3DS downgrade from 10.4/10.5/10.6 is now possible
Good news to everyone waiting to downgrade on latest firmwares 10.4/10.5/10.6. You can now downgrade to 9.2 without a hard mod and enjoy CFW thanks to latest svchax by aliaspider.
On Monday, aliaspider released an ARM 11 exploit which can also be used for downgrading o3DS/n3DS on 10.4 to 10.6 firmwares to 9.2 golden firmware. Even though it isn’t 100% foolproof yet, lots of users reported success on process. You still need a way to get homebrew launcher, cubic ninja and OoT can be used for that. Keep in mind that OoT needs another hacked console or usb cartridge save transfer dongle to load the exploit save into cartridge.
The process is still experimental and I am not responsible for your bricks. If you aren’t willing to do the downgrade process, I would still advise not to update to 10.7 firmware which will probably be released very soon and block the ARM 11 kernel exploit.
Also I can advise to get Arm9 loader hax if you decide to downgrade to 9.2 and want to enjoy the instant emuNAND loading from coldboot.
Congratulations to those who can use this and thank you to those who made this possible!
Benn wanting to do this for a while but not brave enough, although most are successful the small percentage of bricks scare me still
The only bricks I’ve seen on GBATemp were either softbricks, which can be fixed by updating in Recovery Mode, or the hardbrick from installing new 3ds fw on old 3ds consoles and vice versa.
wont brick, if first time fails try again by holding L+R+DPad Down and i will update you to 10.6 if 10.7 not out.
I have to say I was entirely new to the whole 3DS CFW stuff and after an evening of tinkering I’m on CFW.
The process is a bit arduous (you’ll need 2+ hours to follow the Plailect instructions posted via Reddit) and there is the odd crash when trying to load up exploits but nothing actually caused any issues once it was loaded. I forewent the arm9loaderhax though since I’m not too hot on trying out exploits that are even newer than those used to downgrade, run the homebrew menu and emulate a firmware sandbox (emunand). If you’re in the same boat, you can stop tinkering by the end of part 3 of the tutorial.
One thing that isn’t mentioned in the tutorial is installing a CIA manager and probably for good reason (but there’s legitimate reasons to do it such as sideloading games you already own). If it’s something you want you can do it after all the steps through EmuNAND9 by injecting one into the EmuNAND’s Health and Safety app. BigBlueBox is usually a good way to go. See Google for “[Release] Inject any app into Health & Safety (O3DS/N3DS/CFW only)”.
With everything setup, you can hold the down arrow, press power and go straight to the homebrew menu. Press X twice and bam, you’re on CFW. It has a 90% success rate but once the CFW is loaded it’s as stable to use as an unhacked 3DS.
You forgot to mention that Browserhax and Homemenuhax has been currently patched/blocked on 10.6 and you would need Ocarina of Time or Cubic Ninja for that firmware
Basically
10.4/10.5 Homemenuhax/Browserhax OK after setting the two DNSs.to avoid browser update nag
10.6 Oothax/Ninjahax only
Sorry, I’m a bit of a noob in this and I wanted to know something: I downgraded my 3DS and installed RxTools. Can I now update my ’emunand’ every time a new update comes out without trouble, as long as I don’t touch the other nand??
Yeah you can, as long as you update your emuNAND from the System Config and make sure something like “RX-E” or simmilar is next to the firmware version showed on the screen. Then you proceed to update your 3ds from this menu. If you update your console outside the System menu, you will update the sysNAND instead, and you’re fugged.
Thanks for the reminder. I mentioned the need for OoT or Cubic Ninja on second paragraph, “cubic ninja and OoT can be used for that”. There are so many things that can be added to this blog but since time and space are valuable, i have to make choices to keep the blog as short as possible.
Its an amazing time to be a 3ds owner. Piracy is rampant amd the official snes emulator is the cherry in the cake.
Well well isnt your weewee up and pointing out the good news lool!
Worked great on my 10.4 2DS.
great bit the bullet and downgraded and using homebrew menu to boot cakes cfw……now what to do *rubs hands*
If you’re on o3DS you change from Cakes to Rxtools. If you’re on n3DS you change from Cakes to Reinand. That’s the next step, unless you want a brick.
Why is it that you can brick a 3DS with Cakes FW? Is it possible to use the Arm9 Loader Hax to load rxTools instead of Cakes? I’m saying this because loading the rxTools emuNAND faster than browserhax would be great.
Sorry the double post but I was meaning “themehax” instead of “browserhax”. Also, why is it that Reinand is better than rxTools for the New 3DS?
using n3ds, would use reinand but it is buggy as heck tho
Can’t say I’ve heard of bricking reports with CakesFW. From what I’ve read it’s basically 3DS firmware with all the patches you need to run pirated games. RXtools has… tools, let’s you do more things but apparently has a poorer boot rate.
