It appears that users are being banned from 3DS online services, en masse. There's no direct cause right now, and seemingly no linking factor. This post is meant as an announcement for users, to be wary, and that GBAtemp will keep you updated as soon as more info rolls in. If you have been banned, please post in the thread below, and we will try to keep tabs on the situation. To be extra sure, it can't hurt to turn off your 3DS's wireless capabilities, so you might as well do that for now.

Edit 1: it appears that e-Shop access isn't restricted if you are banned.

Edit 2: A caller to Nintendo reported that the company said this ban is due to "unauthorized software usage".

Edit 3: @LinkSoraZelda is collecting info. Contact him if you are banned.

Edit 4: Click and fill this out if you were BANNED.

Edit 5:

[11:28:19 PM] Clector: Curiously the page of that error in Nintendo Support website used to have this:Error Code: 002-0102 Situation: You receive the error code 002-0102 when attempting to connect online. What to Do: If you continue to experience this issue, please contact Nintendo by calling 1-800-255-3700. Representatives are available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
[11:28:44 PM] Clector: Now it says this: What to Do: If you are experiencing this error code, your Nintendo 3DS family system has been banned due to unauthorized system modifications, play of unauthorized versions of one or more games, and/or connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service. This ban is effective immediately and requests to remove the ban will not be processed.

Thanks to @Joom

Edit 6: Aurora Wright is taking another poll here

Edit 7: Not a lot is known but

There are bans happening, they are happening in all regions.
All models in the 3ds family seem to be candidates for banning.
There is no indication they will be anything other than permanent.
A game or DLC may end up being a cause but there is no one game or DLC that ties banned users together.
The cause or causes are as yet unknown, though it does seem to be related to modifications. Reports of unmodified consoles being banned are as yet unproven.
The banning is tied to something you can modify, thus you can unban. Doing it while the causes are unknown is likely only going to burn a working token though.
There are semi public tokens out there, Nintendo knows how to browse a forum as well as you so don't be surprised if they also get banned.
It does not seem to be limited to a given base firmware version, it does not seem to be limited to any one custom firmware type. There is some speculation that older hacking methods are not being hit as hard but nothing to confirm this yet.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
A simple check to see is checking your friends list, by itself it will not ban you.
Some are turning their wifi off. It is doubtful this will be of much use and being banned does not seem to come with any downsides that wifi being off will not also mimic.
You may have escaped a ban thus far but it could happen at any point. It could be that they stop in the future, it has happened on other consoles, but you would be living in hope rather than any particularly well founded logic.
The bans are done on the side of Nintendo's servers rather than your 3ds so there is also that.

If you hack your devices/games then their online functionality may be troubled. This has been known for decades, Nintendo seems to have finally caught up with that.

Please continue to share information with the thread or the links in previous edits.

Update 5/30

HOW TO HELP AVOID BANS (we think)​

If I was to guess from the information we have gathered since the ban wave, it seems likely that they are looking for TitleIDs that don't exist. Homebrew shows up in the activity log as the Download Play app, and fake CIA's show up as just ??????. That last one is what I'm guessing they are looking for.

If you are not banned yet or before you unban yourself, go into your friends list, choose settings, and turn off the option to "show friends what game you are playing." This will prevent you from playing games online with friends, so turn it back on when you wanna game with someone, but ALWAYS keep it off when running custom CIAs. Next, go into system settings -> internet settings -> spotpass, and turn off BOTH options. One is auto download software, the other sends system information to Nintendo. Also, make sure you don't have your favorite title set to something stupid like FBI or any other non-Nintendo CIA.

Its VERY likely that these options are what tipped off Nintendo, but we aren't 100% certain yet. The amount of banned people that had one of these options turned on was over 80% for each. If I was to assume that some of those people overlap, its very possible (but not confirmed) that 100% of banned people in the survey had at least one of those options turned on. I personally had all of them off and I have TONS of reasons for Nintendo to ban me.... yet I am not banned (yet).

