How to Transfer Nintendo Switch SD Card Data to a New SD Card
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Step by step tutorial to transfer Nintendo Switch SD card data to a new SD card. Get memory cards here:
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Bruh - TheBeefmaster assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. All material provided within this TH-cam channel is for informational, educational, & entertainment purposes only. Some of these projects, materials, and techniques may not be appropriate for all ages or skill levels. No information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. The Beefmaster does not endorse drinking from a jtrap sink pipe in any way.
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1. Informative
2. Short
3. Calm
4. Complete
5. With a nice plot and motivation
Thank you man, so simple and so good 😊
Two things i might add to this, but it's all very straightforward and accurate!
1. after formatting the new card and your PC recognizes it, there's a chance that a "Nintendo" folder will already be present, clocking a few GB of space. I had no issues with this, but when you move the folder (with your data) from the desktop to the new card, it may prompt you to "replace" or "skip" the duplicate files. I clicked "replace" and had no problems.
2. after the folder has been moved to the new SD card, you may have to refresh your window for the preview to accurately reflect the correct amount of space.
The info I was looking for thank you
ty had to make sure
Thank you, did the same and worked.
Just transferred my stuff to a bigger sd card thanks to this video! It was very straightforward and I'm very thankful that I can now play/download new games and not worry abt storage for a bit!
Just to be clear this is the same process for OLED right?
@@Bobzilla2023yeah
Great tutorial! I too am ready for breath of the wild two.
Didn't expect to see you here lol
@@dallintg6299 me and beefmaster go way back.
@@JerryRigEverything that is cool I have watched a tone of your videos and I just found the BeefMaster channel because I live across the street from him
@@dallintg6299 we used to work together. He's got some good stories.
@@JerryRigEverything cool
For all those are getting “unable to read microSD” you need to manually go into the new formatted microSD “Nintendo” file and replace the “save” folder files with the old microsd “save” files. Then go into “Contents” file and replace the two “private” files with the old microsd’s “private” files. And finally, copy all the files in “registered” folder (within “Contents” folder) from the old sd card and paste then into the new empty “registered” folder. Eject the new card with all the new files and place back into switch when its powered off. Power back on and it works!
KRUSTYskates, you are doing a righteous work.
hi, i was wondering if you know what to do with the album folder? can i just transfer it to the new SD card? i dont want to lose all of my photos and videos!!
My gosh what a crappy system
Still didn’t work :(
@@jadedjimmy th-cam.com/video/OdvKMro_2I4/w-d-xo.html
This explains it more.
Simple, well explained and straight to the point, great tutorial, thank you!
Posting to confirm something, in case it helps anyone else.
For reasons unknown to me, this works when using a Windows PC machine and NOT on a Mac.
I tried to do this first on my MacBook and the Switch could not read the SD card. So I started over, reformatted, and used my old PC and it worked perfectly.
that's terrible I only have a Mac :(
@@imsofknhirnjust make sure it’s formatted by the switch, not mac.
Omg this just solved it all for me thank you so much!
This worked out just like you said it would. I knew a fellow BOTW fan wouldn't let us down. Thanks.
Thank you for such a quick and to the point video. Very helpful! I can confirm that this worked on my Switch OLED without any issues. When transferring the files to the new formatted micro SD card, Windows didn't ask me if I wanted to replace the existing 'Nintendo' file until the very end of the transfer. Hope this helps!
This is really useful since I lost my old switch earlier this month. I looked everywhere I could think of multiple times and even checked with the restaurant but no luck. I wound up having to deactivate my old one in case it got taken and buy a new one. Really sucks since I'd had it since 2017 and had so many good games on it that I loved playing.
Luckily I do have an SD card that has some of the old files from my switch so at least I won't have to restart every game from scratch. This was a huge help!
Thank you for telling me about formatting, because I almost made a huge mistake and transferred my data before doing that!