Pears and apples but neither should cause bricking.
I have done some research and this is what I have found: a9hl is not implemented in rxTools yet but they’re on their way, expect it soon. a9hl with Cakes FW needs the SD card, if you take out the SD with Cakes and a9hl the 3DS simply doesn’t boot the sysNAND, a great boomer for me if you ask. Using Cakes FW instead of rxTools is riskier due the fact that Cakes FW works from the sysNAND instead of the emuNAND as the case of rxTools, that’s why people imply that the risk of brick with Cakes is higher, however, with the new a9hl you can boot in emuNAND9 in case of NAND failure and restore a NAND backup (If you have it).
The only question left for me is, can you update Cakes FW to the last official firmware version? or you should wait for Cakes team to release it? in rxTools of course you can 😀
doing this now. any one else doing this just to do this? i remember taking many hours putting home brews, emulators, and games on the vita and spent maybe an hour on the emulators before getting bored and putting up my vita.
Everyone is doing it for piracy.
me too. but being honest, i probably just keep playing my games i have on cartage and play emulators on my vita with a psp exploit.
I’m not 100% into piracy. I do still unironically buy Nintendo games even after all these years.
I am planning to buy that Kirby game and Pokemon Sun/Moon and maybe even Monster Hunter Generations.
Normal people have a mix of piracy and some morals usually whether it be games or anything else you can obtain.
Most people I see that are 100% piracy are just poor or have no “real” access to the games (black market prices and/or import taxes can actually make them pretty unaffordable). Other people just don’t want to pay absurd prices so they pirate and wait for a sale.
On the other hand, the people who are 100% anti-piracy, I do not understand their moralfag tendencies. These people usually start their argument looking down on people who even mildly/casually support piracy and then try to “force” others to follow their ideology.
It’s not like they actually buy their music……
Sorry for the rant here.
I’m on new 3ds xl and with 10.6 firmware is there any way to downgrade firmware or to use home brew without ocarina of time?
Nope, your only options are Ocarina of Time, Cubic Ninja, Smash Bros. or IronFall. All other entry points have been patched. More info here: http://smealum.github.io/3ds/
Yeah there’s cubic ninja. But other than that you’re out of luck since every other way to load up homebrew is patched. If you have a sky3ds you can use that to run the rom for cubic ninja
Does this allow to run backup 3ds games? Aka roms
Yes, with a CIA manager such as FBI or BigBlueMenu (they both do the same thing – install .CIA files from the memory card). The main thing is that instead of .3DS ROMs most use .CIA files – which are essentially eShop titles and once installed, show up on your home menu the exact same way as an eShop purchase. Except it won’t be something you can redownload from the eShop because you haven’t bought it through the eShop.
It’s a good way to avoid carrying around all the cartridges you own. Though dumping saves from the cartridges can be trickier.
Basically once you’ve got to the end of part 3 on Plailect’s guide (see the reddit link at the bottom of the article) you can inject a CIA manager into your EmuNand using Decrypt9. If you don’t know what this all means Decrypt9 is used step-by-step in the guide. There’s a tool over at GBAtemp you can use to inject any app into the Health and Safety app, Google is your friend. Follow the steps on GBAtemp and by the end of it clicking your Health and Safety app will actually launch FBI or BigBlueMenu.
The last part is the easiest. Download the games for your region (again, Google), put them on your SD card and use either CIA manager to navigate to them and install. You’ll get the usual ‘wrapped up present’ thing in your homemenu once installed.
You can also use FBI to “punch” .CIA files over WiFI if you’re tight for SD card space (that is, if there’s a 2GB CIA file on your SD card and you’re installing it to the memory card, you’ll need 4GB of space until afterwards when you can delete said CIA file).
Happy ROMing.
well after a mishap while trying to install rxtools. and reading waaaaayyyy too many guides(sigh so far Im down to 4)
after having a 4.5 system fw(brand new)
with cubic Ninja and smash bros
rxtools site was down. (thought it was a error on my part lol) I waited after trying other ways to install cfw.
then finally upgraded with my smash..
to 8.1
I finally got started on rxtools(site came back up)
got halfway. (still was confused)
and forgot to take out smash(not sure if that did it)
but after upgrading..
like the video said(????)
and ended up on 10.6.??
then I just followed this blog. read the tutorial 3x. downgraded to 9.2(no issues)
now onto to better things…
^_^
Just finished using the guide on GBATemp to downgrade an old Ambassador 3DS, and a Majora’s Mask New3DS. It went shockingly smoothly, and the guide was very well-written.
What game would I need to downgrade if I’m on 10.6 would Ocarina of Time work on a 3ds xl?
yea man, just need a way to load the modded save onto the game(powersave or another 3ds with CFW)
Ocarina of time would work but you would still need a 3ds that has hombrew loader running on it already to get the hax payload onto it
Such downgrading. Much hax. Wow