Ok I have seen a lot of confusion so I decided to make a guide on all the steps you need to take to go from higher than 4.5 firmware to lower than 4.5 with separated sysnand and emunand and eshop working normally. I won't go into detail on how every step is performed because there are already threads about them.

1) First you need to run the new Gateway Ultra 3.0.1b exploit and create a backup of your sysnand just to be safe. Keep this file on your PC

2) Then you go ahead and format emunand from gateway menu. (note that your sd card will be formatted so backup your data)

3) Then update your emunand via system menu while on gateway mode (CAREFUL WITH THIS STEP SO YOU DON'T UPDATE YOUR SYSNAND CAUSE IF YOU DO YOU CAN'T USE GATEWAY ANY MORE)

http://www.maxconsole.com/maxcon_forums/threads/286487-3DS-N3DS-Gateway-Ultra-Guide
This is the guide on how to come till here.

4) Now you are at a state that your sysnand and emunand share the same folder. You separate them by booting into sysnand, removing your SD card from 3ds and go to settings and format system memory. This will format your 3ds and erase anything (eshop games, NNID,etc,) but you already have them on emunand on the sd card. After formatting you will have to set up your 3ds again like if you run it for the first time. After setting it up again put your SD card back to your 3ds and let it configure on its own.

Benefits of separating sysnand from emunand is that you won't have to unwrap some of the apps you install every time you boot emunand, and settings like theme selection and folder/app arrangement will be unique on each nand and won't be affected by the other

5) Great now you have separated your sysnand from emunand but there is a problem. When you try to go into eshop from emunand you get an error. This happens because after format NNID info on sysnand are lost so you need to go back on sysnand and enter your existing NNID info on your 3ds. Do not create a new NNID. PUT EXISTING NNID ON SYSNAND NNID. After that you can get into eshop on emunand normally

6) Last step is to boot gateway mode, backup sysnand again and downgrade your 3ds via the gateway downgrade option. After doing so you end up with a 4.5fw sysnand (for EU 3ds, I don't know about US or Japan etc) and your emunand as you left it. Eshop works normally on your emunand and sysnand is separated from emunand.

Benefit of downgrading is that you don't need wifi any more to trigger the exploit. You just run the blue card once to install the exploit and then trigger it from system settings>profile settings>ds profile

 

[WiiUBricker]

4) Now you are at a state that your sysnand and emunand share the same folder. You separate them by booting into sysnand, removing your SD card from 3ds and go to settings and format system memory. This will format your 3ds and erase anything (eshop games, NNID,etc,) but you already have them on emunand on the sd card. After formatting you will have to set up your 3ds again like if you run it for the first time. After setting it up again put your SD card back to your 3ds and let it configure on its own.

What's the benefit from separating sysnand from emunand?

 

[FusionDragon]

Didnt get an answer yet so gonna ask this once more.. I'm in the clear as of now cuz I don't use cias (so no tedious unwrapping) and sysnand is 4.5 so it can't support my 9.4 emunand theme (making it easy to tell apart) But in the future, when say 9.5 comes out and I wanna update my emunand, if mine are linked, is there ANY danger of the emunand update carrying over to sysnand? I messed with certain settings like WiFi and parental controls, and those carried over both ways. And sd contents are shared apparently, so could this update get "shared" and update both? Just a scary thought. Need reassurance. thanks

 

[Foaad2015]

I'm with Original firmware 9.2 .. and i don't have Gateway card for now .. Can I downgrade my 3ds from 9.2 to 4.5 with this guide??

Simple guide:

- Download Gateway 3.0.1 from above
- Grab the launcher file and put that on your 3DS SD card
- Start your 3DS up
- Launch browser and clear cookies/history
- Type in: Go.Gateway-3ds.com (If you have trouble with this, try http://go.scmods.com/)
- Should say page failed to load. WAIT (It will load up the Gateway Menu)
- Done

 

[jimskeet2002]

What's the benefit from separating sysnand from emunand?

Benefits of separating sysnand from emunand is that you won't have to unwrap some of the apps you install every time you boot emunand, and settings like theme selection and folder/app arrangement will be unique on each nand and won't be affected by the other

Didnt get an answer yet so gonna ask this once more.. I'm in the clear as of now cuz I don't use cias (so no tedious unwrapping) and sysnand is 4.5 so it can't support my 9.4 emunand theme (making it easy to tell apart) But in the future, when say 9.5 comes out and I wanna update my emunand, if mine are linked, is there ANY danger of the emunand update carrying over to sysnand? I messed with certain settings like WiFi and parental controls, and those carried over both ways. And sd contents are shared apparently, so could this update get "shared" and update both? Just a scary thought. Need reassurance. thanks

No, if you update correctly on emunand sysnand is safe.

I'm with Original firmware 9.2 .. and i don't have Gateway card for now .. Can I downgrade my 3ds from 9.2 to 4.5 with this guide??

I don't know 100% about this but I think you can. Haven't tried it though

 

[viral777]

I don't know about you but on mine and other guys 3dses after we formatted sysnand with sd card out of the 3ds we had to enter NNID on sysnand in order to go into eshop again on emunand.

