Region Changing

For support in English, ask for help at Nintendo Homebrew on Discord.
If you appreciate this guide, we accept Donations.

Required Reading

This is an add-on section for region changing your device. This is done by installing the 11.15.0 CTRTransfer image for the region you want to switch to. After installing the image, you can update your device normally to the latest firmware (11.16.0).

Note that region changing is almost completely unnecessary since Luma3DS supports out-of-region games and individual title Locale Emulation. Additionally, running NDS games with alternative out-of-region languages is supported by TWiLight Menu++. You should only perform a region change if you wish to have your system UI is in a language that is not available on your console’s current region.

This page assumes that you have already installed Luma3DS and boot9strap. If you followed this website to the end (Finalizing Setup), you have Luma3DS and boot9strap.

As a part of this process, your system configuration will be reset to its defaults. This includes things such as your username, country, and language. Installed games and their save data will not be affected.

If you change the region of your device:

  • You will not be able to use your NNID (if you have one). NNIDs are locked to the region that they were created in.
  • You may not be able to access the eShop, even if you delete your eShop account beforehand. This is because certain titles tend to remain linked to the 3DS, even after account deletion (especially on New 3DS).
    • While purchases can no longer be made on eShop, game updates can still be downloaded. Updates are usually required for online play.
    • This logic extends to system transfers, meaning you would not be able to perform a system transfer from a USA 3DS to a region-changed JPN-to-USA 3DS.
    • That being said, system transfer and game updates are region locked anyway (e.g. Japanese eShop only has Japanese game updates).
  • You will not be able to uninstall custom firmware without bricking the device! If you intend to uninstall custom firmware in the future, you MUST restore your NAND backup that was created before the region change.

What You Need

To download the CTRTransfer images on this page, you will need a torrent client like qBittorrent or Deluge.

Instructions

Section I - Prep Work

  1. Power off your device
  2. Insert your SD card into your computer
  3. Create a folder named 3ds on the root of your SD card if it does not already exist
  4. Copy GodMode9.firm from the GodMode9 .zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card
  5. Copy the gm9 folder from the GodMode9 .zip to the root of your SD card
  6. Copy the 11.15.0 CTRTransfer image .bin from the CTRTransfer .zip to the /gm9/ folder on your SD card
  7. Copy FBI.3dsx to the /3ds/ folder on your SD card
  8. Reinsert your SD card into your device

Section II - NAND Backup

  1. Press and hold (Start), and while holding (Start), power on your device. This will launch GodMode9
  2. Press (Home) to bring up the action menu
  3. Select “Scripts…”
  4. Select “GM9Megascript”
  5. Select “Backup Options”
  6. Select “SysNAND Backup”
  7. Press (A) to confirm
  8. Press (A) to continue
  9. Press (B) to return to the main menu
  10. Select “Exit”
  11. Press (A) to relock write permissions if prompted
  12. Hold (R) and press (Start) at the same time to power off your device
  13. Insert your SD card into your computer
  14. Copy <date>_<serialnumber>_sysnand_##.bin and essential.exefs from the /gm9/out/ folder on your SD card to a safe location on your computer
    • Make backups in multiple locations (such as online file storage)
    • These backups will save you from a brick and/or help you recover files from the NAND image if anything goes wrong in the future
  15. Delete <date>_<serialnumber>_sysnand_##.bin and <date>_<serialnumber>_sysnand_##.bin.sha from the /gm9/out/ folder on your SD card after copying it
  16. Reinsert your SD card into your device

