Transferring your island from old switch to new switch?

[xKiYoMiNaTiONx]

Hello,

If this belongs in the FAQ, I apologize >_<

I am planning on buying a new OLED to replace my original switch console. If anyone has already done transfers of entire islands, your feedback would be much appreciated. I was looking on the tutorial page on the official nintendo website, but it's very confusing to me. Do I need to have two different nintendo accounts to be able to transfer my island? Do I need to use two different users? The way they try to explain everything, is making my 30+ year old brain all mushy.

 

[Saah]

I'm guessing you're completely replacing your original console and won't use that one again!

The user part is a bit hard to explain, so I'll use this example: when I open ACNH to play as my island representative, my user is Bee, which is linked to my ****@**mail.com Nintendo account, and my island representative's name is Saah. Other residents have other users and Nintendo accounts, but this is my island representative's!

First, you have to transfer your Switch user account (Bee) to the new console. There's a step by step guide on how to do that in the official website, but let me know if you need me to explain it! The end result is, your Nintendo account (**@**mail.com) and user (Bee) won't be in the original console anymore, they'll be in the new console instead.

If you have any other users, even if they don't live in your island, I recommend you transfer them too before continuing! When there are no users left, your original console will create a placeholder user you can leave alone.

Then you have to download the Island Transfer Tool from the eShop in both the old and the new Switch (I don't have a link to it but it should show up if you search in the eShop using your Switch)

Then open it on both. You can open the tool with whatever user is left in the original console, but you need to open the tool with your island representative's (Saah's) user (Bee)

Then you follow the instructions on the screen, the original console is called Source and the new console is called Target!

The end result is:

• Your original console no longer has an account named Bee
• Your original console no longer has an island (but you can create a new one)
• Obviously there's no Saah in your original console's island, because there's no island
• Your new console now has your account named Bee
• Your new console now has your island
• Saah is in your new console's island

 

[xKiYoMiNaTiONx]

Okay, so I don't have any other user on my nintendo switch, other than mine. I already downloaded the transfer tool to my original switch. So, I can just use the default "user" to launch the tool on the original console and then use my regular user on the new switch to open the transfer tool there, is that correct?

 

[Saah]

Okay, so I don't have any other user on my nintendo switch, other than mine. I already downloaded the transfer tool to my original switch. So, I can just use the default "user" to launch the tool on the original console and then use my regular user on the new switch to open the transfer tool there, is that correct?

Yep that's it!

 

[xKiYoMiNaTiONx]

Oh, one other thing I forgot to ask. Do I need to have done a backup of my island on the actual game, or do I not really need to do that?

 

[Saah]

No need, but that reminds me the new console won't turn backups on automatically, so if you want to automatically backup your island like usual you'll have to enable it again after you're done transferring!

 

[xKiYoMiNaTiONx]

Hello...

I was trying to do this method. But it told me I couldn't open it on the original console. Is it because I said that I wasn't going to use the old switch anymore when I transferred my data?

**Crisis Averted!**