I didn't have to re-enter my NNID either. it automatically signs me in on my 9.4 emunand + all past e-shop purchases.

 

[Inuk]

Hey jimskeet i did all your steps and everything works great, but when i am entering eshop on emunand and then quit to sysnad and go to settings, i can see the internet connection that i set on emunand and even if i delete it, it is created again when i reenter eshop on emunand.
Any suggestions

 

[TheShadowRunner]

How can a NNID be made if you've never made one prior to downgrading?

 

[jimskeet2002]

Hey jimskeet i did all your steps and everything works great, but when i am entering eshop on emunand and then quit to sysnad and go to settings, i can see the internet connection that i set on emunand and even if i delete it, it is created again when i reenter eshop on emunand.
Any suggestions

Don't know about this but there is no issue having internet connection on sysnand. Just don't let your 3ds go in sleep mode on sysnand and set your spotpass and send information options off on sysnand. There is no danger for update nag if you don't let 3ds go to sleep mode on sysnand.

How can a NNID be made if you've never made one prior to downgrading?

Maybe if you don't have NNID you don't need to create one.

 

[WelshOne]

jimskeet2002 I really appreciate you making this guide. A bit of a noob here, but I followed everything to the letter and all went well Sysnand is on 4.5 and emunand is on 9.4, and the shop's working perfectly. Only little problem I have is the update nag in the sysnand. I've seen others recommend formatting sysnand. Is this the best way? If so, will it affect anything?

 

[jimskeet2002]

jimskeet2002 I really appreciate you making this guide. A bit of a noob here, but I followed everything to the letter and all went well Sysnand is on 4.5 and emunand is on 9.4, and the shop's working perfectly. Only little problem I have is the update nag in the sysnand. I've seen others recommend formatting sysnand. Is this the best way? If so, will it affect anything?

I haven't formatted sysnand after downgrade cause I didn't have the update nag. Don't know for sure if it will affect any NNID info that will mess with your emunand shop connectivity.

 

[WelshOne]

I haven't formatted sysnand after downgrade cause I didn't have the update nag. Don't know for sure if it will affect any NNID info that will mess with your emunand shop connectivity.

Ok, no worries. I'll live with it until a solution's found

 

[Apache Thunder]

For those wanting to avoid the issues that might arise from unlinking NNID, I'd recommend downgrading to 4.5/4.2 BEFORE you go to format sysnand. But only do this if you have a means of updating back to 7.x fw. This is because 4.x fw never had the NNID feature, so you can format sysnand while on 4.x fw to unlink emunand without screwing up your existing NNID on emunand.

I had Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, so I had a means of updating sysnand to a firmware that uses the new save encryption. I can boot into emunand and NNID/eShop work find. This way, you don't have to touch NNID settings at all.

 

[farlz]

How can one confirm that the sysnand and emunand are separated? Can you tell from looking at the files/folders on the sd card?

 

[natinusala]

Thanks for the tutorial, it will really help me out !

I just have a question :

5) Great now you have separated your sysnand from emunand but there is a problem. When you try to go into eshop from emunand you get an error. This happens because after format NNID info on sysnand are lost so you need to go back on sysnand and enter your existing NNID info on your 3ds. Do not create a new NNID. PUT EXISTING NNID ON SYSNAND NNID. After that you can get into eshop on emunand normally

I find this step quite unclear, what should I write, where and from where ? Do I need to write down emunand NNID and enter it in systand, or... ? Thanks !

 

[DigitalJosee]

Well, when I try to format my system memory, the 3DS asks for internet connection, it's safe to do?

 

[Zarxrax]

Question. I've done everything through step 5 in the first post (so just haven't downgraded yet).
Now, of course since I formated the sd card, all of my eshop games and saved games and stuff is all gone. Is there some point where I am able to restore this from my backups? Or is that stuff just gone? If I can restore it now, how to do so?

Edit: meant to say I formatted the system, not the SD card. Of course I removed the SD card while formatting.

 

[RedHunter]

Guys I have separated emunand from sysnand, now themes and cia works fine but I have noticed that the wifi connections are still linked in sysnand and emunand, is this normal?

 

[Monado_III]

Thanks, this tutorial helped me a lot.

 

[dlzp]

Can someone explain the separation of the nands and how to link the NNID back. When i try to add it back in the sysnand it tells me to update. I am not 100% sure if my nands are separated. When I go into sysnand it is on 8.1 and when i go into emunand its 9.5 does that mean they are separated?

 

[keyra]

Disadvantages:
- If you play any retail cartridges (roms and .cia do not have this problem) on a newer firmware, downgrading to 4.x will make their saves unreadable. In other words YOU WILL LOSE YOUR RETAIL SAVE GAMES. Currently there is no way to back them up and make them work on Sysnand 4.x -- even if you go into Emunand 9.x they still will not read and will show corrupted in game.

any change to this? because i have pokemon X and some other games on retail