Reset whilst keeping original island?

[IndiaHawker]

Nowadays now we have island backup and stuff, is it possible to reset to see what islands you might get, whilst still keeping the current island? I doubt I’d ever reset my original island, but interested to know… please and thank you!

 

[Serabee]

Not unless you have a second Switch, no. Island backup is ONLY to be used when you absolutely cannot play your Switch anymore (like, it gets stolen, or run over by a truck) and there's no other way to, say, start a new game and just not save like you could do on some older games.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I hate to tell you this, but even if you do delete your save data, your backup data is also gone. There is no way to recover it. Tom Nook does tell you this when you're at the Settings screen.

 

[IndiaHawker]

Thank you both, great to know!! I haven’t and don’t intend to reset… I think I just miss the feeling of resetting and wondering what I’ll get, lol

 

[azurill]

Thank you both, great to know!! I haven’t and don’t intend to reset… I think I just miss the feeling of resetting and wondering what I’ll get, lol

I know the feeling ,I love the beginning of the game so much. Starting fresh is exciting. It was one of the reasons I bought a second copy and second switch. I thought I could use my second switch to restart whenever I wanted to try for a different map. Now I can’t imagine resetting my second island:

 

[LexxyRaptor]

Not unless you have a second Switch, no. Island backup is ONLY to be used when you absolutely cannot play your Switch anymore (like, it gets stolen, or run over by a truck) and there's no other way to, say, start a new game and just not save like you could do on some older games.

Today I learned.
I honestly hadn't even realized you couldnt fakeout a new start in NH like in the older games.

still kinda lame how controlling they get with the island data even with the backup option though, yikes. How do you even prove you cant use that old switch? @_@ the process in itself seems complicated for no reason...

 

[dragonair]

How do you even prove you cant use that old switch? @_@ the process in itself seems complicated for no reason...

To be completely honest they don't even really ask? I had to have my backup data restored since I got a new Switch and the data transfer application wasn't available at the time and they most likely just make sure the serial number of the two consoles you're using are different and then just restore the data for you.

 

[Serabee]

To be completely honest they don't even really ask? I had to have my backup data restored since I got a new Switch and the data transfer application wasn't available at the time and they most likely just make sure the serial number of the two consoles you're using are different and then just restore the data for you.

That's good to hear! I've never used the feature (I was able to use the island transfer tool when I got a new Switch) but I've heard from some people who said they were basically interrogated, and some people who said they weren't able to convince them. But, IIRC, that was really early after the feature was released, so maybe it's changed. Or maybe I just heard from people with really bad luck, lol.

Whatever the case, I don't think there's they'll restore the data to the same console.

 

[dragonair]

That's good to hear! I've never used the feature (I was able to use the island transfer tool when I got a new Switch) but I've heard from some people who said they were basically interrogated, and some people who said they weren't able to convince them. But, IIRC, that was really early after the feature was released, so maybe it's changed. Or maybe I just heard from people with really bad luck, lol.

Whatever the case, I don't think there's they'll restore the data to the same console.

That's really sad to hear tbh. I think they might have just gotten agents that were overly protective of the process which really sucks because you shouldn't have to just get lucky to be properly helped when you contact CS.

 

[Marshmallows]

While you can't 'keep' your old island, if you restart, you can still visit your old island through the Dream Suite. The new island will have a new dream address. I'm not sure how long Nintendo plans to keep inactive dream addresses, especially for deleted islands, though.