Topic: Bought a used 2DS. Not sure if the save slot is working.

Hi, I have a 2DS, but it needs repairs. My flash card is working fine, though. All of my data is still on it. So I bought another 2DS, used, and am working on transferring everything to it. Nintendo switched my account to my new 2DS, and I've logged into the eShop and everything is fine there. But when I insert my flash card, nothing changes. I had thought that everything was saved on my flash card, including the actual games, but it appears as if nothing is being read. I installed one of my eShop games to see if my save data would load when I booted the game, but it didn't! The game says I have no save data. And now I'm nervous that I've wiped my memory card.

I've just copied all of my data to my computer, just in case. It was 11 gigs, which is hopefully a good sign. But I had probably a dozen games on there, including big ones like Samus Returns, Street Fighter 4, and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Do I need to reformat my flash card for my "new" 2DS? Or is this a sign that the memory card slot is broken?

If Nintendo did the transfer remotely, then your SD card is still tied to the original 3DS: it won’t work with the new system.

For it to work that way, you would have had to do a system transfer locally between both consoles.

It’s possible your old data is still there, I can’t remember if the 3DS wipes out the data off unrecognized SD cards, but it will not work with a new system regardless. So, since your older console will likely not work with it either (since it has been removed from your account), I’m afraid the data is more or less unusable anyway 😕

@Eel !!!!!!!

How could the save files be tied to the account? This is crazy!

@Gryffin it’s more like they’re tied to the system itself.

When you take an SD card from one system and put it in another, the 3DS will simply go “I don’t know you!” at the data, and proceed to ignore it.

In the case when a console has been reset/restored, then it’s like it’s a different console altogether, even if its the same hardware, it is no longer the same “person”, so to speak.

@Eel interesting. Should I not be able to format my memory card, copy my files back onto it, and get it to work my with my new 2DS? Am I screwed?

@Gryffin I’m afraid any save data that resided in the SD card will only be recognized by the system that created it.

You can, if you want to to hold on to hope, store the SD card somewhere else, and start over in a new one.

@Eel thank you for your help. I'm pretty bummed about this. I've never heard of such draconian DRM. Fortunately, I didn't have too many saves that I lost. I was most of the way through Samus Returns, but honestly I wasn't sure I was even going to finish it. I also was very far in Steamworld Dig 2, but I hadn't played in a while. I hadn't started the Oracle games or Link's Awakening yet, so that's lucky.

@Gryffin Want to hear a more draconian DRM?

On the Switch if you insert a cartridge and then update the game, after that delete the saves and the game from memory you can't use your cartridge on that Switch UNTIL you reset your Switch to factory settings OR have the internet connection to update the game to the same version previously installed OR later.

I know this because I tested it and lost all of my save data in the process!

Hmm, there might be a way around this but I couldn't tell you exactly how. On my old 3DS, my SD card (card 1) filled up so I had a few games on a second SD card (card 2) and swapped between them when I wanted to play different games. When I got my 2DS XL and a bigger SD card (card 3), the system transfer only included the games from card 1, but I was able to transfer over the saves from card 2 by manually dragging them onto card 3 on my computer.

Now the games are not listed under their titles when you view the SD card on a computer; instead each game is represented by an ID number. There's a website somewhere that tells you the ID for every game; it's a bit of a pain but you can go through each game, check its ID and then transfer the save to the new SD card. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the site or exactly which folder I found the saves in or where I had to put them, so I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but hopefully I'm right in thinking it's possible to do in this situation. I'm sure there'll be a thread on Reddit or GameFAQs that will explain the process better than I can, so see if you can find anything when you google your problem.

@Dogorilla that worked because you did a system transfer between both systems.

Unfortunately, Gryffin’s was not a system transfer, Nintendo removed their account from the broken system, and gave access to it to the new system.

Think of it like this: it’s like you’re moving houses, when you have both houses and everything is fine you can just move your stuff over.

But if your original house burned down with all your stuff inside… the Nintendo Insurance Company will do their best to replace your furniture with the same things, but it won’t be the exact same stuff.

@Eel Ah, gotcha. That's unfortunate, it seems like a pretty big oversight from Nintendo when they were designing this system.

@Dogorilla it’s merely a security measure. The Switch works the same as far as I know.

In fact, the 3DS is far more user friendly when it comes to in-person system transfers… on the Switch you don’t have the option of swapping the SD card at all, you must download all your games again.