Topic: Lost all data in system transfer :)

I purchased a 3DS XL today and I did a system transfer to leave the old 3DS to my girlfriend. Now it seems that pretty much everything is lost. The Mii are still there, but all the games I purchased from e-shop are gone, for instance. I've redownloaded them, but all the data is LOST. That means all the pushmo levels lost, same for muttant mudds..... I'm quite disappointed and I really dunno what to do, or if I even can do anything. I can't find anyhting on the web, but I really refuse to lose EVERYTHING I've spent time on so far

I dunno if anyone ever had a similar problem or if there's any possible solution to it.

If it helps, at the end of the transfer, the 3DS XL was telling me that it couldn't read from the SD card. Now it works, ofc, but it seems all got lost there. I had to continue since there wasn't any other option...

Now I'm scared! I was thinking about getting a XL, so this isn't very fun to hear. Did you make any copies for the save data on your computer? If I get one, I will do that, because I hate loosing data. I feel for you, and I hope that you somehow can retrieve it. Good luck.

That sucks so you did you lose your Streetpass puzzles and Find Mii progress too? I plan on backing up my SD card before doing my transfer myself just to be safe.

Sorry to hear that, that sounds terrible. I did a system transfer to another 3DS a couple months ago and everything went very smoothly but now I'm a bit scared about my transfer coming up with the XL...I know how you feel though. A couple years back when I sent my Wii to Nintendo, it came back with all save data totally wiped. I still had all the downloadable games and everything but it was truly painful to lose all my saves.

Did you take your old SD card out and put it in the XL, because I thought 3DSWare titles were saved to SD?

i did that too when i transferred all my stuff over from my flame red one to my purple one. I forgot to put the files on my computer first. So now it's all unusable. I had to start all over again. But since I have three 3DSes in my household i was able to get most of my streetpass stuff back to the way it was before the transfer. I don't mind that I had to start all over with my saves, but I didn't really make that much of a dent in my games. I can understand why you would be upset though.

My friend got a new SD Card and his computer screwed up and he lost everything. Now it looks like he's not alone. Too bad. Not sure why PCs do crap like this, but sometimes they don't get the job done right. That's why I haven't got a 8/16 GB SD Card yet; I don't have complete confidence in my computer. I had to copy my bro's stuff twice on it, because it froze up halfway through the 1st time and corrupted the data. I had to do a do-over, and for some reason the photos would never transfer. He used the system memory for that though. It worked, but it was a long complicated process.

The save files are stored in the actual games, be them 3dsware or virtual console. Hence why you need to swap SD cards over after a system transfer. It isn't just so you don't need to download stuff, it's just so you don't lose your data. Which is also why Nintendo tells you to backup the SD card on a PC before transferring.

Did you put your SD card in the 3DS XL? That's why you lost them. All games and data (aside from maybe DSiware) is stored on the SD card. The system you're transferring to will reformat the SD card and everything will be deleted.

For future reference, leave the SD card in the original system during the transfer process. This is what I did during my system transfer and it worked fine.

I must be one of the lucky ones the system transfer screwed up on me 3 times always at step 3 aswell and played up when i tried to do it again asking me to update the system firmware which was already done, LUCKILY i got it done on my fourth attempt with everything intact.

I didn't touch the SD cards during the whole process, anyway I dont have any hope to recover anything.
The missing data is a bit random, for example I lost all my Fifa 12 progress & career, but RE: Revelations progress is still there. I didnt lose any of my streetpass matches though...
The irony is that I'm system admin, and I make backups every single day, but this time I didnt even consider it. I know it's my responsability & I'm not even upset about losing my data, but I dont think I saw any warning about this when I started the system transfer, and IMHO Nintendo should warn in big, unmissable letters that some data may be lost, and that it's important to make a backup of the data, if there's such danger. Devices like vg consoles, with a broad customer base, should work the way they're supposed to, no surprises. Is not the user who has to consider security measures in advance, designers must. I think nintendo is losing their care about these important little things lately (I still cant explain how is it possible that the browser doesnt have flash or html5 support, or why 3ds xl doesn't include charger), and I'm afraid customers will react leaving to other companies if things keep going this way.

upset =/= disappointed (with nintendo, obviously)
Also there are 14 hours between the 1st and 2nd post, there's this thing called "moving on".

thx for the bump though

Your streetpass plaza is stored on the system, so it would have been transferred. If you didn't touch your SD cards that explains your problem, because you need to move your SD card from your old system over to your new one after doing the system transfer.

What about game data for games on the 3DS?

If you're referring to physical games, the save file is on the cartridge itself

No, I mean download titles in System memory.

The save files are part of the actual game files. So when you delete a game, you delete the save too

I'm not too worried about the sd card content. As long as I can start games again it's fine. The thing that worries me is transferring my account so I won't lose everything I bought from the original 3ds e shop so I can redownload when I want to.

That happened to me too, but not during a system transfer (I don't have a 3DS XL, my 3DS said the software management part of my SD Card was corrupted) If you're kicking yourself for not being an Ambassador, don't, because it means I have at least 20 games (Including Metroid Fusion and Legend Of Zelda: Minish Cap) to start all over again

Hope you get your data back soon.