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As part of the newly-announced Winter update headed to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo has finally lifted the lid on the much-anticipated 'Island Transfer' feature.
The feature will allow New Horizons players to transfer a single player's resident data from one Nintendo Switch system to another. To do this, you'll need to download the free Island Transfer tool which will be available on the Switch eShop starting from Thursday 19th November.
Nintendo has now shared the first details on how the app will work:
Entire Island Transfer
Use this feature if you wish to transfer the entire island and all residents to a new Nintendo Switch system. The island, all progress and customizations, your animal neighbors, the island resident representative, and any other residents that have been created on the island will be transferred.This feature is helpful if you are replacing your Nintendo Switch system with a new one and all players who have played Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be using the new Nintendo Switch system. It is also the only way to transfer your island resident representative when you have not backed up your island.
You must have access to both the original system and the new system to use this feature.
Resident Move (Single Player Transfer)
Use this feature if you wish to transfer just one resident to a new Nintendo Switch system. The resident, the resident’s home, and most items held by the resident and kept in storage will be transferred to an island on the new Nintendo Switch system. The island resident representative cannot be transferred.This feature is helpful when just one player wants to continue playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on a new Nintendo Switch or when multiple residents other than the island resident representative will be using the new Nintendo Switch. The transferred player(s) will move to a new island if there is no existing save data on the new system. If there is already an island populated on the new system, the resident(s) will move to that island. All island progress and animal neighbors will remain on the original Nintendo Switch system.
You must have access to both the original system and the new system to use this feature.
Have you been waiting for this handy feature to go live? Looking forward to the winter update? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Comments 51
It's nice they've done something, but not having the terrible save and island restrictions in the first place would've been ideal.
Good. Now do something for Splatoon 2 please. Got more hours on there than any other game on my Switch.
I mean, perfect, exactly what should have been available from the beginning really.
This is exactly what anyone will need whenever Nintendo finally launches a Switch successor system. I've really been feeling the need for a performance-boosted Switch Pro lately with some of the performance issues in older and upcoming games.
Glad it’s finally here, but why does it always have to be so complicated?
@JohnnyC You can already transfer Splatoon 2 data from one system to another. It just doesn't support cloud saves.
I know this is asking a lot, but I really wish you could have multiple islands on one system. I understand this is a great feature, yes I get that, but for someone who doesn't own two Switches, this was a little bit of a let-down (albeit I will still enjoy almost every other aspect this update has to offer)
Just in time for everyone who stopped playing it months ago.
I'm a bit out of the loop here, but if this is their solution to cloud saves etc., does that mean that if your Nintendo Switch got stolen, you'd still lose all of your save data? Because if so, then this still isn't a solution!
@Miyamotosan no??? a lot of people still play the game
I REALLY don't get why they can't use cloud saves. Would be SO much easier.
@BranJ0 They already previously added island backup which lets you recover your island if your Switch is lost or stolen. This update that adds a way to transfer data from one Switch to another.
But do you have to wait a week for it to recharge?
Wow, Nintendo has embraced the 21st century!
@Miyamotosan The people who stopped playing it months ago don't care anyway. It's for the people who have continued to play and have racked up hundreds of hours.
Excuse my ignorance as I’ve not got New Horizons yet, but what’s an Island Resident Representative? How is it different from a Resident?
HAHAHAHA wtf. This is still so obtuse. So you can move a resident, but not the island rep, to a new island and only with the items in their pockets?. Still can't transfer your island with all your progress to a new console? I'm not transferring anything, so I don't really care, but oof.
@DannyBoi Because of cheaters.
@BenAV Oops! My mistake! That's pretty impressive for Nintendo then!
@Crockin Did you miss the "Entire Island Transfer" part?
@sanderev that's the excuse they use.
@BranJ0 It requires contacting customer service so it's a bit more of a hassle than the regular old cloud saves that most games support but it's better than nothing. Animal Crossing's saves is a bit of a tricky situation with everyone on the system sharing the same island but they've finally got all the necessary systems in place now. Save transfer is especially important if they're planning to release a 'Switch Pro' or something like that at some point in the near future.
@gaga64 a Island Representive is reponsible for everything in your Island(decide where your Villagers Houses should be located, talk to characters such as Mable to convince them to build they shop in your Island) a Resident is a person who live in your Island, when a Island Representive can be compared to a Mayor of a city.