Another bit of advice: Only run custom CIAs when offline, and after you close them, run a "legit" game like Smash Bros. or something before shutting down or going back online. This way your most recent title won't show up as a fake CIA

Current Theories as to what causes a ban
​

* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

• From the information that we've gathered from some people that have used a packet sniffer such as WireShark, the following data is sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers as soon as the 3DS connects to the internet:
  • Amount of time spent online (timer stops when either the system is disconnected from the internet, or connection drops out, then starts the timer again in a new session when it reconnects to the internet).
  • The game being played and amount of time spent on it during that session.
  • The console's unique hexadecimal ID used in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB, along with it's RSA-signed signature.
  • The console's serial number in which is broadcasted from the SoC and is hard coded in the SoC.
  • Friend Code generated on the Nintendo 3DS system, if one has been generated.
  • Internet connection status (either online or offline).
  • The Nintendo Network ID, if there is one linked to it.
  • Even if the sending of SpotPass Information is switched off, or even hiding your currently playing games. It does not prevent the system from sending currently playing information to Nintendo's online gaming servers, it only hides it from your friends in your friend list (like being invisible on the forum, while mods and admins can still see you). Why? Because even people without a Friend Code on their system have been getting banned too!

• The following data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers:
  • The data from the Nintendo 3DS's Activity Log. Oddly enough, while Nintendo does explicitly state that they collect Activity Log data, they're actually referring to their own server's Activity Log, which always tracks every console's online activity, and keeps a record of them that is stored forever. And is only collected in increments of data through a timer and a currently playing list.
    
  • Games or apps that have not been played, regardless if they're legitimate or not. You only get tracked when you're online and using that game or app.
  • Using games or apps while offline. Even though it is stored on the 3DS console's Activity Log, that data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers.
  • Custom Firmware. Though we can't rule out the possibility of them releasing a 3DS update in the future that adds such function to collect MD5 hashes of files and FIRM data and send them to Nintendo online gaming servers (which would also be updated in a maintenance).

• Things that people think what happens with consoles, but really doesn't:
  • "LocalFriendCodeSeedB is transferred to the system upon doing a system transfer". This is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB remains on the system and does not move to another system.
  • "The console generates a LocalFriendCodeSeedB upon first startup". Again, this is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is made during the manufacturing process at Foxconn. It is generated at the factory, flashed to the NAND flash memory storage, then created as an account on Nintendo's online gaming server and Nintendo eShop server immediately when being manufactured. It is absolutely impossible to generate a LocalFriendCodeSeedB and be able to connect to Nintendo's online gaming server and/or Nintendo eShop server, even if you knew the RSA generation key for it. You'd end up with Error Code 002-0102 "This console's online services have been restricted by Nintendo" if you even tried (the error can either mean two things: The hexadecimal ID doesn't exist on the server, or the request to access the hexadecimal ID has been denied which in other words... banned). So a LocalFriendCodeSeedB generator will NEVER happen! Because it's not worth doing, if it can't connect.
  • Switching off "Currently Playing" information. Once again, this does not hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only hides it from your friends.
  • Switching off SpotPass. Nope, this too doesn't hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only opts-out of receiving SpotPass data, sorry.

So pretty much the bottom line is, if anyone has been using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop while online in the past, guess what? You're screwed! And it is only a matter of time before your console's unique hexadecimal ID in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is banned from Nintendo's online gaming server. This will mean, your console can't access the Friend List or play any online functions in games.

If you have been online while using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop and haven't been banned yet, that's because Nintendo hasn't caught up to you yet. They're still going through each unique hexadecimal ID's Activity Log on their server, and by Activity Log, I mean the Activity Log on their server, not the 3DS console's activity log. And it will be only a matter of time before you're banned too.

Thanks to @Platinum Lucario @MadMageKefka and @ShadowEO !

 

[A Plus Ric]

look, the analogy is not perfect, but the general idea is sound.

It's not perfect. You want them to spend money to promote piracy on the grounds that you might purchase the game legit even though you are playing online with a pirated already. Lol just stop trying to talk people into the fact that piracy is ok. If everyone pirated the games, we'd have homebrew games only and no system to play em on.

