Hacking Restoring Activity Log shared icon cache?

[Meercko]

Hello, I recently moved all of my games from an old3ds to a new3ds and imported my old activity log save data with jksv, I noticed the save file didn't contain the icons for every game and currently the only way I found to bring them back is by booting each game once, unfortunately having had hundreds of titles, of which some not available anymore, it's pretty hard to achieve, but I know normal system transfers do this with ease, so I was wondering if there was a manual way to port over the shared icons cache from the source system to the target system?

Before you ask: unfortunately using Cthulhu to back it up on the source 3ds and try to restore it on the target 3ds doesn't work

 

[lone_wolf323]

Hello, I recently moved all of my games from an old3ds to a new3ds and imported my old activity log save data with jksv, I noticed the save file didn't contain the icons for every game and currently the only way I found to bring them back is by booting each game once, unfortunately having had hundreds of titles, of which some not available anymore, it's pretty hard to achieve, but I know normal system transfers do this with ease, so I was wondering if there was a manual way to port over the shared icons cache from the source system to the target system?

Before you ask: unfortunately using Cthulhu to back it up on the source 3ds and try to restore it on the target 3ds doesn't work

The activity log only stores 300 titles. It dont matter how you go about this. You are going to have titles disappearing after that point.

 

[Meercko]

The activity log only stores 300 titles. It dont matter how you go about this. You are going to have titles disappearing after that point.

I have less than 300 titles, icons are disappearing (or more precisely not reappearing) because the activity log save file doesn't store icons but just their data on number of uses & such, the icons are fine on the source 3ds, they're just not completely ported over to the target 3ds

 

[Meercko]

Hate to necropost but I wanted to up this since I'm still looking for this and I'm still interested
Maybe @TurdPooCharger can help with this?

 

[TurdPooCharger]

You can backup the o3DS Activity Log's save data with Checkpoint. To make system titles appear in Checkpoint, edit this file with a text editor:

• sdmc:/3ds/Checkpoint/config.json

Change this line:

"nand_saves": false,

to​

"nand_saves": true,

After you back up the Activity Log's save, copy this folder from o3DS SD card to the n3DS microSD card.

• sdmc:/3ds/Checkpoint/saves/0x00222 Activity Log

You will need to adjust the n3DS's Checkpoint config.json for Activity Log to appear before the save can be restored.

 

[Meercko]

You can backup the o3DS Activity Log's save data with Checkpoint. To make system titles appear in Checkpoint, edit this file with a text editor:

• sdmc:/3ds/Checkpoint/config.json

Change this line:

"nand_saves": false,

to​

"nand_saves": true,

After you back up the Activity Log's save, copy this folder from o3DS SD card to the n3DS microSD card.

• sdmc:/3ds/Checkpoint/saves/0x00222 Activity Log

You will need to adjust the n3DS's Checkpoint config.json for Activity Log to appear before the save can be restored.

After doing this I got the same result that dumping and restoring with JKSM did, which does import play data correctly (such as total play time for a game, first boot up date & such) but the games and their icons don't get ported over unless I boot them once, which means that games that haven't been boot up display with a grey icon and are labeled as "???" on the activity log, in the titles page they don't show up at all

I know system transfer correclty imports activity log data so I was wondering if there are alternatives to do this, could there be a local titles database that is independent from the activity log, but that gets loaded to get those game icons when using the apps?

Edit: while documenting myself on the 3ds filesystem I came across the F000000B folder which is part of a nand's extdata and should be carrying software library icons, I confirmed this by dumping the source 3ds folder (using JKSM) and restoring it on the target 3ds, what happened is that I lost icons for games that I only played on the target 3ds since the source 3ds wouldn't have those icons, but I kept all the icons for games that were on the source 3ds and that were booted on the target 3ds
Trying this (replacing F000000B folder) with GM9 instead of JKSV results in all icons getting deleted, as if the folder were reset
I think this is what I'm looking for but those files are probably encrypted and I'm not sure what would be the correct way of porting them correctly, or if it's possible at all, but I hope this helps identify the problem ^^

Edit2: I managed to find the issue and solved using GM9, I manually exported the save files for both the activity log and extdata folder (f000000b) from the source 3ds and then imported+CMAC fixed on the target 3ds, every icon and game data has been restored, so the problem with this was JKSM/Checkpoint not importing the save files correctly

If/when you read this I still want to thank you a lot for your time and help, I really appreciate it

 

[lone_wolf323]

After doing this I got the same result that dumping and restoring with JKSM did, which does import play data correctly (such as total play time for a game, first boot up date & such) but the games and their icons don't get ported over unless I boot them once, which means that games that haven't been boot up display with a grey icon and are labeled as "???" on the activity log, in the titles page they don't show up at all

I know system transfer correclty imports activity log data so I was wondering if there are alternatives to do this, could there be a local titles database that is independent from the activity log, but that gets loaded to get those game icons when using the apps?

You could try running faketik now which missing tickets is why you get those ? blocks in the data management. Its likely the same reason you get them in the activity log aswell.

 

[Meercko]

You could try running faketik now which missing tickets is why you get those ? blocks in the data management. Its likely the same reason you get them in the activity log aswell.

