Arm9loaderhax coupled with AuReiNand gives us lucky 3DS users the amazing option of running Custom Firmware on sysnand. The advantages of this are as follows:

• Much faster and more reliable CFW cold booting compared to menuhax + emunand
• Slightly faster CFW cold booting compared to arm9loaderhax + emunand
• Using 2GB of SD card space for emunand is no longer needed (but still recommended to keep a 9.2 emunand around)
• GBA ROMs only need to be installed once, since they run from sysnand now!

Most CFW users will already have a 9.2 sysnand which is usually kept as vanilla as possible, and then an emunand running a higher FW version (i.e. 10.5) booted through CFW. With arm9loaderhax and AuReiNand, we can now swap the firmware versions over so 10.5 runs directly on SysNand, and EmuNand is used only when 9.2 is really needed (e.g. for running decrypt9). This tutorial will walk you through the process of swapping your sysnand and emunand, and changing your arm9loaderhax to use AuReiNand in order to cold boot directly to a patched 10.5 sysnand.

This tutorial assumes the following:

• You have a 9.2 or below sysnand and CFW running an emunand of a higher firmware version
• You know how to verify a SysNAND backup using md5
• You know how to back up your sysnand, emunand and SD card
• You know how to access hax to get to the Homebrew Launcher
• You know how to install homebrew apps on your 3DS
• You know how to install CIAs
• You have already captured your OTP and built an arm9loaderhax installer
• You have FBI installed on your sysnand

I won’t explain how to do all of these as this guide is intended to be an overview of the process I used to swap my sysnand and emunand.


If you follow this guide and do not have a valid sysnand backup, you risk bricking your console and this may not be recoverable without a hardmod.

This guide involves updating your sysnand to 10.5. If you don’t have a reliable way of downgrading to 9.2 if you need to, don’t follow this guide. This means you need to be able to use arm9loaderhax to boot CFW, or have a hardmod and a NAND backup, if you want to undo this.

Do not attempt this procedure without a working arm9loaderhax installer. A hardmod is not required but is recommended.


You will need:

• Homebrew hax already set up and running on your sysnand
• CFW already installed with a working emunand
• Decrypt9
• EmuNAND9
• MiniPasta
  
• AuReiNand mod (do not install this yet)

If you already have arm9loaderhax set up to boot your emunand, you will need to remove it. This is because one of the needed tools, decrypt9, can only run from sysnand. Arm9loaderhax will prevent you from entering sysnand at all, so will need to be removed. I did this by restoring a vanilla 9.2 sysnand backup which I took from the console prior to installing arm9loaderhax.


Stage 0: Make a backup of your SysNand, EmuNand and 3DS SD card

Seriously, you’ll be glad you did if something goes wrong. This process involves a lot of messing around with both sysnand and emunand.


Stage 1: Dump EmuNAND partitions

1. Boot your 3DS to sysnand
2. Launch hax and run MiniPasta
3. When back at sysnand, launch hax and run Decrypt9
4. Go to “EmuNAND Options” and then “Partition Dump”
5. Dump each of the partitions with the exception of FIRM0 and FIRM1, pressing B after each one to return to the menu and dump the next partition
6. Press START to quit Decrypt9, and reboot back to sysnand

Stage 2: Downgrade EmuNand to 9.2

1. From sysnand, launch hax and run MiniPasta
2. When back at sysnand, launch hax and run EmuNAND9
3. Choose “EmuNAND Manager Options” and then choose “Clone SysNAND to EmuNAND”
4. Once this is complete, press START to reboot
5. From sysnand, launch hax and run TinyFormat to format SysNand and unlink NANDs
6. Once the system reboots, complete the initial setup without linking NNID
7. Once you are at the home menu, set your sysnand theme to red
8. Launch hax and run CFW to get into emunand
9. Once in emunand, set the theme to blue
10. Power off the 3DS

At this point, your sysnand and emunand should both be on 9.2, and you should have dumps of your original emunand. The purpose of setting the NAND colours to red and blue is to ensure you can tell which NAND you are in, since they are both at this stage running the same FW version and will look identical.