If you don't have a computer, there is a more tedious way to do it:
• power down the switch
• swap in the new SD card
• format it
• transfer all data stored on your internal storage to the new SD
• power down
• put in your old SD card
• move all/as much data from the SD to the internal storage as you can fit
• repeat these steps until old SD is empty
• move any data you don't want on the SD card back into the internal storage or vice versa
Not the most efficient method but it'll get the job done
Edit 1/20/24: There is a known issue of corrupted save data associated with this method. It is unknown if this issue is based on SD card brand, Switch model/revision type, or completely random. I recommend backing up your data with cloud saves before attempting this method. If you have attempted or are going to attempt this method, let us know how it went and if you can, tell us the SD card brand and size, as well as your switch model/revision type. If you are unsure of the revision type, look at the back of your Switch. The new Nintendo Switch has a number that should read HAC-001 (-01), while the original has a model number of HAC-001
thanks for this haha, I don't have my laptop with me but managed it this way :)
@@gabriellaarchive Glad I could help
You are the true hero bro
@@Southern_Ranger I try my best
Does this delete your previous save data of games?
Im new to this whole switch clan and this video just saved me raging deleting everything due to my lack of knowledge about this kind of stuff😅 Thank you for your help👍🏾
That's funny. You have the exact same old and new SD card as I am working with. Great minds and all that... Thanks for the video. I figured I would search before tinkering, and this is exactly what I was hoping I could do.
Thanks for the video, but I'm a little confused about something. Your computer showed no folders/files on your new SD card when you first put it in. However, when your Switch formatted your new SD card, shouldn't it have created the same 'Nintendo' folder with the three subfolders as on your old card? After formatting my new card on the Switch, my computer shows a 'Nintendo' folder with a few files in the subfolders. Should I delete that folder and copy in the folder from my old card?
Good question. You can either copy and replace the old Nintendo folder over the new SD card Nintendo folder, or, option two is delete the new SD card Nintendo folder entirely and paste the old folder on the new SD card. I did the latter option in this video. Either way will work. You can even open the sub folders and replace individual files, but really no reason to do so.
If you don’t have the online storage, you could modify these steps to occasionally make a copy of the SD card on your computer as a backup of your game saves.
@@beefmaster_james I'm now doing the same thing but why is it telling me that there is 9 hours and 30 minutes left to copy my old switch data onto my new SD card instead of 1 hour like it took when copying my old switch data onto my computer?
@@SpiritofVengeance1 How many gb do you have to transfer?
@@Prof.Mokster57 I figured it out.
@@SpiritofVengeance1 copying takes longer than moving, sd card degradation also cause slowdown over time, and the more data being transferred the longer it takes. And sometimes the PC being used can cause slowdown depending on it's specs, age, overall health but this is usually the least likely case.
Which one of those scenarios if any were you experiencing?
I followed the steps exactly no pop ups or any corruption when copying to desktop and transferring to new card.
But when I put the new card into the switch (no errors) it showed the files had transferred (taking up space on new card) but wasn’t being read. For example my images and videos were saved by default on micro sd aren’t showing up. Games as well that were saved in original sd card copied over should’ve started up instead of asking to redownload software. Not sure what happened.
I got a Sandisk extreme 512gb and old card was Nintendo Sandisk.
Thank you so much dude. I can’t thank you enough for how helpful this was for me 😁
I got you bro.
I've looked at 5 - 10 videos claiming to tell how to do this and go on to show how to transfer save game data, this is the first that had what I actually wanted to do
I didn't know data could be transferred this easily, thanks ! :)
Didn't work for me. The new card already had a "Nintendo" folder after being formatted by the switch so what do I do now? Replace it? drop the old files into it? This video makes no mention of this.
Subscribed based on the quality and informative nature of this video alone! Rock on!
Thanks bro!
IT IS SO SIMPLE AND I DIDNT KNOW THAT . THANK YOU BEEEF MASTER
Didn’t know it was this easy, great tutorial 👍
So there is nothing tricky about this? It is just basic drag and drop method of transfer of files from one card to another? I guess the only thing to know is to format the new card first on the switch. Thx for the video.
i formatted the new sd card and transferred content from the old sd card and it shows a message saying the sd card is being used on another switch or the same one and that it has to delete everything, i noticed after i formatted the new card there was already a nintendo folder in it before i transferred it, should that be there?
Same with me. Did you figure it out?
Perfect video, just what I needed to know, well done!
You are a lifesaver thanks for the tutorial and your not like those other ytubers who just stall for ages.
yayy now i have to download everything again cuz nothings on the old one after i formatted it thank you
This method does not work and I still got the error message. After doing more searching I found a video by Julien Melnick and he shows the extra step as to which folders/files to transfer and which ones to keep and it finally worked for me.
yup this video did not work for me. found his video and I'm about to do it like that too
Can you post a link?
