Homebrew Use jk save manager for restore?

Zalg0

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I have a save I want to restore on ACNL, I have jk's manager and ACNL downloaded with a single useless save at the beginning. All I want to do is restore an old save I have backed up on my PC, I've spent thousand of hours on this save and really don't want to lose it.

I am really confused on where to even start doing this I see guides on how to modify but not backup and I know this has to be possible in some way.
 

scorpiotaisho

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Why don't you try to backup the "useless" save (so that you'll have a folder in your SD, commonly SDMC:/saves/[name]/), replace its files with your "old" save files, and then restore that save?

I don't know if I got it right, but this might be easier.
 

Zalg0

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Yeah I've tried that but the issue with that is is that the files it makes when you export arnt the same.

It's "friend.dat" and "garden.dat" my backups have none of those in my backups and all the folders have letters and codes, they arnt named folders.
 

Just Passing By

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What did you use to create your save backup for your old files? Also just in case what are those files named?

Why can't you just import your old saves using the program you used to export them?
 

Zalg0

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All I did for the old files is drag and drop them before I did a format, I did not use any save manager to create .dat files or anything, they are just regular save files.
 

Just Passing By

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Well it sounds to me like SM and JK's save manager won't work for this. You definitely should have made a backup of your saves using a proper tool. If I may ask, what did you even drag and drop from your sd if you never made a save backup?
 

Zalg0

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I just dragged the contents of my memory card onto my pc, I did not anticipate having to format because another technical issue plagued me, I did not think that anything was needed past copy and pasting my "Nintendo 3DS" folder which is the folder that holds the games and their saves.

Im in the process of an experiment right now so I'll see if that does anything.

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

Ok so trying to force create a backup by replacing the files doesn't work and just corrupts the entire game. Was worth a shot I guess.

Second edit: but it does turn out that simply replacing the save with the original does still work, I feel so close yet so far away.
 
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Just Passing By

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Well tell me if you are able to do it cause I think you've lost the save.

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

Yeah just saw your edit and well I think you've to be frank screwed up. Unless I'm just forgetting something, you won't be able to save your save. Other people can explain this more elegantly than me but ACNL has this feature where each time you save a secure value is generated on your 3ds and on the savegame of ACNL. To be able to start the game up again and continue both secure values have to match. This was a problem for people that wanted to inject let's say old backups of their game because the secure values wouldn't match because the old save had a different secure value stored than the 3ds. Workarounds like Jk's Save Manager and SDVT have been created, but those would be incompatible with your saves.
 

Zalg0

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So, I think I might have found a solution, but of course I ran into another problem lol... now I cant launch homebrew loader on my rxtools it crashes to a red screen, not sure if thats because its on 10.5 or what.

it seems that either "save_manager" or "svdt" will recognize saves even when files are changed and the "security" kicks in, now my issue is that I cannot launch either in emunand where my game is installed because when I try I get to a red screen on the bottom and black at the top.
 
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PK_Science

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I'm in a similar pickle. I did a System Transfer and messed it all up when I loaded Pokemon Yellow with the wrong SD Card. Now it just says "Save data is corrupt, initialize save data" even on the source SD Card. Is there any way to salvage it? It's really hard to find help for this on the internet.
 

Zalg0

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I'm in a similar pickle. I did a System Transfer and messed it all up when I loaded Pokemon Yellow with the wrong SD Card. Now it just says "Save data is corrupt, initialize save data" even on the source SD Card. Is there any way to salvage it? It's really hard to find help for this on the internet.

So, I have good and bad news.

Good news is I fixed my issue.

Bad news is the way I fixed it (and most likely only way) was remembering that I happened to have made an emuNAND backup using the emuNAND tool. So if you never made an emuNAND backup you're most likely out of luck.

The way that pokemon and animal crossing deal with saves is to add an extra security measure because of how much those games rely on saves for events in game. So if the game recognizes that the game save and system perameters (whatever they may be) do not EXACTLY match up it will not read the save and count it as "corrupt".

So the reason an emuNAND backup works is because an emuNAND backup is a carbon copy of what the system was at the time of the backups creation. Therefore the game save and the system parameters match up. So sorry to tell you but if you do not have an emuannd backup it's not going to work.

Your next best bet is to remember what you had in your last save and use a save manager to add all that stuff in yourself.
 

PK_Science

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So, I have good and bad news.

Good news is I fixed my issue.

Bad news is the way I fixed it (and most likely only way) was remembering that I happened to have made an emuNAND backup using the emuNAND tool. So if you never made an emuNAND backup you're most likely out of luck.

The way that pokemon and animal crossing deal with saves is to add an extra security measure because of how much those games rely on saves for events in game. So if the game recognizes that the game save and system perameters (whatever they may be) do not EXACTLY match up it will not read the save and count it as "corrupt".

So the reason an emuNAND backup works is because an emuNAND backup is a carbon copy of what the system was at the time of the backups creation. Therefore the game save and the system parameters match up. So sorry to tell you but if you do not have an emuannd backup it's not going to work.

Your next best bet is to remember what you had in your last save and use a save manager to add all that stuff in yourself.
I suppose the fact that I never even installed emuNAND on my Nintendo means I'm hopeless, doesn't it.
 

DocKlokMan

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So, I have good and bad news.

