Unangbangkay

Cohost of @unangbangkay on Twitter

Josh Tolentino | weeaboomer, Gamist
| work: RPG Site, Game Rant, Gamecritics | ex: Siliconera, Destructoid

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jel
@jel

I know it's a long running joke that Nintendo does not understand The Internet, but I need to vent and document my recent experience buying a new Switch. The battery died on my old one, so I decided to buy a shiny new OLED model. It shouldn't be that hard to transfer everything over, right? Here's what I had to do:

1. Transferring my main user linked to my Nintendo account: this is a process that involves having both Switch consoles nearby and plugged in for a local wireless network transfer. There are several menus needed to sync up which Switch is the source and which is the target, but overall not too bad... until you realize how little this actually does.

2. Transferring users not linked to a Nintendo account: I had two other users for my niece and nephew that they rarely use, but they did have some fairly significant save data I didn't want to lose. Chances are most people also have these type of users for family, roommates, separate saves, etc. and if you want to keep them you MUST link them to an account.

The "simplest" way to do this is to go to nintendo.com and add them as members of your family group on your main account. This requires making a new account for each user, including entering a birthdate less than 12 years ago regardless if they're a child, and at least once I was asked to enter a credit card number. Why? For one of those ancient account verification processes that charge .50 cents to your account and immediately refund it. I can't make this up. Once that is done, you must manually link each account to the user on the Switch console, then go through the same transfer process as the main user. One user at a time. Hope you only have two like I did!

3. Transferring screenshots and videos: There is no automated way to do this. You must save them on a PC, either by connecting your Switch by USB or using an SD card reader to manually save them from your card. From there, you can manually add them on to a new SD card. I believe this is easier if you plan on keeping your old card, but do NOT just swap cards between Switches... not going to get into it all here, just please research that if needed.

4. Deactivating and reactivating primary console: This becomes less important but more complicated if you plan on keeping both Switch consoles, which thankfully I am not. Basically you have to go into the eShop on your original Switch to deactivate it, then launch the eShop on your new one to activate it. If you try to play your games on a Switch that is not your primary console, you have to have an internet connection so Nintendo can make sure you bought it. Also, be very careful which user you use to buy games, but again, another set of issues I'm not going to get into.

4. Animal Crossing, oh Animal Crossing: None of these transfer processes include moving your Animal Crossing data, which has it's own special tool. Again, I can't make this up. This process requires downloading Animal Crossing, any updates, and the Animal Crossing transfer tool on each system. Then you essentially go through the same local network transfer process as your users, but this time it's Animal Crossing themed! Even after all this, when you launch the game, you still need to link your individual island residents to your transferred Nintendo account. As an added bonus, this randomly crashed during the transfer and I had to start the entire process over. I'm amazed it actually worked.

5. Re-downloading games: the only normal and acceptable part of this process.

6. Downloading cloud saves: After re-downloading, the first time I open a game with my main user I am forced to download a backup cloud save. This is poorly worded and confusing, especially if you accidentally launch the game before restoring the backup. Any data saved before restoring the backup has to be overwritten, so you have to really be on top of it. It's possible I made a mistake somewhere that's causing this, but if you read this far, can you blame me?

So yeah, if you do plan on getting a new Switch, just be prepared for some extra work.


Unangbangkay
@Unangbangkay

As apparently launch-vintage Switches no longer work with certain systems for delivering pre-release review builds, so I've been considering getting a new Switch and gifting the old one to the kids.


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