Section III - CTRTransfer

  1. Press and hold (Start), and while holding (Start), power on your device. This will launch GodMode9
  2. If you are prompted to create an essential files backup, press (A) to do so, then press (A) to continue once it is completed
  3. If you are prompted to fix the RTC date&time, press (A) to do so, then set the date and time, then press (A) to continue
    • Note that, if you had to fix the RTC date and time, you will have to fix the time in the System Settings as well after this guide
  4. Navigate to [0:] SDCARD -> gm9
  5. Press (A) on the CTRTransfer .bin to select it
  6. Select “CTRNAND options…”
  7. Select “Transfer image to CTRNAND”
  8. If prompted, select “Transfer to SysNAND”
    • This prompt will only appear if you have an EmuNAND
  9. Press (A) to unlock SysNAND (lvl1) writing, then input the key combo given
    • This process will take some time
  10. Once the transfer is completed, press (A) to continue
  11. Press (B) to decline relocking write permissions if prompted
  12. Press (B) twice to return to the main menu
  13. Press (Home) to bring up the action menu
  14. Select “Scripts…”
  15. Select “GM9Megascript”
  16. Select “Scripts from Plailect’s Guide”
  17. Select “CTRTransfer Ticket Copy”
  18. When prompted, press (A) to proceed
  19. Press (A) to continue
  20. Press (B) to return to the main menu
  21. Select “Exit”
  22. Press (A) to relock write permissions if prompted
  23. Press (Start) to reboot your device
  24. Update your device by going to System Settings, then “Other Settings”, then going all the way to the right and using “System Update”
    • Updates while using B9S + Luma (what you have) are safe
    • If this gives you an error, set your DNS settings to “auto”

Section IV - Launching FBI

  1. Launch the Download Play application ()
  2. Wait until you see the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS buttons
  3. Press (Left Shoulder) + (D-Pad Down) + (Select) at the same time to open the Rosalina menu
  4. Select “Miscellaneous options”
  5. Select “Switch the hb. title to the current app.”
  6. Press (B) to continue
  7. Press (B) to return to the Rosalina main menu
  8. Press (B) to exit the Rosalina menu
  9. Press (Home), then close Download Play
  10. Launch the Download Play application
  11. Your device should load the Homebrew Launcher
    • If your device is stuck on the loading splash screen, you are missing boot.3dsx from the root of your SD card

Section V - Reinstalling Tickets

If the script found no user tickets and told you to skip this section, you can skip this section.

  1. Launch FBI from the list of homebrew
  2. Select “SD”
  3. Select “gm9”
  4. Select “out”
  5. Select “ctrtransfer_tickets”
  6. Do the following process for either the eshop folder, unknown folder, or both
    • Navigate to the folder
    • Select “<current directory>”
    • Select “Install and delete all tickets”
    • Wait. The system may appear to freeze, just give it time.
    • Press (A) to confirm
    • Press (B) to decline installing tickets from CDN.
  7. Press (Home) to exit FBI

Section VI - Deleting system save data

This section will reset your system configuration to its defaults. Installed games and their save data will not be affected. This is necessary to prevent known issues relating to extended memory mode and applets on some devices.

  1. Power off your device
  2. Press and hold (Start), and while holding (Start), power on your device. This will launch GodMode9
  3. Navigate to [0:] SDCARD -> gm9
  4. Press (X) on the CTRTransfer image .bin to delete it
  5. Press (A) to confirm
  6. Press (B) a few times to go back to the main menu
  7. Navigate to [1:] SYSNAND CTRNAND -> data -> <ID0> -> sysdata
    • The <ID0> will be a folder with a 32 character length random-looking name. You may recognize this from Seedminer, if you used that method
  8. Use the D-Pad to highlight 00010017
  9. Press (Right Shoulder) + (A) to bring up the folder options
  10. Select “Copy to 0:/gm9/out”
  11. Press (A) to continue
  12. While still highlighting 00010017, press (X) to delete it
  13. Press (A) to confirm
  14. Press (A) to unlock SysNAND (lvl2) writing, then input the key combo given
  15. Once the file has been deleted, press (A) to continue
  16. Press (A) to relock write permissions if prompted
  17. Press (Start) to reboot your device
  18. Your device will load into the initial setup menu
    • This is expected behaviour. You have not lost any of your game data
  19. Complete the initial setup menu by following the prompts on your device’s screen

Your 3DS has successfully been region changed!