Vita owners might be excited to know that thanks to the efforts of TheFl0w, that something big is on the way, soon. If you're on FW 3.60, now you'll be able to play games from higher firmwares, such as 3.65. Adrenaline and Henkaku Enso have already been updated to support 3.65 as well. You'll need to update using TheFl0w's method, as there's no native support for Vitas currently on 3.65 yet, though a release for that is in the works for later down the line. He has extensively tested this current method and will be releasing it today, at UTC+1 23:00.

Source

You can see a list of games that require FW 3.61+ here.

Release

Pros

• You will be able to access the PSN store, activate your device and download your purchased games again (only as long as Sony doesn't decide to release a new update that prevents you from doing that).
• You will be able to play all games that were released for firmwares 3.61-3.65.

Cons

• You will not be able to downgrade back to 3.60 if you find that this custom firmware doesn't suit you.
• You can lose the ability to run homebrews, if you modify the OS and end up in a semi-brick where you are forced to reinstall the firmware. This should however not happen to a regular user, but I'd rather not install applications that modify read-only partitions like os0: or vs0:.
• Some applications may not work on the new firmware and need to be ported.

 

[Deleted member 381889]

I've been reading through the posts. Am I reading this correctly? If I've messed up something, and I do a system restore, it restores without Henkaku, and I lose Henkaku altogether? It doesn't restore back to a fresh Henkaku? I thought the option "update system software" was somewhat obvious, in that you lose Henkaku. But you also lose it with restore? My vita is currently semi-bricked.

Restoring your Vita on 3.65 does not delete HENkaku.

 

[Emankcin]

Restoring your Vita on 3.65 does not delete HENkaku.

Ok. The only thing that gives me pause about this was that ominous warning on TheFlow's release page, about losing the ability to play homebrew. For all intents and purposes, in it's current state, my Vita is useless. I may, or may not be able to fix it, but I need to explore all options before I commit to one.

 

[cracker]

Restoring 3.65 DOES remove Henkaku and leaves you without a way to ever get it back unless other exploits are found.

Are you on 3.65 currently or still on 3.60?

 

[Emankcin]

Restoring 3.65 DOES remove Henkaku and leaves you without a way to ever get it back unless other exploits are found.

Are you on 3.65 currently or still on 3.60?

I am currently on Henkaku 3.65 Enso. My vita is currently semi-bricked... Useless, for all intents and purposes. It works, but whenever I launch a game or app, all of the buttons are unresponsive, including vitashell. They are responsive, however, in molecularshell. Vitashell is 1.82. Don't know if that helps. Prior to the problem, I had been trying to get SD2Vita to work. I've gone through all corrective steps of disabling plugins, and rebuilding databases.

 

[cracker]

You can reset the system safely according to TheFloW, just not restore the firmware. First, make a backup of at least VitaShell with open/CMA.

I don't know if it is related (since it was on 3.60) but I would have the key lag/softlock problem. I solved it by removing the adapter and rebuilding the database then putting it back in and rebuilding again.

 

[Emankcin]

You can reset the system safely according to TheFloW, just not restore the firmware. First, make a backup of at least VitaShell with Q/CMA.

I've been reading the forums, and am seeing mixed messages, or reading them wrong. I've read of some people having errors, and restoring the system, and everything being fine. I read one where the person had backed up his stuff via cma, removed his memory card and restored, still had his exploits, but had to reformat all of his memory cards. And another account of someone restoring, then uninstalling Henkaku, and then reinstalling Henkaku. What I was looking at was one of the options of safe mode. Booting in safe mode gives you the following options:
1.) Restart the PS Vita System
2.) Rebuild the database
3.) Format Memory Card
4.) Restore the PS Vita System
5.) Update system software

Obviously, we're staying the hell away from number 5. What I need to figure out before proceeding is if I selected number 4, does it restore it to factory settings, or does it restore to a safer point of the Henkaku firmware? Or does it restore to factory 3.60, where I would have to attempt to reinstall Henkaku?
And if this puts my system without Henkaku, are there other options to possibly restore Henkaku to a safer point? Like maybe through the Henkaku app itself?

