(MAJOR UPDATE: ONLY 10 HRS REMAIN BEFORE SHUT DOWN AT TIME OF WRITING THIS UPDATE)
Hello everyone. For everyone who owns a 3DS, 2DS, or even a Wii U, I’m sharing this out to as many places I can think of, where the awareness can make an impact. Please read if you own a 3DS or Wii U at all, or know anybody who does:
The SpotPass servers by Nintendo will be shutting down on April 8th, 2024 (4PM PDT). The SpotPass Archival Project has been created by the 3DS and Wii U Homebrew modding community, to make sure as much SpotPass data as humanly possible is preserved for the foreseeable future and not lost forever in the coming few days. A huge amount of SpotPass content is essentially free DLC for various games and apps, and they could have been installed without your knowledge. They are not required for most games to play, but without their archival, many games will lose DLC content permanently and some features may no longer work. This archival project can only be made possible by the donations of any individuals owning a 3DS or Wii U (not a donation of money, but rather a donation of SpotPass data stored on your system)
This data can only be collected before April 8th. Any and all dumps made or sent after the end-date will be useless due to the nature of how the archive process works. The dump does not require you to have a modded or Homebrewed console, and can be done completely unmodded. All you need extra as an unmodded user, is a PC or laptop. There is also zero risk of having your console banned; so rest assured. The guides can be found here: https://spotpassarchive.github.io/#guides.
Update: For those who can’t recall the difference, what we’re archiving here is SpotPass, not StreetPass. The difference between the two are:
StreetPass: Is a 3DS exclusive offline wireless tech which connects your 3DS to other systems and shares various bits of data with random people you pass on the street (in the real world). For example, in the game StreetPass Mii Plaza, the data sent to random passers are your Mii, along with your most recently played game, and your Mii can be played with in the various minigames that StreetPass Mii Plaza offers, and vice versa.
SpotPass: Is an online wireless tech available on both the 3DS and Wii U. Unlike StreetPass, it does not connect to other 3DS systems directly, but rather connects to Nintendo’s SpotPass servers online. The data sent could be anything from notifications, to in-game content. This is what we’re archiving; notStreetPass data. Streetpass is not an online service, and thus does not lose content after April 8th; but SpotPass data will be lost after the 8th if it’s not archived. Wikipedia article.
Even if you make the dump before April 8, and send it to them afterwards, the dump will be useless regardless, this is why we are frantically trying to spread the word about the project as quickly as possible, as there is a lot of data that is still going to go away permanently regardless of the efforts of this project. The data is stored offline locally on your 3DS and Wii U, so you may be confused as to why you can’t just make the dump after the date. For a better explanation, here is a Discord message from the official Discord server which explains things. I am not a developer of the project, I’m just someone who is passionate about gaming and technology preservation, and wants to get this out there, and the 3DS was a wonderful part of my late childhood.
The data is going to be used by the developers to put towards developing a replacement for the SpotPass network, similar to what was done by the Homebrew community who created the Nintendo Network replacement, dubbed “Pretendo Network”.
Even if you don’t think you have much data on your system, please help dump it towards the archive as soon as possible (within the next couple of days), because you likely have some things you don’t know about. The process does not require a modded console at all, and the official site here, has instructions for both users of modded consoles, and users of unmodded consoles. You can ask for help in the official Discord server of the project here and people will be very willing to help.
There are also many many niche, lesser known games, which have absolutely no data archived for them still to this day, so any help archiving them is vital. Thanks for reading, and I ask you to also share this out to as many people as you possibly can. Even if you don’t own a 3DS or Wii U, please share this out to anyone you know who owns one, or even those whom you suspect might have one.
Edit: added some extra information, removed some no longer relevant information, fixed some typos, improved some wording slightly.
I had heard about the project but thought: What is my data gonna accomplish? I didn’t really play anything outside the Pokémon games, which they probably have thousands of duplicates of.
The very last section is what got me. Cause there were like 1-2 games I’ve never seen anyone else play that I did play and after reading that it only takes a couple minutes, if your system is modded, I took my two modded 3DS’ and send my data.
Even if there’s nothing new in there, this is a worthy cause.
Edit: Sorry, unlike what I said below, there is no data that sticks around after a factory reset, sorry to anyone who I may have wasted the time of.
Thanks a lot for dumping. There is also (apparently) data that sticks around in the background from the previous console-owner if you got the console pre-owned, even if it was factory reset.
To end my saga, turns out I actually had my 3ds with me lol. I’m in the process of moving and thought I had already moved it up to the destination but I hadn’t! Mine is all uploaded :)
No worries! Yes, the dump unfortunately won’t have any use after the 8th. This is because the useful part of the dump is a URL which the devs need in order to access the content from Nintendo’s servers before they shut down. Once the servers are down, the URL’s can technically still be dumped, but they will just now be useless.
