Bought a New 3DS XL around two years ago and never used it, due to issues with transferring over from my old 3DS.
(It had to be done using Wireless transfer, since the SD cards are different sizes. Had to buy an extra charger to prevent the other 3DS from running out of power during the process.)
A few weeks ago, my old 3DS's battery started losing the ability to hold a charge, so I decided to finally perform the transfer.
Transfer completes, and everything seems to be working fine until a few hours later when the New 3DS just dies mid-game. Attempting to turn it on causes power light to turn on for a second, then shut off with a small popping sound.
Checking the internet reveals the issue is most likely a fault in the ribbon cable that goes to the speakers, LEDs, etc. I call tech support, but it's out of warranty, so I'll have to pay. A licensed repair shop is nearby.
I take my New 3DS to the shop and tell them it's probably the ribbon cable. They disagree and tell me it's probably a software corruption due to failed transfer, and they'll have to reset the OS, losing the data stored in the system memory. I remove the microSD card that contains some of the more important save data.
Two days later, they tell me resetting the system didn't fix it. I give them the go-ahead to try to fix the ribbon. That doesn't work either. They give me the option to send it in to the manufacturer for repair, or have them give up on repairs (at no cost to me) and buy a new one. I opt to buy a new New 3DS XL at Target, and leave my broken one with them for spare parts.
I try setting up the new one and inserting the microSD card with my data
aaaannnd... it's gone. I can see a bunch of files through my computer, but the 3DS sees it all as empty available memory. Turns out the data is encrypted to the specific system, and a system transfer is required to transfer the decryption key. A system transfer that requires two
working 3DS's. "But don't worry," says the internet. "If you send both systems to the manufacturer, they might be able to salvage the system memory from the broken unit and manually transfer it to the new one." Y'know, provided the memory hasn't been
reformatted or anything. FUCK.
I had to email Nintendo tech support just to unlink my NNID from the broken unit just so I could re-download my software, sans save data.
My entire StreetPass plaza (with 100% complete FindMii, Puzzles, and Slot-car Rivals) has been lost. This took thousands of Play Coins (at 10 a day) and hundreds of StreetPasses with people.
1500+ Nintendo Badge Arcade badges gone. All from free plays, at around 3-5 badges a day. (Really only cared for the GameBoy and Mudkip badges for decorating my folders.)
100% complete Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros 2, and Wario Ware: Touched saves gone. Almost complete Pokemon Rumble World gone.
All StreetPass data from other players for all games (AC:NL houses, Monster Hunter characters, Pokemon ORAS bases.)
Mercifully, I only purchase 3DS games as physical copies, which store the important save data on the game card. The digital copies that I lost the entire saves to were all FTP games (which I refused to spend cash on) or redeemed prizes. I'm
certainly not going to start buying digital copies from Nintendo after this.
Really, just WTF Nintendo? What do you have against us being able to keep backups? Why even have a removable SD card if it's tied to the unit, with the internal system memory as a single point of failure? What's with this ass-backwards system transfer DRM that convolutes the process of moving save data from one system to another? I could understand if it was just the executable data of the digital software that was system-lock, but you know cheaters and pirates can just use homebrew to get around either of these limitations, right?