@@codingispower1816 this is the link I found where he points out the extra step needed:
th-cam.com/video/OdvKMro_2I4/w-d-xo.html
I've been looking into getting a new microsd card since my switch has ran out of memory, so I will definitely be looking into this tutorial and using it when I receive one!
thank you for being considerate of your owl and vampire viewers
1:08 is the formatting really needed? What does formatting do to the SD card?
Thanks For This Helpful Video!
What if you don’t have a computer to do that? Can you just re download the games on a new sd card straight in the system? Would I need to delete the games off my old sd card first?
The games have to be redownloaded anyway. My biggest concern is photos and videos, but all help I can find involves at least one empty microSD card. I have 2 already in use, so now what?
@@DeathnoteBB welp I’m screwed then lmao
@@DeathnoteBB most of my games are on accounts I can’t get into
I just bough my new SD card and while I have almost 30 games I've really only played about 15 of them so luckily for me I just moved all of my data from my SD card over to my Switch's saved data and it took about 10 minutes for the transfer. Once that happened my old SD 16GB card was completely free of space and then I put in my new SD card and transferred all of the Switch data to the SD card and it took another 10 minutes but was ready to go after that 👍🏾
Thank you so much dude on how simple this tutorial was I can now play South Park the stick of truth
This is exactly how I used to transfer data with the 3DS. The easiest way.
Absolutely perfect tutorial. Thank you so much!
Absolutely perfect viewer.
So I’ve already started using the new sd card so it already has the “Nintendo” file. Would I be able to still just drag and drop the folder in or would it cause problems?
Simple and clear, just what i needed, thank you!
I thought that game save files were saved exclusively on system memory, not on sd cards?
This was really helpful! I was in the same position, except i wanted pokemon scarlet instead
So, I’m trying to make this work, but when I get to the final step of putting my new sd card in with my data my switch doesn’t recognize it and says I need to format the sd card with the switch again.
Same
Straight and to the point, great video!!
I'm following this tutorial to the letter, but everytime I put the new SD card in the switch, it says it can't be read or something to that effect. There is a red X on the file on the computer, so if my 2nd attempt at reformatting doesn't work, I'll take it from the top and re-copy my old SD card onto the computer.
Instead of deleting the Nintendo files in the newly formatted SD card, I simply left them and copied the data. When it asked if I wanted to add the data or overwrite it, I overwrote the data on the new SD card.
Everything seems to have transferred but my photos and videos, but after struggling for a bit I'm at peace with that. I still have my old SD if I need to revisit anything.
But Coffee and Consoles is a channel that has a more in depth look at transferring data, and other people in the comments have said it helped them. Good luck everyone! Let's pray that the photos and videos are the only things I lost 😅
This video is great!
However, I also need to change Systems from Switch classic to OLED.
Dont think this will work will it?
Anyone have any experience with that?
I followed this process with a SanDisk 1.5TB Ultra microSDXC in July 2024, and unfortunately I had to redownload all the games even after copying the stuff over to the newly formatted card. The switch does recognize the new amount of storage, but it thinks the card is basically empty (1.3 TB of usable space). A few other folks in the comments are reporting similar experiences with having to redownload the games anyway.
My problem I'm running into is the new card gets its own Nintendo folder after I format it. If I remove that Nintendo folder, and replace it with the copy the switch says it can't read the SD card. I've tried this now three times with 75GB of files. Also I'm using a Mac.
If it ends up saying that it is not able tor read then just save yourself some time and put as much as you can of your data from your old micro sd card to the internal storage. After that you put your new micro sd in the switch and take some of the internal storage (which you beforehand had on your old micro sd card) and put in on your new card. Keep on doing that until you have no more storage on your old card and you have put everything on your new one. If you have photos or videos on your micro sd card you can transfer those as well . I would not recommend this if your old card is more than 32 gigabytes. Hope this helps😊
Everything on this video was perfect. One step at a time. My curiosity is after you transfer the old card to the new one, can you recycle the Nintendo document after everything is in the new card?
Here's a method that worked for me.