Stage 3: Update SysNand to AuReiNand CFW 10.5

1. Take out your 3DS SD card and put it in your computer
2. Replace the rei folder, arm9loaderhax.bin and ReiNand.dat in the root of your SD card with the ones from AuReiNand.
3. In the new rei folder on your SD card, place the firmware.bin and firmware90.bin from the FIRMs archive linked from the AuReiNand GitHib page
4. Create an empty file on the SD card in the /rei folder called updatedsysnand
5. Put your SD card back in your 3DS and boot it up to sysnand
6. Launch hax and run arm9loaderhax.3dsx to install the loader
7. If you get stuck on a message saying “Exploiting arm9…”, you can safely reboot your 3DS
8. The 3DS will reboot once this process is complete
9. You should now be in sysnand but running ReiNand. Verify that arm9loaderhax has been installed by powering off your 3DS, removing the SD card and powering on again. Your system should hang on a black screen because the arm9payload is not available. If your 3DS boots to sysnand without the SD card inserted, this means that arm9loaderhax has not been installed properly and you MUST NOT proceed
10. Once you have verified that arm9loaderhax is working, replace the SD card and power on your 3DS to boot to sysnand
11. Open System Settings set up your Internet connection
12. Update to 10.5 (seriously, don’t do it unless you’re certain the CFW is running by doing the SD card removal test in step 9. If you update to 10.5 without CFW up and running, you risk not being able to run any unsigned code, meaning you could end up stuck on 10.5 with no CFW)
13. Once the update is complete and the system has rebooted, enter System Settings to verify that you are now on 10.5

Step 4: Reinject emunand partitions to sysnand

This stage will make your new 10.5 sysnand how your emunand used to be

1. Power off the 3DS
2. While holding L, power the 3DS back on. This will boot into the 9.2 emunand
3. Launch hax, and run Decrypt9
4. Choose “SysNAND Options” and then “Partition Inject”
5. Inject each of the partitions in turn, with the exception of FIRM0 and FIRM1, pressing B after each one to return to the menu and inject the next partition
6. Press START to quit Decrypt9 and reboot back to SysNand.

If everything went according to plan, you should be looking at your sysnand but with all your CIAs showing. In my case, they were all back in presents and out of their folders which was a mild inconvenience. I also lost my custom theme, so that had to be reinstalled.


Final checks

1. Launch a CIA from sysnand to verify that it works. Successful launching of a CIA will indicate that the sysnand CFW is working
2. Enter System Settings from sysnand to confirm that you are on 10.5
3. Power off your 3DS, and power it back on while holding L. You should then be booted to your emunand, which will resemble your sysnand before the swap over
4. Enter System Settings from emunand to confirm that it is on 9.2
5. Now, do another sysnand, emunand and SD backup!

 

[Supster131]

sounds amazing and super simple and understandable !

alright thanks my homie, one last thing.

i noticed you wrote earlier that you might delete emuNAND for good since it er.. does not boot into your CFW anymore?

so Aureinand will not boot into emuNAND 9.2? or why exactly is it not booting in your CFW.

and one last thing , if i wanted to wipe emuNAND off completely to save up the 1-2 gigs.how would i go on to do that without it wiping my Nintendo3DS fodler(where all my cias are in)!?

I'm currently not using AuReiNAND, so don't worry about it

Delete your emuNAND afterwards, follow this guide (make sure to backup your data first!): https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-removing-emunand-from-sd-card.387732/

 

[leonmagnus99]

I'm currently not using AuReiNAND, so don't worry about it

Delete your emuNAND afterwards, follow this guide (make sure to backup your data first!): https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-removing-emunand-from-sd-card.387732/

holy sheep, i cannot backup 45gigs i am to friggin lazy for this.. screw the 1-2gigs.
im keeping emuNAND as well. <A<

alright, final thing. lets say if sometime comes where we need a higher fw. for a certain game and our sysNAND fw. is not supported (like if we update and it would break , and emuNAND fw. would be safe to update instead) can we then re-swap the nands using this same method yep?

wait wait, edit2: er.. since after we swap, emuNAND gets sticked to the actual sysNAND, and um.. that means when we boot into the 3ds it boots sysNAND with the emuNAND firmw. so.. i guess it is like having emuNAND as sysNAND directly yeah? @ _ @ sorry i got confused.

 

[Supster131]

holy sheep, i cannot backup 45gigs i am to friggin lazy for this.. screw the 1-2gigs.
im keeping emuNAND as well. <A<

alright, final thing. lets say if sometime comes where we need a higher fw. for a certain game and our sysNAND fw. is not supported (like if we update and it would break , and emuNAND fw. would be safe to update instead) can we then re-swap the nands using this same method yep?

wait wait, edit2: er.. since after we swap, emuNAND gets sticked to the actual sysNAND, and um.. that means when we boot into the 3ds it boots sysNAND with the emuNAND firmw. so.. i guess it is like having emuNAND as sysNAND directly yeah? @ _ @ sorry i got confused.

Then emuNAND would break until that NATIVE_FIRM is supported

 

[leonmagnus99]

Then emuNAND would break until that NATIVE_FIRM is supported

yes i understand , this swap thing has some certain good benefits.

and it is like having the emuNAND as sysNAND (and this means when we know it is safe to update we can always update the swapped emuNAND - sysNAND correct?!)

so like it will be like this, i have only been using emuNAND always, and whenever a new fw. would come out , i would wait and see if people say e.g (RX/AureiNAND/GW) is working on the latest fw. yep?


