3ds downloadable games save files

I've been wondering lately about where the save files for digital games go. It would make sense for them to be in the same folder as the game, yeah? Or are they saved to the internal memory so we can't mess around with them?

I've read that if you have two SD cards you can just download the game to each card for more save files. Ex: Buy animal crossing off the eshop and download it to two cards and swap out the cards for more save files.
Or can you copy the save file off of the SD card and onto a PC for unlimited save files with a single card?
If that's possible, what's to stop people from copying XY save files to the PC, trading, then recopying the old file back onto the SD card to clone Pokemon?

Well I can say they are definitely on the SD card. They are encrypted though so you can't mess around with and alter them unless someone hacks the system.

Save data is stored separate from game data, so you can use multiple cards/PCs to back up savedata or create multiple copies of savedata. Save and game data is tied to hardware, however, so you cannot transfer saves from one machine to another (unless there's an eshop utility for that).

It seems like kind of a "well, duh, of course that's how it works" kind of thing, but then you run into a company that just ****s everything up. Like Sony. On the Vita, saved data is tied to the same file as game data, so if you delete a game you've downloaded, you also delete the saved data--and, worse, even cart games store saved data in the "desktop shortcut" icon, so you can't even clean up the OS without deleting saved data. Yikes.

Arsene-Lupin posted...

Save data is stored separate from game data, so you can use multiple cards/PCs to back up savedata or create multiple copies of savedata. Save and game data is tied to hardware, however, so you cannot transfer saves from one machine to another (unless there's an eshop utility for that).

It seems like kind of a "well, duh, of course that's how it works" kind of thing, but then you run into a company that just ****s everything up. Like Sony. On the Vita, saved data is tied to the same file as game data, so if you delete a game you've downloaded, you also delete the saved data--and, worse, even cart games store saved data in the "desktop shortcut" icon, so you can't even clean up the OS without deleting saved data. Yikes.

Wait, what? So how do I backup saves to my PC after all?

I need to look this stuff up, I'm working really hard on this DKCR3D save file and would go nuts if I lost it.

IIRC, none of the data on the SD card is actually labelled, so going through the data on a PC would be... difficult. I'd suggest just backing up the whole card. Just copy and paste everything on the SD card to your PC, and then (if you're really paranoid) to a cloud storage, too.

Arsene-Lupin posted...

IIRC, none of the data on the SD card is actually labelled, so going through the data on a PC would be... difficult. I'd suggest just backing up the whole card. Just copy and paste everything on the SD card to your PC, and then (if you're really paranoid) to a cloud storage, too.

That works, then.

Just like iPhone backups. I hated them for a while but then I learned to just deal with it.

FYI If you know the exact date you downloaded something then you can use the "folder created" (or whatever yours calls it) date(s) shown in your PC's file browser of choice to narrow it down. Or pick it out, if you only got the one thing that day.

rahxephon122 posted...

If that's possible, what's to stop people from copying XY save files to the PC, trading, then recopying the old file back onto the SD card to clone Pokemon?

The one big reason why I'm considering getting one of them digital. :D

Random_Ghost posted...

FYI If you know the exact date you downloaded something then you can use the "folder created" (or whatever yours calls it) date(s) shown in your PC's file browser of choice to narrow it down. Or pick it out, if you only got the one thing that day.

rahxephon122 posted...

If that's possible, what's to stop people from copying XY save files to the PC, trading, then recopying the old file back onto the SD card to clone Pokemon?

The one big reason why I'm considering getting one of them digital. :D

Actually, it just occurred to me that they might not even release them digitally until they get it all sorted all. Ninty wouldn't want cloning to be a thing again.



Also, if you have a blank SD Card (and I mean BLANK) you could redownload the game off the eshop to find the folder's name then copy a folder with the same name off of the normal SD card.

rahxephon122 posted...

Actually, it just occurred to me that they might not even release them digitally until they get it all sorted all. Ninty wouldn't want cloning to be a thing again.

I doubt it. They didn't care with Pokemon Dream Radar, and they've been trying to push both digtal purchases and X/Y's global release, which day 1 digital would do nicely.

Also, if you have a blank SD Card (and I mean BLANK) you could redownload the game off the eshop to find the folder's name then copy a folder with the same name off of the normal SD card.

YMMV.

^Except Pokemon Dream Radar isn't a main series game. You don't gain nearly as much from that as you would XY.
Although it never occurred to me that the data for the dream radar could be copied as well.