1. I turned off my Switch.
2. I removed my MicroSD card.
3. I copied & pasted the entire "Nintendo" folder onto my computer
4. Put my MicroSD card back into my Switch
5. I turn on my Switch
6. On my Switch, I erased all photos & videos from my MicroSD card.
I didn't need to transfer any other files or reformat. I personally have a Mac, but I'm sure what I did works on Windows too, because it straightforward.
I hope this helps! I love to record everything XD
Thank you! That was very helpful! I hope I have a card reader at work that I can borrow to do this transfer lol
Thank you my games needed updates and I had no storage this helped so much
My switch told me it needs a system update to use the new card, is this normal? Should I download it with thebnew sd card
I get “The destination has four files with the same name” message at the end. I did replace. Now my Switch asks to download the games again.
If im not wrong, something you can do to speed up the process is delete the software on your console but keep the saves. That way its less to transfer and you just have to redownload the game
The point is, the video shows you how to do it without redownloading the game
Thanks Cracka, I needed dis.
DAMN YOU TOTK....Making me work this hard...and wait 4 hours before I can play again lol.
Great video, helped a lot.
How come a 512 gb card only has 476 gb available? Does the formatting actually take up 36 gb?
exactly what i was looking for. thx!
Does it work on OLED?
thanks man this really helped i was realy worried then i saw this so thanks
If you were to do all of this, but then put the SD card into a switch that is under a different account, will the data still transfer over or does the switch have to have the same account as the one you took the data from?
Thank you this was very helpful!
Once I got the folder copied from the old SD into the new SD Card, I formatted it and plugged into my Switch while it was off and then turned it back on and redownloaded every software I have. I still have my Save Data. I have a SD Card Reader and Adapter now. I’ll have everything downloaded soon.
Thank you. This video was helpful for me.
How do we transfer screenshots from one card to another? I can get all my games but not my screenshtos that saved on my old card
Same
Thanks for the video! I was wondering if you can help me out. I format the new card. That works fine. I transfer the data fine, but when I go to insert the new card with the transferred data my switch is saying that it cannot read the new SD card. What am I doing wrong?
Old sd card wont come out of the switch any tips?😭
Press it in like a button, then it will eject
will this method work to transfer between two switch consoles? say i want move all my save data to a seperate console without nintendo online?
Really simple liked it !!!!
thANKYOU KNEW THIS WAS PROBABLY HOW TO BUT FOUND YOUR VIDEO HELPFUL SWAPPED MY FULL 128G FOR A1tb ONE HEHE
Just got a 256gb card, thanks for that. I got the nintendo one with the mario star on.
Does this only work for the original nintendo switch model? I've read many comments saying it doesn't work and that it happened since they were using the OLED model. OR does it not matter which mode you use?
That case is sweet!
A hundred videos just like this plus the support docs on Nintendo’s own website all show Windows. Nobody seems to be able to offer the same walk through for doing this on macOS. Is it the same drag and drop process? Not all of us use Windows. And the Reddit on the topic is extremely confusing.
Isn't there a way to make a virtual windows machine on a MAC? If so maybe try that? I believe basic formatting of drives, SD cards included is different with MAC OS than windows. I'm no expert though so ... anyway, hope it helps. Since many months have passed I'm sure you sorted it out but maybe other MAC users are having the same issue. I wonder if Linux has the same problem? I'm debating dropping Windows for Linux.
You can’t do it on Mac. The software is through Microsoft’s work, apparently. God knows why Nintendo decided to make this monumentally difficult. I just want to use my own SD card on my own Switch.
Man just said if you’re an owl or a vampire. 😊
What do I do if the game was downloaded on the sd card first, or if I already started transferring games over to the new one
Question. If I were to do this, could I do it because my sd card is broken? If so would data for online games transfer as well?
Thank you
Saved this video for when Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 comes out on Switch...
Snaaaaake!!
@@beefmaster_james LIQUIIIIIID!!
WOW that was easy thanks, I was worried since Nintendo love to complicate simple things
Very well explained
Putting my comment here along w/ other videos for help. I've been trying to transfer my Information from one SD to another. When I transfer the information over it fully goes through the transfer with out any issues but my Conents folder doesn't have everything inside of it. I do have a 128 trying to upgrade to a 512. I've formated the new SD card but the issue is still persisting
What if you used to of does adapter of microSD readers and pass one to the other one just like if you were passing it to your PC but your just passing it to the other card reader soo basically you don't have to copy it or wait another extra time. Is that's possible??
what if you have a game that has a login, like fortnite, and i dont wanna lose everything
fortnite has its own system so the fortnite servers save all of your data, so you’ll be fine
any tips for macOS users? I have tried many times without success.