Fwiw, if you have a cfw 3ds (and it sounds like you do :)) the process is crazy easy. Just download the program it talks about, run it while your 3ds is connected to the Internet, and it’ll grab the dump and upload it for you. From downloading the CIA file on universal updater, to running the tool. It takes like 5 min. It’s very quick and easy!
I’ll leave this stickied until the servers shut off on the 8th, 4pm PDT.
Important note, you do not need a modded 3ds / wiiu to do this.
However, from my experience, if you do have a modded 3ds, the process is really quick, and I highly encourage doing it. If your 3ds already has universal updater, and is connected to the Internet, downloading the tool and running it takes like 5 min. The tool also uploads the data for you, so once you run it, your job is done!
Thank you DreitonLullaby for bringing this to attention!
Hey, thanks so much for dumping both of your consoles. Unfortunately, even though I’m not officially part of this project, I’m sorry to say that at least for the period of April 6, at 12PM to 4PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), the maintainer of the server mistakenly didn’t see that the server had run out of storage space. This means that any dumps made by anyone within this time period didn’t actually get archived in the end. The exact amount of time is unknown. This 4 hr period is just the least amount of time the server was down for, so for all he knows, it could have been for the entire day of April 6th up until 4PM in the afternoon (PDT). Again, even though this wasn’t because of me, I’m sorry about this. If you can, could you please make the dump one last time if possible?, as the archive servers are now working correctly again. Screenshot of the Discord announcement
Hey, even though I’m not officially part of this project, I’m sorry to say that at least for the period of April 6, at 12PM to 4PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), the maintainer of the server mistakenly didn’t see that the server had run out of storage space. This means that any dumps made by anyone within this time period didn’t actually get archived in the end. The exact amount of time is unknown. This 4 hr period is just the least amount of time the server was down for, so for all he knows, it could have been for the entire day of April 6th up until 4PM in the afternoon (PDT). Again, even though this wasn’t because of me, I’m sorry about this. If you can, could you please make the dump one last time if possible? As the archive servers are now working correctly again. Screenshot of the Discord announcement
No worries. Awesome. Hope you enjoy your newly modded 3DS.
I recommend a Homebrew app called FTPD that lets you wireless transfer files to your computer, but if your on a New 3DS or New 2DS, it’s particularly handy because it reduces the amount of needing to screw open your entire 3DS each time you want to transfer files.
I’ve got the old 3ds so luckily it’s just a lil hatch for transfers, but that’s good to know about for automated stuff! Any other homebrew apps you recommend?
Another cool one is an unofficial YouTube client app called ThirdTube which is pretty cool (and has 3D video playback if the video itself supports it). There’s an emulator for the Virtual Boy called Red Viper which just had a huge update recently, which made every game in the entire consoles library run accurately at full speed (and even the 3D from the original Virtual Boy works too!). You can add custom themes to your main menu with the app Anemone3DS and can make a backup of the save data for each of your games onto your SD card with an app called Checkpoint. They’re all my favourites; otherwise I haven’t explored a large amount of what is on offer still.
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I had heard about the project but thought: What is my data gonna accomplish? I didn’t really play anything outside the Pokémon games, which they probably have thousands of duplicates of.
The very last section is what got me. Cause there were like 1-2 games I’ve never seen anyone else play that I did play and after reading that it only takes a couple minutes, if your system is modded, I took my two modded 3DS’ and send my data.
Even if there’s nothing new in there, this is a worthy cause.
Sorry, I was wrong about data sticking around after a factory reset, this is just something I was told. I’m editing my comment to clarify that.
Edit: Sorry, unlike what I said below, there is no data that sticks around after a factory reset, sorry to anyone who I may have wasted the time of.
Thanks a lot for dumping. There is also (apparently) data that sticks around in the background from the previous console-owner if you got the console pre-owned, even if it was factory reset.
I’m unfortunately away from my 3ds until very late the night of the 7th. Hoping I can get mine in before the deadline 🙏
Maybe convert the times to your time zone if you want to make sure of the correct date/time.
Ah I didn’t notice the timezone listed up there. I should probably be good then! Sweet
Ah, great! Glad I mentioned it.
To end my saga, turns out I actually had my 3ds with me lol. I’m in the process of moving and thought I had already moved it up to the destination but I hadn’t! Mine is all uploaded :)
Awesome. Thanks for helping out!
Done! Thanks for making this visible. It wasn’t too hard at all. Hopefully this will help everyone be able to continue spot passing
I’ll check my wii u then
Thanks
So nice to see that these posts are actually letting people know about this and help the effort :)
Annnd. How does one dump this data
Follow the instructions on the main website for the project which I’ve linked in the post. https://spotpassarchive.github.io/
Thanks now do I have to do this before the shutoff date?