@Miyamotosan You mean all those people keeping it in the top 10 are using it as a coaster? Or to keep their shelves straight?
So no transfers of Island Representative yet? I would love for my wife to take over.
@JohnnyC Splatoon 2 saves? Yes. Although it isn´t nesscary. This just seems to be a thing with Nogamis Games huh?
@BenAV it appears so yes
Just ready in time for the new Switch plus arriving next year.
i thought that the island transfer feature already existed. i just used it two weeks ago. i guess they decided to make an app to make it easier. as well as adding additional options to the feature.
Gosh this is complicated.
@Crockin just delete your initial comment lol
this feature is amazing and even more that the game isnt even a year old yet, big W for big N
Finally
Someone new joined the forum about every 1-2 weeks from march-july? just to ask if they could transfer ACNH to another console.
For single player transfer do you keep your store/diy/bugs/fish catalogs?
I wish Pokémon tv was an app on switch
At long bloody last. Finally I can take my Animal Crossing console out of the box and take advantage of that longer battery life.
This is a bit of a relief. I still play daily but my Switch is in pretty rough shape and needs to be replaced.
@magicismoney why? i don't care
Ah this will be a life saver since there isn't any save data cloud
@Tendogamerxxx I see the way Nintendo are acting gets me frustrated
This feature is helpful if you are replacing your Nintendo Switch system
They can do this so why can't they make a system PC transfer system so I don't have to waste my time transfer my data to my new Switch Pro when I get one so I can give my other one away if that happens. Why do they make it so hard here.
Might have to play AC again, this surely means they have plans for a new Switch
Just hope it get gets more use than the New 3DS
It's just Nintendo preparing for a Switch Pro
This is already possible. I transferred my island to my new switch last month using the cloud backup feature and calling Nintendo to do a recovery. The change here is that you'll be able to do it without having to tell Nintendo the switch the original island is on is defective or lost ... but it's not like you couldn't just do that today. Mine WAS defective, but they didn't check or anything.
I can see this being helpful for some people but as other people have stated you should be able to change the island representative among a few other things.
My sister in-law is a classic case of having to endure annoyance due to some of these restrictions. She got into Animal Crossing after watching her 7 year old son play it for awhile. So she started a character on his island and has been playing it regularly for over half a year now. Of course her son is the island resident but didn't care about progressing much so she ended up having to play his file to keep progress going in addition to her file. Her son also called the island "cool" which is a slight irritation to her especially since it starts with lower case. It would be nice to edit things like names especially since when she started playing she used a lower case letters to start her name because she didn't realize how to change to upper case. She asked me what it would take to start her own island but unfortunately she basically would have to but the game and a new switch again to do plus start over from scratch, which after playing for a few months seems rather annoying.
In conclusion I think in a game like Animal Crossing you should be able to make those kinds of adjustments especially since it relies heavily on real time. Switching Island residents seems like a must in a lot of families because it seems so common for the initial player to get tired of it while a spouse or parent becomes the main player. You should be able to change your islands name even if there is a penalty like it costs bells or something because after playing for months and customizing the crap out of your island you may have come up with a better name but your stuck with something your 7 year old came up with who doesn't even play it anymore. Now with being able to transfer a resident to a new island, those who were playing for months and putting a town of work into their current island will have to decide wether it is worth it to basically start an island from scratch.
Still, this is a step in the right direction.
This also better not require a paid NSO subscription!!!
Finally! I genuinely felt obstructed from upgrading to a newer model Switch because of this.
glad to see the game slowly coming together, we almost have a whole year of events now. i hope they can work on bringing other missing NPCs back in the cycle too, the fact that rover only shows up briefly once on may day is just weird to me
Just be quick to grab this, I heard its available for a limited time only
@Silly_G It's local, so why would it require an internet connection?
@DannyBoi Actually I think it's a valid reason to do so. Save states and save backup is not something you want in a game with a built in economy and support for online trading. Which Animal Crossing has.
I've been waiting for this so I can play on my TV from time to time (I have my town on my Switch Lite.)
I'm still hesitant to actually do it until other people report success in the ease and ability to send your town back and forth between two systems without some sort of cooldown time or something.
@BooJoh exactly what I want to know before buying a lite for on the go! I wanna be able to go back and forth
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