Topic: Out of room for DSi games on my 3DS

I apologize if there is already a thread for this, as I could not find one. If there is, I'll gladly take a link to it. I also chose the 3DS forum because though my issue concerns DSi games, it deals with the 3DS system itself.

Is there anyway to have all of my DSiWare games playable right from my menu, rather than having to keep some on an SD card, and the playable ones on the system memory?

I have a 16 GB SD card for my 3DS, so I've never had an issue with room for any 3DSWare or retail downloads. But, my system memory ran out of room for new DSi games a long time ago. I've had to make room for new games by transferring older ones to the SD card. That sucks because many of them I'd like to play without having to copy/delete. I am down to 10 blocks of space for DSi downloads, so every time I want to get a new game, I have to pick which one to copy onto my SD card, then delete it. It's rather bothersome because I have about 20 titles that I can't really play without copying/deleting other games. There are still quite a few DS games I'd like to download, but this problem has kept me from pulling the trigger a few times. I'd rather not just keep switching SD cards, especially since I don't think that will even fix my issue--I'd still have to transfer them to my system memory, right?

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to fix this process?

DSiWare doesn't go onto the SD card.

You can copy it to your SD Card, but you can't play it from there.

And I don't understand why. It's certainly possible, they just need to make an update.

Yeah, that's my issue. I have to keep copying games onto an SD card if I want to buy a new game because I've run out of room on the System Memory. Didn't take very long to max it out either. Obviously once they're on my SD card, I can't play them without transferring them back onto my system memory--which would then require removing another title that's already there. I have a lot of games that I've paid for that aren't easily accessible.

I'm just asking if that's the way Nintendo has it set up, or if I'm just missing something. I'm guessing there's no way to access all my DSi games--only those that are on my system memory. If I'm right or wrong, please let me know.

Unfortunately, there's no way to circumvent this issue, and it gets less and less likely this issue will get fixed as time moves on, since DSiWare releases are getting less and less frequent are less people are caring about them. I would, however, like to clarify something that always seems to come up when this issue arises. If you're turned off from purchasing DSiWare because of the file juggling between System Memory and the SD Card, I can't help you there, but if you're turned off because you think your saves get wiped in the transfer, that's not an issue (provided you're a bit careful). If, before deleting your DSiWare file from SM, you re-copy it to the SD Card, your save files will still be there when you transfer a game back from your SD Card to your SM. If you don't, you're just out of luck.

@Krimbatize - My personal theory as to why these restraints on DSiWare weren't rectified with the 3DS's launch is due to Nintendo's laziness. It's easier to run an emulator than to design a new interface for plying certain games. Sort of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" solution.

If enough people request it, an SD card option could easily be added although exploit risks may arise (which is highly unlikely). Of course, there's the time of that combined with the low DSiWare sales, slow release time and the fact that an assload of people would need to request it before Nintendo even contemplates adding such an option. I definitely wouldn't strike it out as a possibility, but when factoring in the resources and requests it's not too likely especially since it's not quite as bad as WiiWare was when the SD Card Menu was added. 4 games with all my save data and I had maybe 10 games at the time.

Also, because I feel obligated to plug it, go buy X-Scape. It's definitely worth the $8 and 128 blocks

Thank you for that tip!

I agree its sucks. I usually keep my 10 or so favorite games on my system and save the rest. I get bored with one then I move it off. It really has also made me not want to download another dsiware game again. Even though there are a few I might still want.

I do agree with Birdman in the longer this goes unfixed the likely hood it won't get fixed. I do however think our last best hope is the Wii U connection update. If it takes up system space and causes us to have to delete game from the system they would have to fix it. Of course this is a wish of mine and hopefully a possibility.