I have a question I hope that can be understood and then answered. I have a very large game downloaded digitally on my Switch. So I bought an SD card. I already started the game and have my saved game data on my system memory. Is it possible to move my game download to the SD card and still have my save game intact? I want to play this large game from the SD memory but I already know you can't move saved game data. Those files stay on the system. Is this possible? In short: Can I move my downloaded game to the SD card and be able to keep AND PLAY from my save file?
@The BeefMaster The only difference I ran into was that after formatting the new card in the switch, it created a Nintendo folder on the new card and your video showed an empty SD card. So I deleted that newly created empty Nintendo folder from the new SD card to make it a clean slate and then copied the Nintendo file from the old SD card over to the new SD card. I happened to have an unused 256 Samsung EVO card I had bought but never used so that saved me some coin. New card worked like a charm! Everything was there except a whole lotta room on my new SD Card.
Sooo, my still lingering question is, where are the digital downloaded games stored? Are they what is on the SD card? I don't know where the games themselves are stored. If on the SD card, if I had screwed up the card, would I have been able to download the games again on a new card? I know supposedly there is a way to transfer them over to a new console but I'm unsure about if I ended up with a corrupted SD card what happens?
Also, what happens when system memory gets full? Would I have to start deleting games or archiving them? Nintendo support FAQ's aren't real clear about that. They say you can move files from the SD card to system memory but not vice versa! It makes me wonder if I should buy physical game cards or if digital download is still a good option. It seems easier with new releases to buy and download rather than fighting over limited stock in stores. Thank you if you happen to reply and sorry if I sound really noobish about this! lol And thank you for this video! It really helped me out!😊
Hey hopefully you can help me quickly but how did you delete the new Nintendo file that was created? It won't let me deleted it so I can't get past that point been at this for and hour and a half
@@megabound292 I inserted the newly formatted card into my computer via the card reader slot. I opened the file window of the SD Card that had been formatted in the switch and I saw the nintendo file folder. So I right clicked on the folder and clicked the "Delete" option! The folder was gone and the new SD card was now empty. I then did as the video instructed and dragged the copied Nintendo file of the old card to the new SD card window and about 25 minutes it was done. Maybe you didn't do the format function of the new card in the switch? It's also important that the switch is off and not in sleep mode when you remove and insert the cards. Perhaps you may need to reformat the card in the switch and try again? The folder should be able to be deleted in the windows folder. If not, I have no idea unless you are restricted and need to be in System Administrator mode? Are you on Windows 10 or a Mac? I saw that some Mac users had issues but I have no clue on what to do on Mac OS. Good luck!
@@unimatrixx001 I got it thank you! I never knew what the lock was on the sd card adapters were, so I flicked it to lock not knowing that it is to write protect the sd card from having anything deleted off the card. Can't believe I made that mistake but from there it was pretty easy like you said just drag it into the new sd card.
@@megabound292 Wow! I didn't even realize a lock function existed! lol I'm glad you were finally able to get it deleted and to move the files to the new card! Awesome! Enjoy the new space!
So this might be a stupid question, but my son has a Switch with a 1 TB card, and he wants to add files from the Switch Lite he's selling. Do I do the same process or do I need to only pull certain files from certain folders? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.
thank you very much!!
What if you got no space on ur pc, is there a way to do it
Thanks seems simple and easy!!
Hello, I did everything in the video without issues but in the last step my Switch does recognize the micro SD card, I have usage there but everything shows the cloud icon. If I select a game it says I have redownloaded. Any help? Thanks!
Does anyone know if it matters if you plug both SD cards into the computer and just drag and drop the folder from the old SSD to the new one? Do you have to put it on the desktop first?
What if it's an official Nintendo micro SD card how do I transfer data safely without corrupting any files
It didn’t transfer me screenshots to the new memory card.
How does this effect the Nintendo online account
Okay this is really useful and I will try this but question if you have any DLC installed will it also keep it
yes it will