The "?" blocks are not in data management, it's what the activity log shows when I check the play time for a game that was not booted on the target console

Say the activity log save remembers that I played Pokémon Moon on Jan 1st 2020 from my old, source console, but I haven't played yet on the target system, if I go to Jan 1st instead of Pokémon Moon it will show a "?" title, that is until I boot the game once, then the correct title will display

I already have tickets for every installed game

 

[TurdPooCharger]

1. On the o3DS, launch Cthulhu and perform these actions.
   
   • Shared icon cache management. → Backup shared icon cache.
   • HOME Menu icon cache management. → Backup HOME Menu icon cache.
2. Copy these files over from the o3DS SD card to the n3DS microSD card.
   • sdmc:/3ds/Cthulhu/
     • Cache.bak
     • CacheD.bak
     • idb.bak
     • idbt.bak
3. On the n3DS, launch Cthulhu and perform these actions.
   • Shared icon cache management. → Restore shared icon cache.
   • HOME Menu icon cache management. → Restore HOME Menu icon cache.

 

[Meercko]

1. On the o3DS, launch Cthulhu and perform these actions.
   • Shared icon cache management. → Backup shared icon cache.
   • HOME Menu icon cache management. → Backup HOME Menu icon cache.
2. Copy these files over from the o3DS SD card to the n3DS microSD card.
   • sdmc:/3ds/Cthulhu/
     • Cache.bak
     • CacheD.bak
     • idb.bak
     • idbt.bak
3. On the n3DS, launch Cthulhu and perform these actions.
   • Shared icon cache management. → Restore shared icon cache.
   • HOME Menu icon cache management. → Restore HOME Menu icon cache.

Hey! Thanks for answering, fortunately I already solved my problem ^^ I edited my previous answer with what worked for me/what I did

For reference, I had already tried dumping & restoring shared icon cache with cthulhu when I first created this post, but it didn't lead to any result for some reason, which is actually weird since it should work but it was some time ago so I might have done it wrong (I didn't touch home menu icon cache when I did it back then)

 

[Poochy23]

After doing this I got the same result that dumping and restoring with JKSM did, which does import play data correctly (such as total play time for a game, first boot up date & such) but the games and their icons don't get ported over unless I boot them once, which means that games that haven't been boot up display with a grey icon and are labeled as "???" on the activity log, in the titles page they don't show up at all

I know system transfer correclty imports activity log data so I was wondering if there are alternatives to do this, could there be a local titles database that is independent from the activity log, but that gets loaded to get those game icons when using the apps?

Edit: while documenting myself on the 3ds filesystem I came across the F000000B folder which is part of a nand's extdata and should be carrying software library icons, I confirmed this by dumping the source 3ds folder (using JKSM) and restoring it on the target 3ds, what happened is that I lost icons for games that I only played on the target 3ds since the source 3ds wouldn't have those icons, but I kept all the icons for games that were on the source 3ds and that were booted on the target 3ds
Trying this (replacing F000000B folder) with GM9 instead of JKSV results in all icons getting deleted, as if the folder were reset
I think this is what I'm looking for but those files are probably encrypted and I'm not sure what would be the correct way of porting them correctly, or if it's possible at all, but I hope this helps identify the problem ^^

Edit2: I managed to find the issue and solved using GM9, I manually exported the save files for both the activity log and extdata folder (f000000b) from the source 3ds and then imported+CMAC fixed on the target 3ds, every icon and game data has been restored, so the problem with this was JKSM/Checkpoint not importing the save files correctly

If/when you read this I still want to thank you a lot for your time and help, I really appreciate it

Thank you for sharing!!! Could you be so kind and explain how did you export the save files for both activity log and folder f000000b?

 

[Chrushev]

After doing this I got the same result that dumping and restoring with JKSM did, which does import play data correctly (such as total play time for a game, first boot up date & such) but the games and their icons don't get ported over unless I boot them once, which means that games that haven't been boot up display with a grey icon and are labeled as "???" on the activity log, in the titles page they don't show up at all

I know system transfer correclty imports activity log data so I was wondering if there are alternatives to do this, could there be a local titles database that is independent from the activity log, but that gets loaded to get those game icons when using the apps?

Edit: while documenting myself on the 3ds filesystem I came across the F000000B folder which is part of a nand's extdata and should be carrying software library icons, I confirmed this by dumping the source 3ds folder (using JKSM) and restoring it on the target 3ds, what happened is that I lost icons for games that I only played on the target 3ds since the source 3ds wouldn't have those icons, but I kept all the icons for games that were on the source 3ds and that were booted on the target 3ds
Trying this (replacing F000000B folder) with GM9 instead of JKSV results in all icons getting deleted, as if the folder were reset
I think this is what I'm looking for but those files are probably encrypted and I'm not sure what would be the correct way of porting them correctly, or if it's possible at all, but I hope this helps identify the problem ^^

Edit2: I managed to find the issue and solved using GM9, I manually exported the save files for both the activity log and extdata folder (f000000b) from the source 3ds and then imported+CMAC fixed on the target 3ds, every icon and game data has been restored, so the problem with this was JKSM/Checkpoint not importing the save files correctly

If/when you read this I still want to thank you a lot for your time and help, I really appreciate it

What is CMAC fixing and how do you do it? Can you give steps?