I'm gonna start backing up my memory cards through CMA, just in case.

 

[cracker]

I guess it is because of the ambiguity with "restore". 4 is to reset the settings of the system but keeps Henkaku according to TheFloW. However, connecting your Vita to a PC and restoring a PUP of 3.65 FW removes Henkaku.

 

[Emankcin]

I guess it is because of the ambiguity with "restore". 4 is to reset the settings of the system but keeps Henkaku according to TheFloW. However, connecting your Vita to a PC and restoring a PUP of 3.65 FW removes Henkaku.

PUP... That's that file I put into the update folder, right?

 

[cracker]

Yes.

 

[Emankcin]

It remains in the update folder on the vita, I think... So, what you're saying is, if I restore, I may or may not still have Henkaku, but if I do a reinstall with that file, it's game over, man! game over!

 

[Lmaokernel]

It appears vita save manager doesn't work on 3.65 according to reddit. Hmm maybe I'll wait on installing this

Sent from my toaster running Rebug

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It remains in the update folder on the vita, I think... So, what you're saying is, if I restore, I may or may not still have Henkaku, but if I do a reinstall with that file, it's game over, man! game over!

Doing a factory reset on the Vita itself will NOT remove Henkaku, period. I think others (and myself, included) have stated that doing a factory reset will remove Henkaku a few times before this release, but that was only because of some misinformation and some misread statements on various subreddits.

To repeat, doing a factory reset DOES NOT remove Henkaku.

What will remove Henkaku is A) trying to reflash The Flow's 3.65 Enso update. This is because the exploits used to update to 3.65 while keeping Enso isn't actually present on 3.65, only on 3.60 (hence why you had to have 3.60 to do the update). B), reflashing the official 3.65 update. This is, obviously, because you're essentially reverting the OS back to a stock firmware, so no more Enso and no more (public) kernel exploits. And a sort of blanket C) messing with any of the Henkaku files and modules located in vs0.

99.9999999999999999999% of the time, you will never ever ever have to reflash a firmware, period. The only time it would be totally required is if you purposefully soft brick your device by screwing around in vs0 or os0, something no end user would ever do unless they're following malicious tutorials or using malicious apps. The former just requires common sense, the latter is easily avoidable so long as you're using legitimate links for acquiring software.

 

[Emankcin]

Doing a factory reset on the Vita itself will NOT remove Henkaku, period. I think others (and myself, included) have stated that doing a factory reset will remove Henkaku a few times before this release, but that was only because of some misinformation and some misread statements on various subreddits.

To repeat, doing a factory reset DOES NOT remove Henkaku.

What will remove Henkaku is A) trying to reflash The Flow's 3.65 Enso update. This is because the exploits used to update to 3.65 while keeping Enso isn't actually present on 3.65, only on 3.60 (hence why you had to have 3.60 to do the update). B), reflashing the official 3.65 update. This is, obviously, because you're essentially reverting the OS back to a stock firmware, so no more Enso and no more (public) kernel exploits. And a sort of blanket C) messing with any of the Henkaku files and modules located in vs0.

99.9999999999999999999% of the time, you will never ever ever have to reflash a firmware, period. The only time it would be totally required is if you purposefully soft brick your device by screwing around in vs0 or os0, something no end user would ever do unless they're following malicious tutorials or using malicious apps. The former just requires common sense, the latter is easily avoidable so long as you're using legitimate links for acquiring software.

I did not purposefully semi-brick my vita, though I believe I may have accidentally done so. What I was doing was trying to get my SD2Vita to work, by updating the gamesd.skprx file, and rewriting the config to activate that. At first I thought it wasn't working because I had deleted the wrong config file, so I had tried it in both locations on different times, not both at the same time. After several restarts where it did not boot into the SD, I gave up, and went to play a game only to find that all buttons were unresponsive in game. I checked all games, and vitashell, and it's the same. Buttons don't work. They work on the vita menus, so it's not hardware. I also found that though they don't work in the vitashell, they do work on molecular shell. After some thought, I think it may be possible that the SD2vita wasn't working because I had my damned adaptor was in backwards! I don't know for sure if that is the case or not. But whatever happened, something may have gotten corrupted.

