Hacking Theme resets after power off

[AMDZen]

I noticed this issue started around the same time I upgraded to a 128 gb microsd card and the only thing I have seen as a comparable to the problem, after a lot of searching, was a post about the cluster size when formatting the card.

My card is formatted fat32 with 32 clusters which is what it is supposed to be based on everything I've read. The only other thread I found on this issue was related to having 64 clusters instead of 32, or at least in theory as it didn't seem like that person ever resolved the problem or didn't post that he / she did. I don't think my problem is related to the SD card but might be so thought I should point it out.

Everything else works fine except for the themes being saved.

I also downloaded a bunch of them (like hundreds) straight from the free shop and realized it is limited to 200. So I had to go into settings and delete all of them which was fine, rather than deleting them one at a time. So I think the problem might be related to this instead of the cluster size since this all happened at the same time.

I also recently installed themely which also works great but my theme is gone as soon as I power off and come back to my system.

Other pertinent information. I just recently got my 3ds xl (new version but actually used) and it was on 11.3. Following the guide at 3ds.guide and then updated to 11.6 with Luma cfw and all that. The only other thing I've really done is install freeshop and a few home brew apps, downloaded themes through freeshop which caused the issue above when I cleared all theme data through settings, as it downloaded quite a bit more than 200. Which btw why does freeshop download so many if the system can't handle it?

But anyway, it isn't the biggest problem but I would still like to fix it as it is driving me crazy that it will not save my theme and I have to set it every time

 

[Spider_Man]

are you 100% sure your not using Emunand and set up themes while in Emunand and upon powering off/on again your not booting into Emunand... or that your actually doing all of this with luma cfw installed and when you boot, its booting directly into luma cfw.

have you actually installed the cfw over your existing fw or simply booting it from hbl.

 

[AMDZen]

I can start by saying that the theme used to stay so I don't think any of that explains it. I've only had the 3ds for a week but this problem only started in the last couple days.

I don't think I have emunand at all, just sysnand. But I guess I don't know for sure since I only followed the 3ds.guide. I can say that I did whatever it said.

Your last question I think I can answer for certain, your saying I would need to go into homebrew every time and launch something? Like a app that says Luma on it right? No. I boot up my console and play games I got from freeshop or access any of the tools directly from the home menu so I think I can say for certain that isn't the issue but I don't know on the rest of it for 100 certain.

How would I tell if I am on emunand or sysnand?

I apologize for my ignorance but I can say that I have read a ton on this thing and still have a lot to learn. The problem is that so much information is outdated on the internet.

 

[Spider_Man]

so did you install themes before doing anything or after.

if you remove your console sd card do you still boot into cfw, if not then its just like emunand.

If you remove your sd card are your themes back?

if its like emunand, its like a HDD with its own OS, if its inserted it will boot, if its not it will boot back to sysnand and if you made changes in sysnand and not emunand then that could be the problem...... i dont use luma but it could be the same logic.

imagine having a cake, you slice it in two, draw on one side and not the other, one side is different to the other (cake being sd card, two sides being sysnand/emunand or luma cfw)

 

[AMDZen]

OK I pulled my SD card and it doesn't boot, the blue light just flashes very quickly and then goes out and nothing happens. I assume this is a sign that I am on EMU now?

I went back and looked at the 3ds.guide and there is absolutely nothing in the guide about EmuNAND and the tools used to create an EMUnand. I never installed anything called EMUnand or anything with that in the name or with that in the description of the guide. If you go look at the guide (again its litterally 3ds.guide as the url) made by someone from this forum as I understand it. I went back and checked the guide and at the end it even says "You will now boot Luma3DS CFW SysNAND by default."

To clarify, the fork of the guide I followed was for a New 3ds xl on 11.3 which took me to Soundhax, loaded the mp4 file to gain entry, then install boot9strap, homebrew launcher, and then the finalized setup of installed FBI, godmode9, etc.

I did however update the console to 11.6 after all of this was said and done. Did that perhaps create an EMUnand for the latest firmware or something? The guide told me to do that so I did.