No worries! Yes, the dump unfortunately won’t have any use after the 8th. This is because the useful part of the dump is a URL which the devs need in order to access the content from Nintendo’s servers before they shut down. Once the servers are down, the URL’s can technically still be dumped, but they will just now be useless.
Oh shit … I’ll boot up my luma 3DS and get right the fuck on that tonight
Fwiw, if you have a cfw 3ds (and it sounds like you do :)) the process is crazy easy. Just download the program it talks about, run it while your 3ds is connected to the Internet, and it’ll grab the dump and upload it for you. From downloading the CIA file on universal updater, to running the tool. It takes like 5 min. It’s very quick and easy!
Yeah no kidding! I already did it. Long love preservation and good luck with whatever project these folks are working on o7
“Long live preservation” Preserve preservation so that preserved preservation can continue to preserve what needs preserving.
Wait wtaf???
Something you’re not understanding, or just shocked by the news?
Just surprised. This is the quickest they’ve sunsetted a project.
Esp one that popular lol.
Super Mario Bros. 35 😂
But yeah, in all seriousness, I think this is way too soon considering the 3DS was officially discontinued less then 4 yrs ago.
And of course I can’t find my chargers to get the data of my 3DS =(
I’ll leave this stickied until the servers shut off on the 8th, 4pm PDT.
Important note, you do not need a modded 3ds / wiiu to do this.
However, from my experience, if you do have a modded 3ds, the process is really quick, and I highly encourage doing it. If your 3ds already has universal updater, and is connected to the Internet, downloading the tool and running it takes like 5 min. The tool also uploads the data for you, so once you run it, your job is done!
Thank you DreitonLullaby for bringing this to attention!
Awesome, thank you so much for stickying the post so that more people will see this, and for dumping some data!
Done for both my 3DS and WiiU. Thanks for the heads up, I didn’t realize the SpotPass shutdown was happening so soon, but I guess I’m not surprised.
Hey, thanks so much for dumping both of your consoles. Unfortunately, even though I’m not officially part of this project, I’m sorry to say that at least for the period of April 6, at 12PM to 4PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), the maintainer of the server mistakenly didn’t see that the server had run out of storage space. This means that any dumps made by anyone within this time period didn’t actually get archived in the end. The exact amount of time is unknown. This 4 hr period is just the least amount of time the server was down for, so for all he knows, it could have been for the entire day of April 6th up until 4PM in the afternoon (PDT). Again, even though this wasn’t because of me, I’m sorry about this. If you can, could you please make the dump one last time if possible?, as the archive servers are now working correctly again. Screenshot of the Discord announcement
No worries! I was unaware of the announcement, so thanks for letting me know. I just re-uploaded dumps for both. Hopefully it’s all good now.
Thanks a lot! It’s unfortunate this happened, I’m hoping there weren’t too many who tried uploading during this time.
Welp, guess I’m gonna dig out the ol 3ds from a box somewhere.
Edit: searched through my entire basement and finally found it! Charging it now and will dump the data later tonight!
Hey, even though I’m not officially part of this project, I’m sorry to say that at least for the period of April 6, at 12PM to 4PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time), the maintainer of the server mistakenly didn’t see that the server had run out of storage space. This means that any dumps made by anyone within this time period didn’t actually get archived in the end. The exact amount of time is unknown. This 4 hr period is just the least amount of time the server was down for, so for all he knows, it could have been for the entire day of April 6th up until 4PM in the afternoon (PDT). Again, even though this wasn’t because of me, I’m sorry about this. If you can, could you please make the dump one last time if possible? As the archive servers are now working correctly again. Screenshot of the Discord announcement
Thanks for the update, I did see that in discord luckily and resubmitted through my now modded 3ds.
No worries. Awesome. Hope you enjoy your newly modded 3DS. I recommend a Homebrew app called FTPD that lets you wireless transfer files to your computer, but if your on a New 3DS or New 2DS, it’s particularly handy because it reduces the amount of needing to screw open your entire 3DS each time you want to transfer files.
I’ve got the old 3ds so luckily it’s just a lil hatch for transfers, but that’s good to know about for automated stuff! Any other homebrew apps you recommend?
Another cool one is an unofficial YouTube client app called ThirdTube which is pretty cool (and has 3D video playback if the video itself supports it). There’s an emulator for the Virtual Boy called Red Viper which just had a huge update recently, which made every game in the entire consoles library run accurately at full speed (and even the 3D from the original Virtual Boy works too!). You can add custom themes to your main menu with the app Anemone3DS and can make a backup of the save data for each of your games onto your SD card with an app called Checkpoint. They’re all my favourites; otherwise I haven’t explored a large amount of what is on offer still.