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Copying 3DS SD info to a new card - any advice?

Worst Username Ever

Worst Username Ever

(laughs)
So this might be a dumb question, but here goes: I've recently considered getting a bigger SD card for my 3DS - probably about time since I still have the tiny 2GB card that came with the 3DS, and if I'm going to download a lot it's probably going to be filled pretty soon (especially with the big titles like Animal Crossing as downloadable) Well, from half a year of use I already have a bunch of stuff saved on my SD, and it seems things like Mii Plaza info/games and other things gets saved there too (exactly what gets saved to the 3DS itself and what goes on the SD anyway? Well, I do know the eShop data stays on the 3DS and I'd just have to redownload everything on the new card) and I don't want to lose that, I want to keep everything I've done on my 3DS... I don't want to lose the Miis I've collected (especially the special Iwata Mii) and the save data in the games, I don't want to lose my swapnotes, i don't want to lose those things. So what I've been thinking of doing is simply making a copy of the SD card data saved on my computer, and copy that back to the new, blank SD card and put that in the 3DS, simple enough - then I'll still have all my info and games and everything with more space! Yay!

Though, when googling about this I've heard several stories about people doing it this way and various things messing up (like losing data, and i think directories or what they're called messing up?) which made me a bit worried... I don't want this to happen to me. Does this happen often (if it's done correctly), or am I just worrying too much? My friend did this, and it worked fine for him.
What I'm doing is just copying the data over to another SD card to be used on the same 3DS... Any advice about this? Also, should I copy everything, or just a few of the folders? (Probably everything, but with those problems I've read about you never know... I heard something messed up with the directories, and they had to go and delete extra folders that somehow got made, and then it somehow worked) And I should put in the new card before or after I put it into the 3DS? Will that matter? Probably should do this... if it has the old info I won't have to make new mii plaza ect. settings if that's what happens?

I especially want to hear from those who have done this, if anyone. Did it work? Not? What should I do/not do to ensure it works like it should, anything I should watch out for? I only have my friend's word for it and while I trust him, I want to be sure it's "safe".
 
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I assume you can't just temporarily transfer everything into system memory and then take it back out again? The thing probably doesn't have enough system memory to do that, though..
 
Nope, that won't work... for games and such that might work(not sure if you can transfer though? haven't tried), but other non-game 3DS programs are always saved on the SD card as far as I know. And it's those I'm most worried about - the games can just be redownloaded anyway. The worst that could happen with them would be losing my save data for the downloads, which, unlike the other info, can be replaced, while my Mii Plaza stuff ect. would be lost forever.
 
I remember hearing that you transfer your information using a computer and SD cards, but I've never tried it myself, so I can't vouch for it.
 
Yeah, and that's what I'm planning to do. I mean, it should work, the only question is if it would be "safe", if your files would come out okay on the other card.
 
I've done this before. I just copied all of the data I had in mine into the new card and my data was fine.

One thing though; don't change any of the data on the 2 gig card, just copy it. Also, make sure the three folders that have the data are transferred as they are. I made the mistake of putting all three of the 3ds folders into a single folder to move them quickly. The data transferred ok, but it was hidden and the DS couldn't read it.

So, bottom line, just copy the three folders so they are exactly as they were on the 2 gig card's menu. You should be fine.

(also, if you want to add music, just move it to the SD card and the DS will read it, even if it's inside its own folder.)
 
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