 

[Quantumcat]

It's not perfect. You want them to spend money to promote piracy on the grounds that you might purchase the game legit even though you are playing online with a pirated already. Lol just stop trying to talk people into the fact that piracy is ok. If everyone pirated the games, we'd have homebrew games only and no system to play em on.

Not promoting piracy, just not spending so much effort eliminating it. A little, difficult piracy is good. Zero piracy (along with the extraordinary amount that would cost) is a bad thing.
Edit: super convenient paid piracy simulator even better.

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

The alternative is I pirate everything I want to play, and they get NO money. They need to make it much more convenient to pay money if they want to get me to pay money. At the moment, CFW is a tiny bit inconvenient, but not inconvenient enough to get me to spend hundreds of $ per year on games. I don't want to spend $60 on a game only to find I don't really like it. It's a big risk. If, however, I had a fixed cost per month and if I don't like a game it won't matter cause I can just start a new one and not be out any extra money, then that's much better.

I spend money on Netflix because it's more convenient than piracy. If I had to buy DVDs or spend money on pay-per-view then I would just pirate everything I wanted to watch, and they'd get zilch. If I don't like a show I can just stop watching it and try another one. If I had to spend $50 a season on DVDS of a show only to find I didn't like it, well, I wouldn't take that risk. Same for games. If they want my money, give me convenience and no risk of wasting money by having it be a fixed cost.

There are Netflix clones that give movies etc for free

 

[Tokita]

Okay my case goes a litte bit like this

Old FireRed 3DS: Banned the first day... Had B9S, Luma 7.1, 11.4. since I had this since 2011 I've used MSET exploit back in the day, browserhax and other sutff in the past... also spotpass was set on "share with nintento" (freeshop and FBI are some of the thigs that I've used last week) One NNID was linked to this system.

New 3DSXL: Not banned until now Has B9S, Luma 7.1, 11.4... pretty new system came with 11.2 brand new, so I did a hardmod to install A9LH+Luma. Spotpass sharing was active too but I haven't used any hombrew apps in the past weeks with this one, Oh! and this N3DS Does NOT have a NNID linked to it.

 

[Quantumcat]

There are Netflix clones that give movies etc for free

True, they aren't as easy as plug in your Apple TV, download app, start watching though :-p
I should find out about Kodi sometime, just haven't gotten around to it.

 

[RustInPeace]

New 3DSXL: Not banned until now Has B9S, Luma 7.1, 11.4... pretty new system came with 11.2 brand new, so I did a hardmod to install A9LH+Luma Spotpass sharing was active too but I haven't used any hobrew apps in the past weeks with this one, Oh! and this N3DS Does NOT have a NNID linked to it.

That does raise the question if anyone has been banned with no NNID linked to the console, or, haven't gotten anything from eshop, thus no history on that NNID.

 

[ShadowEO]

That does raise the question if anyone has been banned with no NNID linked to the console, or, haven't gotten anything from eshop, thus no history on that NNID.

Around the 310 page era, we had some reports of users banned with no NNID as well as those who haven't been banned with no NNID. (I think, this was like ages ago in the timespan of this thread.)

 

[YayMii]

It could be related to older exploits used in the past that required installation. Such as MSET and Menuhax. Also, I've noticed that Browserhax causes this effect to show "Web Browser" running in the background instead, and I've noticed savegame exploits also are doing the same effect by using that particular game as running while it's being used.

I doubt it. My N3DS has gone through a full system transfer from an o3DS that has been NNID-linked and has used MSET for its whole lifespan (for Palatine and rxTools). Besides that, my N3DS has been using Browserhax and Menuhax until 11.2, hasn't been updated to B9S, and has even been reformatted (without unlinking NNID) in order to purchase and system transfer DSiwarehax to another N3DS.
That means my current NNID/friendcode/systemID has seen it all from the very beginning, and still hasn't been banned. I think it's safe to rule out those old exploits.

 

[Platinum Lucario]

Okay, just to clarify.

