.

I see. I still checked and havent burnt any fuses after I did the clean nand backup. So I can have autoRCM mode on when doing the nand restore and everything should be fine?

Also the emunand is completly separated from sysnand so I can have different fw on each partitions? Like after I restore my nand, could I update my switch to the newest version and then do the emunand or would it be better to do the emunand as soon as I have restored the nand?

Yes, you can have AutoRCM enabled before the restoration and it will not cause any issues. If you happen to have enabled AutoRCM before dumping your eMMC, it will remain enabled after the restore. And yes, emuMMC is completely separated from sysMMC in terms of software so you can have completely different firmware versions on both. The order in which you update emuMMC and sysMMC is not particularly important since they both will reach the same end goal.

 

[SkyDX]

Its good you were able to resolve your problem because quite frankly, there is no reason for homebrew to stop working after simply updating Atmosphere. Anyway, to answer your final question, Daybreak updates whatever it is running in so you don't need to do anything special outside of running Daybreak in emuMMC to update emuMMC.

Yes, you can have AutoRCM enabled before the restoration and it will not cause any issues. If you happen to have enabled AutoRCM before dumping your eMMC, it will remain enabled after the restore. And yes, emuMMC is completely separated from sysMMC in terms of software so you can have completely different firmware versions on both. The order in which you update emuMMC and sysMMC is not particularly important since they both will reach the same end goal.

Yeah I get that but where do I get the update-data from if not from sysMMC? Is it downloadable in the same way you can download iOS and PS3/4/5 firmware files on PC somehow?