I have two ideas that I'm going to try after I back up my files via ftp, since my Vita won't connect to the CMA for some reason... My vitashell version is 1.82. If something got corrupted in vitashell somehow, perhaps updating to 1.83 might fix whatever is wrong. Regardless, I think restoring the system is the last resort.

 

[aytug25]

I'm still on 3.60 henkaku, and yesterday I did choose restore ps vita system option on safe mode options, after that I couldn't see henkaku settings in options menu so I run henkaku.xyz and installed it again, so I think henkaku.xyz won't work on 3.65 and if restore option won't delete enso and henkaku can someone make a video guide for 3.65 ? Because I think it is deleting henkaku...

 

[Cimmerian_Iter]

Henkaku on 3.65 still needs a lot of improvement, and the lack of homebrew and plugins will take some time. But again it's great to see that we managed to move on from 3.60

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I'm still on 3.60 henkaku, and yesterday I did choose restore ps vita system option on safe mode options, after that I couldn't see henkaku settings in options menu so I run henkaku.xyz and installed it again, so I think henkaku.xyz won't work on 3.65 and if restore option won't delete enso and henkaku can someone make a video guide for 3.65 ? Because I think it is deleting henkaku...

Restoring the system will not delete Henkaku on 3.65, as TheFlow moved the installation to vs0/os0 (which doesn't get wiped while restoring).

There are video guides already available pretty much everywhere. https://vita.cfw.guide/more/updating-to-henkaku-enso-3.65/ < This is an easy to follow text guide if you need it. Just note that if you're using an OLED Vita with an SD2Vita, you may need to purchase a Sony memory card if you don't already have one so you can run the updater (as plugins need to be disabled when updating, which would deactivate the SD2Vita).

 

[aytug25]

Restoring the system will not delete Henkaku on 3.65, as TheFlow moved the installation to vs0/os0 (which doesn't get wiped while restoring).

There are video guides already available pretty much everywhere. https://vita.cfw.guide/more/updating-to-henkaku-enso-3.65/ < This is an easy to follow text guide if you need it. Just note that if you're using an OLED Vita with an SD2Vita, you may need to purchase a Sony memory card if you don't already have one so you can run the updater (as plugins need to be disabled when updating, which would deactivate the SD2Vita).

thanks for answer, actually i asked for restore system video guide on 3.65 henkaku, because on 3.60 when i restored my vita, i couldnt see henkaku settings on options, maybe i did something wrong or maybe 3.65 will keep it but 3.60 not...
i have oled vita and i have 2 sony memory card, 8 gb and 32 gb. i want to install vitashell, molecularshell and hbinjector on my 8 gb card and im planning to use it if something goes wrong in future, so is that possible to use or must i back up my apps to my computer ?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

thanks for answer, actually i asked for restore system video guide on 3.65 henkaku, because on 3.60 when i restored my vita, i couldnt see henkaku settings on options, maybe i did something wrong or maybe 3.65 will keep it but 3.60 not...
i have oled vita and i have 2 sony memory card, 8 gb and 32 gb. i want to install vitashell, molecularshell and hbinjector on my 8 gb card and im planning to use it if something goes wrong in future, so is that possible to use or must i back up my apps to my computer ?

Sorry, to be more specific:

Restoring the system on 3.60 does remove Henkaku. You didn't do anything wrong, that's just what is supposed to happen when you restore on 3.60 since Henkaku is stored on one of the partitions that gets wiped by a System restore.

On 3.65, this isn't an issue, because TheFlow moved Henkaku to a system partition that doesn't get wiped on 3.65. You could do a system restore all you like, and Henkaku would not disappear. Essentially, the only way to lose Henkaku on 3.65 is if you purposefully restore a stock 3.65 firmware, or delete the exploit files from the system partitions. Both are 99.999999% never going to happen on it's own, if Henkaku ever gets removed from 3.65 it's going to be because of user error.

