Serious 3DS Problems, much help needed

[Satoshi 91]

Hey guys, I'm having some serious problems with 3DS right now, and was hoping if there was ANY advice I could get.

I'll try and keep this brief and to the point.

So yesterday as many of you know Pokemon Bank was released and I tried all day to download it. After many unsuccessful attempts I figured that the servers were busy and would try periodically for the rest of the day.

However as time went on I thought it was odd no one else online seemed to be having issues so I asked my sister to try on her XL. She downloaded it first time with no problems.

A few days previous I had a clear out of the data on my 3DS, old demos etc. and found I was unable to delete any data, specifically the Bravely Default demo. This made me think something was wrong with my SD card, so I went to my laptop, backed up all my data and formatted the card using Nintendo's recommended software from their support centre.

Shortly afterwards I copied all the data back over and tried both deleting Bravely Default's demo and downloading Pokemon Bank - neither were successful. Now here's where it gets messy. I opened up my digital download copy of Animal Crossing New Leaf (knowing that it can be a bit fragile as far as saves are concerned) and to my horror saw that my file was corrupted and that to continue my file must be deleted. I'm not just a casual player either, I've had a file since launch and still regularly play so this is heartbreaking to see that my town is gone, not to mention that it was all for nothing.

So here's my question, what is wrong with my 3DS? I have tried another SD card by copying all the data and have ran into the exact same problems. I've tried formatting and moving files and all sorts, I've tried repairing Animal Crossing's software through the eShop (don't know if that will work because of being unable to download anything) but nothing will work. Does anyone have any suggestions. I've emailed Nintendo but their response was nothing short of useless (giving me suggestions that weren't related to the problem).

And a side note - it's times like this that cloud saves of some sort would be useful, sort it out Nintendo.

 

[gregjammer]

Hey guys, I'm having some serious problems with 3DS right now, and was hoping if there was ANY advice I could get.

I'll try and keep this brief and to the point.

So yesterday as many of you know Pokemon Bank was released and I tried all day to download it. After many unsuccessful attempts I figured that the servers were busy and would try periodically for the rest of the day.

However as time went on I thought it was odd no one else online seemed to be having issues so I asked my sister to try on her XL. She downloaded it first time with no problems.

A few days previous I had a clear out of the data on my 3DS, old demos etc. and found I was unable to delete any data, specifically the Bravely Default demo. This made me think something was wrong with my SD card, so I went to my laptop, backed up all my data and formatted the card using Nintendo's recommended software from their support centre.

Shortly afterwards I copied all the data back over and tried both deleting Bravely Default's demo and downloading Pokemon Bank - neither were successful. Now here's where it gets messy. I opened up my digital download copy of Animal Crossing New Leaf (knowing that it can be a bit fragile as far as saves are concerned) and to my horror saw that my file was corrupted and that to continue my file must be deleted. I'm not just a casual player either, I've had a file since launch and still regularly play so this is heartbreaking to see that my town is gone, not to mention that it was all for nothing.

So here's my question, what is wrong with my 3DS? I have tried another SD card by copying all the data and have ran into the exact same problems. I've tried formatting and moving files and all sorts, I've tried repairing Animal Crossing's software through the eShop (don't know if that will work because of being unable to download anything) but nothing will work. Does anyone have any suggestions. I've emailed Nintendo but their response was nothing short of useless (giving me suggestions that weren't related to the problem).

And a side note - it's times like this that cloud saves of some sort would be useful, sort it out Nintendo.

Almost March, and your thread's not replied to, so I'll give it a shot...

1. Before you insert the new card into comp, did you initialize the card by briefly running the card inside the 3DS(while the SD Card's "hard drive" is EMPTY) until it finishes initializing the SD card(then powering down 3DS for SD card removal afterward), or, if card memory is 64GB or above, did you format the new card to the FAT32 format by using a special wizard before starting the process?

2. You can only copy the folder that contains the data, and alter contents by merging it, as long as the copy and/or paste involves EVERYTHING inside the folder: you can't transfer 3DS files individually(because of the fact that trying to tamper with the stuff inside the 3DS folder outside of the 3DS can harm your save files on return to 3DS), as long as the system memory's not reformatted(as that would regenerate its unique identifying number), but what if your old 3DS is busted to the point where it cannot send wireless signals at frequencies strong enough to allow connection to another 3DS, and constantly shows red(no bars) for significant periods of time, and/or yellow(one bar) for periods not significant enough to allow a successful connection, on the signal strength section of its screen?

^ Answer: there's no way to get your data back, as there's no possible way to use the laptop SD card data to fix your old data if your old 3DS has kicked the bucket, as reformatting the 3DS will regenerate the unique identifier number that is assigned to every 3DS unit, when that number's regenerated, your sd card data won't work w/o a System Transfer prior to system reformat, because if there's no old 3DS data to draw from due to a broken old system/improper SD card transfer, then I'm so sorry, but you'll have to start from scratch w/ a new 3DS purchase, as there's no possible way to get your old SD card data to a new one if your old 3DS unit is missing the proper internal identifiers or if it's broken...

^ If you don't get the above message, see this post from Tehkapi from Nintendo's tech forums in response to a problem similar to yours:

Hiya, sorry to hear about all the problems you're having.

I kninda hate to be the bearer of bad news, but doing the hard reset was probably a bad idea.
Let me explain how the 3DS works when it comes to eShop and Save Data. See, the software that's created on the SD Card is linked to your particular 3DS. When the 3DS is hard reset, it counts as a new 3DS for the purpose of the SD Card. Your games are still perfectly fine in the eShop, you can still redownload them, however, you've pretty much lost all of your saved data on the SD Card. You'll have no choice at this point but to reformat it, since the 3DS in its clean state sees it as a new SD Card.

This is where the Incompatible message comes in, its very badly worded. Basicaly, a key is created that allows only that 3DS to read the save data. If the data is used in another 3DS, it won't work, since its locked to yours. Physical copies don't have that limitation, they can be used on any 3DS without hassle. The only way to use that saved data on another 3DS is via System Transfer.

A simpler way of putting it is like this: When you rent an apartment, you're given a key. When your lease is up, the landlord will change the locks, and your key will no longer work. The new Tennant gets a new key, and lives happily until their lease is up. The landlord then changes the locks again before the new tennant moves in.
The same can be said with the 3DS. The SD Card is a tennant, and needs the right key to be able to get in. If the 3DS is hard reset, it is like changing the locks on the door, the data is still there, but inaccessible without the right key. You can't modify a key to work in the new lock, you have to get a whole new key.

Now that you've hard reset the 3DS, there's really not much we can do. The problem will be solved, but not without the cost of losing the data that you've worked hard on. I will note that if you encounter this problem again, you should try removing the patch and redownloading it from eShop, and it should fix the save file.

Sorry to hear about all the problems!