Hacking Transferring save files from physical/digital games to Molecular shell-installed games?

[silver_arcus]

Hey guys!

As stated in the thread's title, is there a way of transferring save files from physical/digital games to Molecular shell-installed games?

 

[Tony_93]

No, saves from your regular games are encrypted and dumped/installef vpk aren't.

Even if you upload it to PS+ and download it with the dumped copy it will be unusable because of what I said above.

 

[nightweb]

I'm not entirely sure if this will help but I am working off this guide to try transfer my save data from one PSN account to another, I can test till during week when I get my other Vita back but might be worth a look,

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Yes it is possible. You need to decrypt them before using them. To decrypt them and get them on your PC you use the video nightweb posted, then follow this and insert them into your molecular shell installed game.

I was able to take my decrypted Cold Steel file and I was able to see it with my molecular shell installed game. But I couldn't use it since I had DLC on the file. So if you have DLC on your save file, you might not be able to use it till the DLC is installed, which isn't possible yet.

 

[niuus]

What's the current path to a save folder for any game installed with VitaShell?

 

[silver_arcus]

I'm not entirely sure if this will help but I am working off this guide to try transfer my save data from one PSN account to another, I can test till during week when I get my other Vita back but might be worth a look,

That does look promising, thanks for sharing it! I will definitely try it out when I am free!

Yes it is possible. You need to decrypt them before using them. To decrypt them and get them on your PC you use the video nightweb posted, then follow this and insert them into your molecular shell installed game.

I was able to take my decrypted Cold Steel file and I was able to see it with my molecular shell installed game. But I couldn't use it since I had DLC on the file. So if you have DLC on your save file, you might not be able to use it till the DLC is installed, which isn't possible yet.

Your example of decrypting a ToCS save file and seeing it on your vpk installed game is particularly relevant to a issue I am currently facing so hopefully you could me out on this?

I own a legit cart of ToCS (PCSE00786, no DLC installed) with tons of save files but tried installing and running a vpk backup version I got online for test purposes, only to find that I couldn't even start the game anymore as I got a C0-11138-4 (The file is corrupt) error as apparently the ToSC vpk somehow installed onto the same circle as my cart instead of generating a new one. I couldn't transfer the game data via QCMA after that so the best I could do was to access ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 and ftp the files over to my PC. I then deleted the game circle from my vita and the PCSE00786 file from ux0:app/

I reinstalled the game using my physical cart and played through the beginning so that I could save (I made 3 save files to test what files would write in ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 and the new files that showed up were save000.dat, save001.dat, save002.dat, save255.dat, thumb000.png, thumb001.png, thumb002.png and thumb255.png

I then ftped the matching backup files (save000-002, 255, thumb000-002, 255) I had on PC to the Vita, overwriting them. Unfortunately, this only broke the saves such that when I tried to load them again, they gave me an error.

Since that didn't work, I restarted from scratch by deleting the game circle again, repeating the beginning and creating save files, but this time I replaced the entire ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 with my backup. After doing this, I could not even start the game as I got the C0-11138-4 error again.

I am seriously at a loss as to what I should do to get my save files working again. After investing 70+ hours and being so close to clearing the game, words can't describe how crappy I would feel if I had to restart from scratch so if there's a way I could use those save files I extracted (if they are even useful at this point in time since I don't know if they were corrupted as well by the time I copied them), I would be really grateful! I took a look at the decrypting tutorials you mentioned but there are some steps that I think I am unable to follow because of the special circumstances I am currently in for ToSC...

 

[Rock Raiyu]

That does look promising, thanks for sharing it! I will definitely try it out when I am free!


Your example of decrypting a ToCS save file and seeing it on your vpk installed game is particularly relevant to a issue I am currently facing so hopefully you could me out on this?

I own a legit cart of ToCS (PCSE00786, no DLC installed) with tons of save files but tried installing and running a vpk backup version I got online for test purposes, only to find that I couldn't even start the game anymore as I got a C0-11138-4 (The file is corrupt) error as apparently the ToSC vpk somehow installed onto the same circle as my cart instead of generating a new one. I couldn't transfer the game data via QCMA after that so the best I could do was to access ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 and ftp the files over to my PC. I then deleted the game circle from my vita and the PCSE00786 file from ux0:app/

I reinstalled the game using my physical cart and played through the beginning so that I could save (I made 3 save files to test what files would write in ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 and the new files that showed up were save000.dat, save001.dat, save002.dat, save255.dat, thumb000.png, thumb001.png, thumb002.png and thumb255.png

I then ftped the matching backup files (save000-002, 255, thumb000-002, 255) I had on PC to the Vita, overwriting them. Unfortunately, this only broke the saves such that when I tried to load them again, they gave me an error.

Since that didn't work, I restarted from scratch by deleting the game circle again, repeating the beginning and creating save files, but this time I replaced the entire ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 with my backup. After doing this, I could not even start the game as I got the C0-11138-4 error again.

