Whether you have two consoles at home or have been considering the purchase of the new Nintendo Switch OLED, you may have wondered if there is a way to transfer saved games from one console to another. In this guide we will explain all the methods that are available so that you can change the console without fear of losing your data.
Nintendo Switch stores in its memory our screenshots, our master play recordings and of course, our valuable saved games. To pass your data from one console to another you mainly need each console to have a separate microSD card. Once that requirement is met, you can transfer in two different ways depending on whether or not you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Method 1: Using Nintendo Switch Online
Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription payment service that gives us the chance to play online, enjoy retro titles on our portable console, and much more. One of the features that many people don't know is included in the subscription is a backup of our games in the cloud.
Once you register and pay for Nintendo Switch Online, your games will begin to be copied automatically to the cloud If for some reason you are not interested in making a backup of a certain title, you can decide which games can copy data to the server and which ones cannot. If you prefer to make a manual copy of your data, you should go to Settings > data managements> Save data in the cloud and uncheck the automatic saving of the ones you want.
The process to transfer your games to the new console is very easy. If you already have your console configured, you will need to link the Nintendo account in which you have saved your games and you have Nintendo Switch Online. If, on the other hand, you have not completed the process yet, link your account during the setup process console initial.
Once you have the Nintendo account associated with the new console, you have to download the same games using the eShop. Inside the store, tap on your profile thumbnail and select “Redownload”. Once that is done, you can return to the settings page that we mentioned earlier and recover your games individually.
Use two consoles and sync data
The good thing about Nintendo Switch Online is that you can keep your games on several different consoles and pick up your games regardless of the device you use. This feature is exclusive to subscribers.
To do this you will have to go to Configuration and then Data management y Data storage in the cloud. You will need to set your games to always be overwritten with the most recent data. Additionally, you will have to establish your new console as the main console (we show it to you step by step at the end of the article). You should also remember that you can play without problems on either of your two consoles as long as the secondary console is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the main one. Otherwise it won't work.
Method 2: If you don't have Nintendo Switch Online
Without Nintendo Switch Online you can also transfer your games, but it will not be as easy. To do this you will need to have both consoles at hand, an Internet connection and access to your Nintendo account.
Your Nintendo Account will need to be logged in only on the source console. If you log in to the target console, the process will fail. The console itself will ask you for your login details when appropriate.
To carry out the process you must follow the following steps on both consoles:
- Go to Configuration from the console from the Nintendo Switch main menu.
- Enter Puser profile, located in the left sidebar.
- Choose user transfer.
- Click next. Connect the power adapter to the console and follow the steps.
- From this step, you will have to choose which console will be the source and what will be the data destination.
- You will now be able to sign in to your Nintendo Account on the target console. Your Nintendo ID will now be associated with this system and the data transfer will proceed. The process will take a while, which will mainly depend on the amount of data that needs to be transferred from one console to another.
- Once the process is finished, you will have all your data on your new console.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to keep your data on both consoles. Your Nintendo Switch user will disappear from the original console. However, you can keep your games synchronized on two consoles if you use the Nintendo Switch Online payment service and follow the steps in the first method that we have explained in this article.
Finally, you should know that if you have multiple profiles on your source console and each profile is associated with a different Nintendo ID, you will have to repeat the process for each user. A somewhat cumbersome process, but so far it is the only option offered by the company to transfer data from one console to another without using the payment service.
Extra Step: Make Your New Nintendo Switch Your Primary Console
Once you have finished transferring the data to your new console using any of the two methods that we have explained to you, it is convenient that you transfer the title of primary console to your new Switch.
Each Nintendo account can only have associated one main console. However, the same console can be the main system for several Nintendo accounts. The main consoles have privileges with respect to those that are not, such as, for example, they allow you to play downloaded games without having to have an Internet connection. The logical thing if you have transferred your data to a new console is to put the latter as the main console. The steps you must do are the following:
- Go to the comfort what do you want to place as secondary and enter Nintendo eShop from the Nintendo Switch main menu.
- Select your profile in the upper right corner.
- Scroll down to the section "Main Console". tap where it says "Delete Record".
- go now to your new console and go to eShop. As soon as you log in, your new console will have been established as the main one.