Update: alright guys, i have swapped my nands, now when i boot into my 3ds , it boots into sysNAND'ish look, like there are no cias of mine showing up etc.

and pressing R boots me into emuNAND , before swapping it was R that booted into sysNAND.

so did i do everything correctly or not? (i thought swapping my nands would also make me see my emuNAND stuff @ _ @ ) ..but i was wrong.
i guess i would need to re-install my cias in the current swapped nand? or not?

 

[Robert McCoy]

I just wanted to add in one more pro of a9lh.

Being able to load Decrypt9 before sysnand is even booted/registered because it's booting by arm9 payload enabling you to restore your older nand.bin backups in case you bricked your sysnand or screwed up your 3ds somehow.

 

[FenrirWolf]

yes i understand , this swap thing has some certain good benefits.

and it is like having the emuNAND as sysNAND (and this means when we know it is safe to update we can always update the swapped emuNAND - sysNAND correct?!)

so like it will be like this, i have only been using emuNAND always, and whenever a new fw. would come out , i would wait and see if people say e.g (RX/AureiNAND/GW) is working on the latest fw. yep?


Update: alright guys, i have swapped my nands, now when i boot into my 3ds , it boots into sysNAND'ish look, like there are no cias of mine showing up etc.

and pressing R boots me into emuNAND , before swapping it was R that booted into sysNAND.

so did i do everything correctly or not? (i thought swapping my nands would also make me see my emuNAND stuff @ _ @ ) ..but i was wrong.
i guess i would need to re-install my cias in the current swapped nand? or not?

That's because it's still autobooting into your emunand, which now looks like what your sysnand used to look like.

to fix that, you need to put the 'updatedsysnand' file in the rei folder (or aurei folder if you're using the recent builds of aureinand).

 

[leonmagnus99]

That's because it's still autobooting into your emunand, which now looks like what your sysnand used to look like.

to fix that, you need to put the 'updatedsysnand' file in the rei folder (or aurei folder if you're using the recent builds of aureinand).

works perfect now, thanks homie.

 

[Halvorsen]

For clarifcation:
I already have a9lh and can boot into sysnand. I dumped all emunand partitions except those two. Basically, I have to clone sysnand to emunand, TinyFormat sysnand, get updatedsysnand on my AuReiNAND, update to 10.7 and inject my emunand partitions? Are you 100% sure that's what I need to do? Or will TinyFormat erase my a9lh?

 

[Supster131]

For clarifcation:
I already have a9lh and can boot into sysnand. I dumped all emunand partitions except those two. Basically, I have to clone sysnand to emunand, TinyFormat sysnand, get updatedsysnand on my AuReiNAND, update to 10.7 and inject my emunand partitions? Are you 100% sure that's what I need to do? Or will TinyFormat erase my a9lh?

You don't need to format or update to 10.7 first. Just switch your partitions.

 

[democracy]

Any point in keeping a 9.0 sysnand around nowadays even if using emunand?

 

[FenrirWolf]

Any point in keeping a 9.0 sysnand around nowadays even if using emunand?

What else would you do with your sysnand other than keep it around? Delete it? <_<

 

[democracy]

What else would you do with your sysnand other than keep it around? Delete it? <_<

Lol, I decided to upgrade it from 9.0 to 10.7, no benefit of a 9.0 fw for me

 

[Choquette]

I followed the Plailect tut for a9lh! But now I dont have internet connection but if I go with the Ds connection side it works and can connect! I have the arm9loaderhax - AUreinand! Anyone could help me with that?

 

[Azmort]

I just have 1 question I've been not able to find the answer.
Can I flash a NAND backup on sysNAND if I have arm9lh sysNAND 11.0?
I just want to be able to go back to 9.2 in case I need it.

 

[Just Passing By]

I just have 1 question I've been not able to find the answer.
Can I flash a NAND backup on sysNAND if I have arm9lh sysNAND 11.0?
I just want to be able to go back to 9.2 in case I need it.

Yes. However, if you flash a backup before you upgraded to a9lh, then you'll lose a9lh. I'm pretty sure that there's a feature however from D9 that you can select that allows for the flashing of any backup while still keeping a9lh.

 

[Housey]

I just have 1 question I've been not able to find the answer.
Can I flash a NAND backup on sysNAND if I have arm9lh sysNAND 11.0?
I just want to be able to go back to 9.2 in case I need it.

Pretty sure newer versions of decrypt9wip let you flash a nand backup w/o losing a9lh. Always be careful though.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Yes. However, if you flash a backup before you upgraded to a9lh, then you'll lose a9lh. I'm pretty sure that there's a feature however from D9 that you can select that allows for the flashing of any backup while still keeping a9lh.

I just checked. "Restore backup (keep a9lh)" is a thing.

 

[Azmort]

Thank you very much, now 'll just wait to be able to launch Gateway mode

 

[Suicuark]

Just a quick question, is it possible with rxtools?

 

[zak karpan]

I am confused about step 5 in stage one like do we dump all firms 0-9 or just dump 2-9 please help

EDIT: so we dump everything thats not firm 0 or firm 1