Changing microSD cards

The goal of this page is to transfer the contents from one microSD card to another one. The method to do this will differ, depending on whether you're using a partition based emuMMC on your microSD card or not.

We will be using hekate to both backup and restore the emuMMC, so make sure that you have its latest files on your microSD card already.

Instructions:

You should first check whether you have a file or partition based emuMMC:

1. Enter RCM and inject the Hekate payload.
   • If you use a modchipped Switch, you can simply just turn your Switch on with the Hekate payload renamed to payload.bin on the root of your microSD card.
2. Tap on the emuMMC button.
3. Under emuMMC Info & Selection, check the text next to Type.
   • If you have one it should be either SD Raw Partition or SD File.

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If you are using a file based emuMMC or are using no emuMMC at all:

1. Enter RCM and inject the Hekate payload.
   • If you use a modchipped Switch, you can simply just turn your Switch on with the Hekate payload renamed to payload.bin on the root of your microSD card.
2. Navigate to Tools > USB Tools > SD Card and plug your Switch into your PC via USB.
3. Copy the contents of your microSD card somewhere to your PC.
4. Access your new microSD card via a microSD card reader or similar.
5. Format your new microSD card to FAT32 if it isn’t already.
   • To do this, use this guide.
6. Copy the files from your PC or directly from your old microSD card to your new microSD card.
7. Eject the UMS device safely from within your computer's operating system.

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If you are using a partition based emuMMC:

WARNING

Space for the backup

You need at least 30GB (or 60GB if using an OLED Switch) of free space to be able to restore the emuMMC!

1. Enter RCM and inject the Hekate payload.
   • If you use a modchipped Switch, you can simply just turn your Switch on with the Hekate payload renamed to payload.bin on the root of your SD.
2. In the main menu, tap on Tools, then Backup eMMC and set SD emuMMC Raw Partition at the bottom of your screen to ON.
3. Backup both SD emuMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and SD emuMMC RAW GPP (Note: SD emuMMC RAW GPP may take a while).
4. Once both are done, go back to the main menu, navigate to Tools > USB Tools > SD Card and plug your Switch into your PC via USB.
5. If Windows asks you to format a drive, discard it and open the accessible drive containing the contents of your microSD card.
6. Copy the contents of your old microSD card somewhere to your PC.
7. Follow the Preparing Hekate section at the bottom of this page (Unpatched Switch users only) to prepare your new SD card with Hekate's files.
   • If you have a modchipped Switch, follow this page instead.
8. Follow only steps 1-3 on this page to partition the new microSD card for an emuMMC setup.
9. After it’s done, boot into Hekate and navigate to Tools > USB Tools > SD Card, then plug your Switch into your PC via USB.
10. Copy the backup you made of your old microSD card on your PC to your new microSD card.
11. Navigate to /backup/<some characters>/emummc on your microSD card and move BOOT0, BOOT1 and the rawnand.bin.xx files to /backup/<some characters>/restore/emummc.
12. Eject the UMS device safely from within your computer's operating system.
13. Tap on Tools, Restore eMMC, set SD emuMMC Raw Partition at the bottom of your screen to ON.
14. Restore the backup by tapping on both SD emuMMC BOOT0 & BOOT1 and SD emuMMC RAW GPP (Note: SD emuMMC RAW GPP may take a while).
    • It is very important that for both of these the SD emuMMC Raw Partition option is enabled, otherwise you will be altering your sysMMC which is not what you want.
15. Your emuMMC is now restored on the new microSD card and you should be able to launch it from Launch -> Atmosphere FSS0 emuMMC in Hekate.