The following apps can be used as a first and second app running in the background:

• Notes
• Friend List
• Notifications
  
• Web Browser
• Miiverse

The rest of the apps, such as Download Play, System Settings, a game or some other app outside of the apps that I just listed above, can only be used one at a time and no more than one of such app can be used.

But even so, the apps that I just listed above, also should not be used as a third app running in the background, only as a first or second app.

So I really think, if Nintendo detects this unusual kind of activity, they will ban the console ID immediately upon inspection of their server diagnostic dump.

 

[Michierusama]

Around the 310 page era, we had some reports of users banned with no NNID as well as though who haven't been banned with no NNID. (I think, this was like ages ago in the timespan of this thread.)

Me, I was banned with no linked ID as it deleted my themes and DLC so I stopped linking it as I barely used it anyways, I only keep it on my Wii U.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Tokita]

That does raise the question if anyone has been banned with no NNID linked to the console, or, haven't gotten anything from eshop, thus no history on that NNID.

Yeah... Had the same question myself.
But there is people in this thread claiming that they have been banned even without a NNID, and some of my friends told me the same thing.

 

[Rei7]

I'm still not banned, 3rd day now. I check regularly and did some stuff online, like playing Monster Hunter, updating some games, just to see if it triggered a ban. I even run, FBI, Luma while online.

I think that could be true, regarding old exploits running in the background. I recently hacked mine like 3-4 months ago and I was pretty much on ofw the whole time when I got my New 3DS XL. Never used any old exploits. A9LH and Luma. I'm linked with an NNID and I have a lot of eShop games purchases from it since I don't pirate

I'm gonna go online and use my 3ds like the ban never happen now, see if anything happens. Will let you guys know if i got banned lol

 

[A Plus Ric]

Out of curiosity....someone tell me the date the ur 3ds says it is? B9S user preferred

 

[BARNWEY]

I'm wondering if it has something to do with CFW users system version. Non CFW have Ver. and CFW has Sys. Maybe that's why so many CFW users got hit so fast.

That's just a text edit, nothing that you would get banned over.

 

[regnad]

After reading a thread on Reddit, I have an idea.

Opening eShop Or Pokemon Bank seem to result in getting your Streetpass games erased. Maybe there are other things that cause this, but these are the only two I'm aware of. Perhaps this also triggers sending a flag to Nintendo.

I have never had or opened Pokemon Bank on my system. I was banned in the SuMo ban wave, but then reverted to a previous friend seed code to unban myself. This only unbanned me from online play. I still can't access the eShop, so I know for a fact I haven't accessed it since switching friend seed codes.

Is this what has spared me from this ban wave? Does doing either of these things bring down the hammer?

 

[nitroBW]

Out of curiosity....someone tell me the date the ur 3ds says it is? B9S user preferred

28.05.2017 8:22 AM

The date shouldn't play any role at all

 

[BARNWEY]

After reading a thread on Reddit, I have an idea.

Opening eShop Or Pokemon Bank seem to result in getting your Streetpass games erased. Maybe there are other things that cause this, but these are the only two I'm aware of. Perhaps this also triggers sending a flag to Nintendo.

I have never had or opened Pokemon Bank on my system. I was banned in the SuMo ban wave, but then reverted to a previous friend seed code to unban myself. This only unbanned me from online play. I still can't access the eShop, so I know for a fact I haven't accessed it since switching friend seed codes.

Is this what has spared me from this ban wave? Does doing either of these things bring down the hammer?

I modified my SecureInfo_A and have been spared as well... Correlation perhaps?

 

[A Plus Ric]

28.05.2017 7:22 AM

The date shouldn't play any role at all

You don't know that. Dates play roles in lots of old demos on lots of platforms.

 

[BARNWEY]

True, they aren't as easy as plug in your Apple TV, download app, start watching though :-p
I should find out about Kodi sometime, just haven't gotten around to it.

If you do use Kodi, and have a Chromecast or Roku stick, it is definitely worth it to set it up to use AllCast or LocalCast. It really enhances the experience...

P.S. I don't use it, I just set it up for someone else before...

 

[Zaphod77]

Does anyone know the full list of ways that the activity log can be sent to nintendo? As in really know 100%?