I should also reiterate that my system works flawlessly otherwise, and the theme used to stay there. Even after all the "hacking" per the 3ds guide, so I don't really think this is the issue. The issue started after I A) copied everything to a new SD card and B) downloaded all those themes from Freeshop, and then deleted them. Perhaps removing the themes through the Nintendo Settings menu instead of Freeshop caused some file to be corrupt? Is there a theme file somewhere I can delete or something off the sd card to see if that is the issue?

 

[AMDZen]

OK I found the option for luma where you hold select to get luma options. Within that there is an option to boot emunand which is NOT selected. The only option that is selected is to show what I am running in the 3ds system settings.

Which I just checked and it clearly says "Sys 11.6" so I am definitely on SysNAND

Again I am hoping there is a corrupt theme file I can just delete somewhere?

 

[AMDZen]

I found this thread

https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutoria...-for-universal-inject-generator-users.427993/

And deleted the file it pointed to, to no avail. It still resets my theme after power off.

Any help?

 

[AMDZen]

I am just updating with things I have tried. I also tried cthulu app and used it to clear icon cache since it didn't have something for themes and that didn't work.

 

[Jakex20]

Surprised that there wasn't a solution here I just installed cfw on mine last week and ran into the same issue. found this old thread while searching for answers

 

[Arikaido]

I guess since this was necro'd, I'll add that I'm also having this issue. I've tried several of the solutions that were mentioned here (didn't play with the cluster size or try the cthulu app) and have had no luck. I believe I also ran into the issue after using freeshop to download all of the themes, which also leads me to believe that doing this corrupts something. To be honest, I've just kinda gotten over it at this point, but it'd be nice to have themes back.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

@Jakex20 and @Arikaido, try following this guide I wrote here: https://github.com/astronautlevel2/Anemone3DS/issues/132

Let me know if that solves the non-presistent theme issue.

 

[Arikaido]

@Jakex20 and @Arikaido, try following this guide I wrote here: https://github.com/astronautlevel2/Anemone3DS/issues/132

Let me know if that solves the non-presistent theme issue.

I don't have my 3DS on me to test, but after skimming through your guide, I'm noticing two things:
1- I don't think we're talking about the same error. We're not reporting that our systems have bricked or are unable to install themes or are running into random crashes. To put it step-by-step:
1- Pick an installed theme. Theme applies properly.
2- Do anything else on 3DS then return home. Theme persists.
3- Turn 3DS off then back on. Theme no longer persists and must be applied again.
Literally every other function of the 3DS works just fine. Heck, I even had well over 100 themes installed at the point I started running into this problem and was able to use them all, but the chosen theme just didn't persist between shutdowns.
2- The bulk of your testing involves cluster size, which the OP said he tested to no avail. I already admitted that I didn't test that, but considering the fact that OP tried that along with several other ideas and got nowhere, I'm led to believe that cluster size has nothing to do with it. To add to this notion, both OP and I were using themes just fine before we tried downloading ALL of Nintendo's themes via freeShop. That seems to be the trigger here, not cluster size.

 

[TurdPooCharger]

I don't have my 3DS on me to test, but after skimming through your guide, I'm noticing two things:
1- I don't think we're talking about the same error. We're not reporting that our systems have bricked or are unable to install themes or are running into random crashes. To put it step-by-step:
1- Pick an installed theme. Theme applies properly.
2- Do anything else on 3DS then return home. Theme persists.
3- Turn 3DS off then back on. Theme no longer persists and must be applied again.
Literally every other function of the 3DS works just fine. Heck, I even had well over 100 themes installed at the point I started running into this problem and was able to use them all, but the chosen theme just didn't persist between shutdowns.
2- The bulk of your testing involves cluster size, which the OP said he tested to no avail. I already admitted that I didn't test that, but considering the fact that OP tried that along with several other ideas and got nowhere, I'm led to believe that cluster size has nothing to do with it. To add to this notion, both OP and I were using themes just fine before we tried downloading ALL of Nintendo's themes via freeShop. That seems to be the trigger here, not cluster size.