Good news is I fixed my issue.

Bad news is the way I fixed it (and most likely only way) was remembering that I happened to have made an emuNAND backup using the emuNAND tool. So if you never made an emuNAND backup you're most likely out of luck.

The way that pokemon and animal crossing deal with saves is to add an extra security measure because of how much those games rely on saves for events in game. So if the game recognizes that the game save and system perameters (whatever they may be) do not EXACTLY match up it will not read the save and count it as "corrupt".

So the reason an emuNAND backup works is because an emuNAND backup is a carbon copy of what the system was at the time of the backups creation. Therefore the game save and the system parameters match up. So sorry to tell you but if you do not have an emuannd backup it's not going to work.

Your next best bet is to remember what you had in your last save and use a save manager to add all that stuff in yourself.
This is partially accurate. To make sure you don't run into this issue again, I'd like to fully explain it.

The contents of your SD card, ALL your saves, are encrypted to your particular 3DS by a file stored in NAND called movable.sed. This is what lets you back your SD card up and format your card and then put the files back on and still have them be readable, but if you try putting your SD card into another 3DS they aren't, because the encryption on the card does not match that 3DS's movable.sed.

On top of this, movable.sed is tried to your NAND, not your 3DS, meaning a system format changes your movable.sed. So if you remove your SD card and format your 3DS, then put the SD card back in, it won't be able to read it. This is why save managers like JK's Save Manager can only export saves on the 3DS they were created on. Once exported they can be imported on any 3DS though.

One final thing, some games have a secure value, like Pokémon and Animal Crossing that adds an additional security that prevents you from using an older backup you copied even if you're using it on the same 3DS. JK's Save Manager will adjust this secure value as well.
 

PK_Science

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This is partially accurate. To make sure you don't run into this issue again, I'd like to fully explain it.

The contents of your SD card, ALL your saves, are encrypted to your particular 3DS by a file stored in NAND called movable.sed. This is what lets you back your SD card up and format your card and then put the files back on and still have them be readable, but if you try putting your SD card into another 3DS they aren't, because the encryption on the card does not match that 3DS's movable.sed.

On top of this, movable.sed is tried to your NAND, not your 3DS, meaning a system format changes your movable.sed. So if you remove your SD card and format your 3DS, then put the SD card back in, it won't be able to read it. This is why save managers like JK's Save Manager can only export saves on the 3DS they were created on. Once exported they can be imported on any 3DS though.

One final thing, some games have a secure value, like Pokémon and Animal Crossing that adds an additional security that prevents you from using an older backup you copied even if you're using it on the same 3DS. JK's Save Manager will adjust this secure value as well.
Do you think if I get the CFW, I can export my Pokemon save(despite the current corruption message) and have its secure value fixed so I can import it elsewhere again? Or am I lost cause?
 

DocKlokMan

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Do you think if I get the CFW, I can export my Pokemon save(despite the current corruption message) and have its secure value fixed so I can import it elsewhere again? Or am I lost cause?
Pokémon Yellow is a Virtual Console title, which stores the save a little differently. If I understand the issue, you did a system transfer and then you tried to play Pokémon Yellow with the wrong SD card inserted and it gave you a save corrupted message? You have the original SD card and it still won't load that save either. A couple of clarifying questions:

Was the old 3DS hacked? Is the new one hacked? Do you have any other digital games besides Pokémon Yellow that have working saves?
 

PK_Science

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Pokémon Yellow is a Virtual Console title, which stores the save a little differently. If I understand the issue, you did a system transfer and then you tried to play Pokémon Yellow with the wrong SD card inserted and it gave you a save corrupted message? You have the original SD card and it still won't load that save either. A couple of clarifying questions:

Was the old 3DS hacked? Is the new one hacked? Do you have any other digital games besides Pokémon Yellow that have working saves?
Yes, my other saves work because I only opened Pokemon Yellow. The 3DS with Pokemon Yellow had no CFW on it.

I started the arm9loaderhax tutorial though in hopes of extracting it with JKSave Manager, but now things are getting complicated again. Since I followed the directions every step, my 3DS is now on RedNAND. I'm on part 4 of the arm9loaderhax tutorial, Section I.1. It says now is the time to backup my saves. How? SVDT Doesn't work with Pokemon Yellow, it gives me a red screen. Neither does any other save manager. I tried following this guide https://projectpokemon.org/forums/s...-console-(using-homebrew)&p=214883#post214883 , but when the moment of truth came, SVDT just froze in the Homebrew Launcher each time I tried to load it. I'm trying to install FBI onto RedNAND so I can get JKSave Manager but loading it from the Homebrew Launcher just gives me a black screen. So I'm cracking my head trying to figure out how on Earth to extract this one save file, lol
 

DocKlokMan

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Wait. So that means I can copy that file to another 3DS and have two 3DSes that read the same SD?
You could do this by making a backup of the first 3DS, doing a normal system transfer (you can't copy it directly, a part of the file is 3DS specific, the other part is migrated), then restoring the backup of the first 3DS.
 

SomeGamer

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You could do this by making a backup of the first 3DS, doing a normal system transfer (you can't copy it directly, a part of the file is 3DS specific, the other part is migrated), then restoring the backup of the first 3DS.
Thanks, I think I've heard about this method before somewhere.
 

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