And you could set up the files that way, yes. However, I would still recommend backing up Vita Shell at least via QCMA, just in case something goes horribly wrong. But it shouldn't be much of a problem if you're using official memory cards, the real issue is if you're just using an SD2Vita only without having any official memory card.

 

[aytug25]

Sorry, to be more specific:

Restoring the system on 3.60 does remove Henkaku. You didn't do anything wrong, that's just what is supposed to happen when you restore on 3.60 since Henkaku is stored on one of the partitions that gets wiped by a System restore.

On 3.65, this isn't an issue, because TheFlow moved Henkaku to a system partition that doesn't get wiped on 3.65. You could do a system restore all you like, and Henkaku would not disappear. Essentially, the only way to lose Henkaku on 3.65 is if you purposefully restore a stock 3.65 firmware, or delete the exploit files from the system partitions. Both are 99.999999% never going to happen on it's own, if Henkaku ever gets removed from 3.65 it's going to be because of user error.

And you could set up the files that way, yes. However, I would still recommend backing up Vita Shell at least via QCMA, just in case something goes horribly wrong. But it shouldn't be much of a problem if you're using official memory cards, the real issue is if you're just using an SD2Vita only without having any official memory card.

thanks again for answer
now i feel better about updating my ps vita
i didnt checked vita news for a long long time, my vitashell was 1.62 and i only used sd2vita, i saw lots of new stuff, NoNpDrm, ReNpDrm, ReStore, DownloadEnabler... i want to understand all things before updating so if anything goes wrong i can fix when im still on 3.60. i understand sd2vita and nonpdrm and they have new versions for 3.65, can you tell me about other and which one i should use ?
and which program should i use psvimgtools-frontend, qcma or cma or other ? i have a psn account and logined it on my vita, after i take backups if i change my acc or if i use mltactivator or something like that can i continue using my backup vitashell and molecularshell ?
sorry about asking too much, but i didnt look vita new and now im feeling like i came to future with a time machine lol...

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

thanks again for answer
now i feel better about updating my ps vita
i didnt checked vita news for a long long time, my vitashell was 1.62 and i only used sd2vita, i saw lots of new stuff, NoNpDrm, ReNpDrm, ReStore, DownloadEnabler... i want to understand all things before updating so if anything goes wrong i can fix when im still on 3.60. i understand sd2vita and nonpdrm and they have new versions for 3.65, can you tell me about other and which one i should use ?
and which program should i use psvimgtools-frontend, qcma or cma or other ? i have a psn account and logined it on my vita, after i take backups if i change my acc or if i use mltactivator or something like that can i continue using my backup vitashell and molecularshell ?
sorry about asking too much, but i didnt look vita new and now im feeling like i came to future with a time machine lol...

NoNpDRM is essentially a plugin that creates "fake" licenses for official games. What this basically means is, instead of having to use semi-broken tools like Maidump or Vitamin to decrypt and backup Vita games, we can play normal, encrypted Vita backups as if they were our own game. This is beneficial because Vitamin and Maidump games are kind of broken, in the sense that they caused various issues like saves getting deleted if your Vita was put to sleep. This also rendered games that were undumpable on 3.60 (and didn't require 3.61+), like Axiom Verge, to be fully playable. If you use Vita backups, 99% of the time you're going to want to grab NoNPDRM dumps as they're one of the cleanest (besides psvgamesd, which produces 1:1 dumps).

ReNpDRM and ReStore are both plugins that essentially gave us back access to PSN and the PS Store on 3.60. These plugins are, unfortunately, very temperamental in whether they want to work or not, and as of now are no longer required as 3.65 still has access to PSN and the PS Store natively.

DownloadEnabler is a plugin that allows you download whatever files you like from the stock browser, so you're no longer limited to certain file types.

With PSVimgtools, use QCMA. CMA usually forces you to update to the latest firmware, QCMA you don't have to.

You also don't have to use mltactivator any more, since we have access to PSN with 3.65 you can activate using the native activator. Though it should be noted that activation is no longer required for any homebrew, so there's no real benefit beyond PSN-related stuff.

Using a new account may cause some backups to be unusable, but in this case you can use something like Account Switcher which lets you switch between various accounts on one memory card to restore the backups if need be.