Oh, in the instructions I wrote it said to skip to steps 4 if you're not changing allocation sizes written in the footer of steps 1. Theme ext data is one of the trickiest and finickiest issues to resolve. I had that the same problem where the themes wouldn't stick around; it happened on both 32 KB and 64 KB cluster sizes.

 

[Arikaido]

Oh, in the instructions I wrote it said to skip to steps 4 if you're not changing allocation sizes written in the footer of steps 1. Theme ext data is one of the trickiest and finickiest issues to resolve. I had that the same problem where the themes wouldn't stick around; it happened on both 32 KB and 64 KB cluster sizes.

Fair enough. I'll try to check it out this weekend.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Surprised that there wasn't a solution here I just installed cfw on mine last week and ran into the same issue. found this old thread while searching for answers

I guess since this was necro'd, I'll add that I'm also having this issue. I've tried several of the solutions that were mentioned here (didn't play with the cluster size or try the cthulu app) and have had no luck. I believe I also ran into the issue after using freeshop to download all of the themes, which also leads me to believe that doing this corrupts something. To be honest, I've just kinda gotten over it at this point, but it'd be nice to have themes back.

Maybe the theme shuffle feature works properly? I heard of someone who had a similar issue but theme shuffle still worked as expected. That would work as a workaround.

 

[Jakex20]

So I came across the other thread that mentioned changing cluster size that was mentioned by OP so this morning I backed up my SD and reformatted to FAT32 with 64kb cluster size and that worked for me. (if I reread the other post correctly OP didn't actually try this because they didn't believe it could be part of the problem) not sure why it worked but I just wanted to pop in on the thread and update in case anyone else comes by with the same problem. (wasn't expecting replies on an old thread so soon I may have to ask around here more often.)

 

[TurdPooCharger]

So I came across the other thread that mentioned changing cluster size that was mentioned by OP so this morning I backed up my SD and reformatted to FAT32 with 64kb cluster size and that worked for me. (if I reread the other post correctly OP didn't actually try this because they didn't believe it could be part of the problem) not sure why it worked but I just wanted to pop in on the thread and update in case anyone else comes by with the same problem. (wasn't expecting replies on an old thread so soon I may have to ask around here more often.)

Be on a look out for graphical glitches in GBA Virtual Console and TWLoader/nds-bootstrap games. 64 KB cluster size doesn't work for some setups. If you have a 4 GB to 64 GB card, you have a high chance of experiencing this incompatible firsthand. Starting at 128 GB, this graphical glitch can go either way with 32 KB or 64 KB.

Not pointing to you @Jakex20 in general as you fixed your theme hangup.

Advice
Stick to the recommended 32 KB cluster size unless you have at minimum a 128 GB card that's too slow loading up HOME Menu, stutters during games, and/or themes fail to work. Only try 64 KB as a last resort. It is one of the weirdest bug concerning SD cards.

 

[Jakex20]

Ah that's good to know in that case I should mention my problem started when I transferred my files to a 128 I formatted it to Fat32 32kb prior to copying the files from my 32 gb sd

 

[trained-dog]

I got the same problem. Themes was working great. Until I got over 100 games the themes stop working, goes back to default.
When I power on the 3ds. Yes I am on Sysnand11.6.
my Card is Samsung 256 Evo Plus. I formatted my to 32Fat.

 

[Jakex20]

I got the same problem. Themes was working great. Until I got over 100 games the themes stop working, goes back to default.
When I power on the 3ds. Yes I am on Sysnand11.6.
my Card is Samsung 256 Evo Plus. I formatted my to 32Fat.

I'm curious as to why you chose a 256 SD (unless that's just what you had laying around) from what I've seen on the boards here most people agree you don't need more than 64 to have everything worth playing stored. I like to have everything I'm even slightly interested in stored as a form of digital hoarding but I ran into the 300 icon limit issue and had to do some curation but even if I downloaded the stuff I left behind and just used FBI to launch the missing titles it wouldn't fill my 128. Not suggesting you downgrade just wondering what one could do with a 3DS that might utilize that much storage.