I am seriously at a loss as to what I should do to get my save files working again. After investing 70+ hours and being so close to clearing the game, words can't describe how crappy I would feel if I had to restart from scratch so if there's a way I could use those save files I extracted (if they are even useful at this point in time since I don't know if they were corrupted as well by the time I copied them), I would be really grateful! I took a look at the decrypting tutorials you mentioned but there are some steps that I think I am unable to follow because of the special circumstances I am currently in for ToSC...

You are having the same problem I was having.

The files in ux0:user/00/savedata/[titleID] are still encrypted. So if you try to overwrite them with your decrypted files, the game will not load the save file and throw you an error. I say this from experience.

So depending on what you want to do, you can either follow the video tutorial or the tutorial I linked. I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to do the latter option? Is it because you couldn't get it to run?

Because the ToCS vpk needs the sce_module fix to run.

 

[silver_arcus]

You are having the same problem I was having.

The files in ux0:user/00/savedata/[titleID] are still encrypted. So if you try to overwrite them with your decrypted files, the game will not load the save file and throw you an error. I say this from experience.

So depending on what you want to do, you can either follow the video tutorial or the tutorial I linked. I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to do the latter option? Is it because you couldn't get it to run?

Because the ToCS vpk needs the sce_module fix to run.

So just to check that I am understanding things right; because of my installation of the ToCS vpk, my original cart installed circle (aka game data and save files) are now decrypted and even though I uninstalled everything (both cart and vpk) and then installed a new circle by reinserting my cart, the game will no longer load my save files, correct?

For now, I just want to be able to see and load those save files again when I insert my cart and run the game, no vpks involved. Do I still follow the tutorial you linked? I can't follow step 2 since I deleted off the vpk and its files so I no longer have that file; right now I only have a fresh new circle on LiveArea installed by inserting my cart.

Sorry if I don't seem to make sense at some parts; still new to this and trying to figure out stuff as I read up on the various tutorials etc.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

So just to check that I am understanding things right; because of my installation of the ToCS vpk, my original cart installed circle (aka game data and save files) are now decrypted and even though I uninstalled everything (both cart and vpk) and then installed a new circle by reinserting my cart, the game will no longer load my save files, correct?

For now, I just want to be able to see and load those save files again when I insert my cart and run the game, no vpks involved. Do I still follow the tutorial you linked? I can't follow step 2 since I deleted off the vpk and its files so I no longer have that file; right now I only have a fresh new circle on LiveArea installed by inserting my cart.

Sorry if I don't seem to make sense at some parts; still new to this and trying to figure out stuff as I read up on the various tutorials etc.

No no no.

If you have your decrypted file, you can still use it on your physical cart. Just follow the video tutorial nightweb posted to put it back.

1) Uninstall the VPK if its still installed
2) Put ToCS card in your Vita slot, just to be safe run the game and save.
3) Follow the video tutorial or however you got your physical save in the first place to put the save file back via FTP
4) Your game should now be able to open the save.

 

[silver_arcus]

No no no.

If you have your decrypted file, you can still use it on your physical cart. Just follow the video tutorial nightweb posted to put it back.

1) Uninstall the VPK if its still installed
2) Put ToCS card in your Vita slot, just to be safe run the game and save.
3) Follow the video tutorial or however you got your physical save in the first place to put the save file back via FTP
4) Your game should now be able to open the save.

Alright, I will try it tomorrow and let you know how it goes, thanks for clarifying!

@Rock Raiyu Edit: Alright, I tried following the video tutorial but unfortunately I got stuck at the part after accessing /savedata0: since what I saw were the saves that I had just created when playing past the beginning in order to create 3 save files. Trying to upload the save files via ftp that I previously dumped by accessing ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 (these files were only there after I first encountered the corrupt error, before I uninstalled both the vpk and the cart circle) gave me an error and they refused to transfer.

As such, I tried taking one of my dumped save files, renamed it to match the name of one of the save files currently in savedata0: and overwrote it. I then booted up ToSC using my cart and tried to load said save file but got this error now: Cannot load this save data, as it contains downloadable content which hasn't been installed. Since I do not have any DLC whatsoever, I have no idea why this error is popping up.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Alright, I will try it tomorrow and let you know how it goes, thanks for clarifying!

@Rock Raiyu Edit: Alright, I tried following the video tutorial but unfortunately I got stuck at the part after accessing /savedata0: since what I saw were the saves that I had just created when playing past the beginning in order to create 3 save files. Trying to upload the save files via ftp that I previously dumped by accessing ux0:user/00/savedata/PCSE00786 (these files were only there after I first encountered the corrupt error, before I uninstalled both the vpk and the cart circle) gave me an error and they refused to transfer.

As such, I tried taking one of my dumped save files, renamed it to match the name of one of the save files currently in savedata0: and overwrote it. I then booted up ToSC using my cart and tried to load said save file but got this error now: Cannot load this save data, as it contains downloadable content which hasn't been installed. Since I do not have any DLC whatsoever, I have no idea why this error is popping up.

Did you update your game cart to 1.02?

Cause I believe 1.01 (or was it 1.02) had free DLC.

 

[silver_arcus]

Did you update your game cart to 1.02?

Cause I believe 1.01 (or was it 1.02) had free DLC.

I don't believe I did; haven't connected to the PSN store since end last year so I don't think I could have downloaded any DLC.