Topic: Combining the Network IDs of two 3DS

Hey there!

I got a question about Data Transfer on the 3Ds.
As it seems like the main use of this feature was to transfer data from the old 3DS to a new and virgin 3DS XL, I don't find any information on my very problem. So here it is:

I own two 3DS, both with two different Nintendo IDs.
On both systems there are games installed, which I don't really want to lose.
The black 3DS is the one with the downloads I could not bear to lose, the blue 3Ds has good games aswell, above all the ambassador-games, but after all I would rather format this one than the other.
Best thing would be, if I could combine the games of both systems on one of them, but I pretty much already gave up on this.
I even asked the Nintendo support, but they did not seem to understand me and neither did I understand their explanations.
I know that when there are two 3DS with the same Nintendo ID the e-shop-accounts are combined when data-transferring and the games of the receiver-system (which gets overwritten) can hence be downloaded again.
But I cannot imagine that this works with systems of different Nintento IDs aswell?
I would assume, that the receiver-system becomes overwritten by the other one and the games are lost. Am I right?

Does anyone here have any experience with this?

Thanks a lot to anyone who shares their knowledge with me. =]

I just went through something similar. You can not have one NNID on two different 3DS systems. The primary reason is to prevent what you are trying to do which is have multiple systems with all your purchases. I understand that both 3DS systems belong to you and that you purchased those games, but what would keep people from giving their downloaded games to a friend for free? You can combine the same NNID with both a 3DS and a Wii U though.

Someone recently brought up the "family account" but I don't know anything about it. I believe it is for Club Nintendo instead of the NNID.

I believe that you will have to choose which one you would want to transfer the info the new one. From my understanding is that you cannot combine two different NNID's into one. I am not sure that is the answer you want to hear.

If they transfer, they will lose all content on one of their 3DS systems. If you call Nintendo, they may help you transfer your NNID's between systems but be warned that this is not a quick fix. It will take them a week+ to do this and you will most likely lose your saved game progress. But all this would do is swap content from one to the other though.

Basically ask Nintendo if you can combine two NNID accounts with games into one. I don't think it's possible, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I asked, but they did not answer or at least not understandable for me. ^^
They always repeated that the idea of the receiving system was not deleted when formating, but still somehow present.
And they told me that e-Shop-games are bound to the idea for copyright issues obviously.

So the two options I basically have is being tough and format one of them for sale or just keep them both.
I think as long as I don't need the money I am not eager enough to sell one.

Still I am wondering if a data transfer even is possible when the receiving system has a different ID.

Thanks a lot!

I thought if you transferred one system to another, you end up having the rights to all the games on the target system and the source system gets wiped, but you have to redownload the games that were originally on the target system, so you lose their save files. I remember when I got the XL with MK7 pre-installed, I transferred my other system onto it and then it let me redownload MK7 from the eShop no problem. Is that no longer the case now that games are tied to NNIDs?

Yes it is and that is the problem: My two 3DS-systems do have different IDs.