Is it possible to switch one copy of ACNL between systems?

[DespairHope]

Hello! I know this has probably been asked several times, but I've gotten mixed answers with my little problem and I was hoping someone here might be able to help. Warning: This might be a biiiiit long.

You see, my friend wants to get a villager on her physical copy of acnl from her digital version when they move out. Is it possible to switch the physical copy to another 3ds, keeping the main sd card that's used in the main 3Ds, so she can load the physical copy up normally on another 3ds with another SD card and grab that villager from another town, and put it back in the original system with the original sd card with no problem?

I want to do something similar. I want to switch my physical copy of my acnl game to my old 3ds, and use my digital copy to go back and forth between towns a few times to finish the visits I need for the train station upgrade. However, when I put my acnl cartridge in my old 3ds with another SD card, I got this message when the main screen came up:

"Extra data could not be found, so SpotPass Data is currently unusable. Extra data will now be re-created."

I exited out and closed the system before anything happened. What does that mean? I don't really care if the extent of damage on this is losing my streetpass data on it because there's not much there. I'm just worried it will overwrite/corrupt my game. Is it safe to do something like this? I know people have said it's safe to use physical copies between different systems, but I naturally assume they use their main SD card or something. Thank you for your help! ♥

 

[jekojiru]

all the save data is stored on the game cartridge.. not on sd card! it should work normally.. spotpass won't work as it's a different system and spotpass uses a different sd card! it will probably be safe as i always did it (until i sold my second copy), but spotpass is just the people you find in the home showcase

 

[stitchmaker]

It's fine to switch cartridge to another 3DS. Each time you put in copy that hasn't been in the 3DS before it will ask you to add spotpass.
I switched my main town physical copy to my other 3DSXL during the summer. It asked the same thing and everything is fine. When I visited the showcase all my houses were there. Adding a new game it will ask for streetpass to be activated.

Just doing it for the train station upgrade don't update your dream suite. The dream suite address changes when you use a different system and update. Mine got changed.

 

[DespairHope]

It's fine to switch cartridge to another 3DS. Each time you put in copy that hasn't been in the 3DS before it will ask you to add spotpass.
I switched my main town physical copy to my other 3DSXL during the summer. It asked the same thing and everything is fine. When I visited the showcase all my houses were there. Adding a new game it will ask for streetpass to be activated.

Just doing it for the train station upgrade don't update your dream suite. The dream suite address changes when you use a different system and update. Mine got changed.

Yeah, I've heard that happening before, I'll be keeping that in mind and warn my friend too. Thanks! I don't intend to keep it in there long, can probably do this overnight.
Thank you both for the help!

 

[RosieThePeppyCat]

It's completely fine. The only things it will mess with are Spotpass and Streetpass, and Everytime you switch it will tell you that the spotpass/Streetpass settings have changed and it will ask you whether you want them or not. It's kinda annouying, but it's not a big deal.

 

[Bryalba]

Good to know I play on my boyfriends DS and was worried all my data would be lost once I got my own.

 

[Candy83]

It's not a problem. One thing this does is this: When you do a town's Dream Address update with a game cartridge being played in a different console...it will trigger a change in that town's Dream Address. So, I recommend if you don't want a town's Dream Address to get changed, make a note of it as a reminder to yourself. (I did that with my best-designed town, ACNLpics.)