How To Transfer Animal Crossing Data To New Switch

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island Transfer

• 421

Image: Nintendo Life

It may have taken a while, but the ability to transfer Animal Crossing: New Horizons resident and save data from one Nintendo Switch finally arrived in late-2020. Yay!

On this page we’ll take you through the steps necessary to either move your entire island to a different Nintendo Switch or Switch Lite, or transfer a single island resident to an island on a different Switch,

What Is An Island Backup

Island backup saves your island data and progress to our servers in the event you lose access to your Nintendo Switch system. If this happens, you can restore your island on a replacement Nintendo Switch system. Island backup is not enabled by default, so you will need to enable it in the in-game settings. For more information, see How to Backup and Restore Island Save Data .

How To Transfer Animal Crossing Save Data Guide

For around eight months after launch, it was impossible for players to transfer their Animal Crossing: New Horizons island from one Nintendo Switch to another. Once you began a save file on a Switch, your island was tied permanently to that console a sizeable problem if you bought a new Switch, for instance.

Nintendo announced that a solution was coming eventually and, thankfully, it arrived in November 2020.

Image: Nintendo Life

There are two types of Animal Crossing data transfers available. If you’ve got yourself a brand new Switch and want to transfer absolutely everything to the new console, you’ll want to choose ‘Entire Island Transfer’. As you’d expect from the title, this moves your entire island and save file including all residents to the new console.

Here are more details from Nintendo:

Entire Island TransferUse this feature if you wish to transfer the entire island and all residents to a new Nintendo Switch system. The island, all progress and customizations, your animal neighbors, the island resident representative, and any other residents that have been created on the island will be transferred.

This feature is helpful if you are replacing your Nintendo Switch system with a new one and all players who have played Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be using the new Nintendo Switch system. It is also the only way to transfer your island resident representative when you have not backed up your island.

Read Also: When Can You Buy Turnips

How To Transfer A Single Resident On A Shared Island To Their Own Island

Resident Move is the best option for an individual player who is currently living on a shared island with a different island representative to move their character, home and items to a new game or to another existing island. This player’s island progress and animal neighbor relationships will not transfer with them.

For this, you’ll need to download the free Island Transfer Tool from the Nintendo Switch eShop and install the game on both consoles. Make sure you have a strong internet connection before going into Settings and selecting “Resident Move” from the menu options. If the console you are moving to already has an island on it, your character will move there. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from scratch. Any other players and villagers living on your original island will be unaffected.

Related: The History of Nintendo’s Most Iconic Musical Easter Egg

How To Transfer Your Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island To A New System

#AnimalCrossing: New Horizons players! Picking up #NintendoSwitch – OLED Model?Be sure to transfer your Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data with the Island Transfer Tool after moving data from your current system to Nintendo Switch – OLED Model.

Nintendo of America

To start off, you will need to make sure Animal Crossing: New Horizons has the latest update and download the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Transfer Tool from the eShop on your old system. After doing that, you will need to complete the user transfer process, which will transfer over most of your other game saves. The system should ask if you intend to continue using your old Switch. You should select yes, that way your account doesn’t get removed from the old Switch.

On the new Switch, you will need to download New Horizons and the Transfer Tool. After that, open the Transfer Tool on both consoles and select “Let’s Begin.” The old Switch will need to be the “Source” option and the new Switch will need to be the “Target” option. The old Switch will need to select the island and hit Transfer Data once the new Switch is detected. After confirming on both Switch consoles the transfer process will begin. A message will appear when the process is complete at which point the island save data will be on the new Switch and be deleted from the old Switch.

Don’t Miss: Animal Crossing How To Get To Higher Ground

Switch Over To The Target System And You’re Done

Your resident should arrive on the target island and you’ll be able to choose where your house will go.

A couple of more notes from Nintendo:

• If you are the first user to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system, you will be the new islands resident representative. Moving a house takes some time, so you will be sleeping in a tent on your first night on the island.
• If the island is already inhabited by someone on the target system, your house will be moved over immediately.

How To Download Animal Crossing Save Data Cloud Backup

Here are different ways to download Animal Crossing Save Data Cloud Backup:

If you dont have access to your original primary Nintendo Switch system, it is impossible to remotely enable island backup without the console. So make sure enable turn this on in case of any unforeseen bad events. Also if you have access to your original Nintendo Switch, it is not required to restore your backup data on a new console. In such a situation, you can easily transfer Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Save Data to a new Switch console easily. Lets look at this in detail below.

You May Like: How To Get Friend Powder In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

How To Download The Island Transfer Tool

Once the Island Transfer Tool is downloaded on both the old and new Switch, you’re ready to start the transfer process.

Animal Crossing Data Transfer Guide

Nintendo has a detailed explanation of exactly how to transfer both your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, and your player data. So if you picked up the Nintendo Switch OLED model and want to make sure you dont lose your progress, youre in luck. You also dont need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to perform the transfer, which will come as a relief to many.

You May Like: How To Find Wisp In Animal Crossing City Folk

How To Transfer Animal Crossing: New Horizons Save Data To A New Nintendo Switch System Overview

Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows you and up to 7 others on your Nintendo Switch system to live on one shared island. The save data for the island or for the individual residents of the island can be transferred to a new Nintendo Switch system after updating the game software to the latest version. The island save data can also be backed up in case you lose access to your Nintendo Switch system and can be restored on a replacement system.

Please note:

There are three ways to transfer Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data to a new Nintendo Switch system. Please read about each option to determine which feature you would like to use:

Entire Island Transfer

Use this feature if you wish to transfer the entire island and all residents to a new Nintendo Switch system. The island, all progress and customizations, your animal neighbors, the island resident representative, and any other residents that have been created on the island will be transferred.

This feature is helpful if you are replacing your Nintendo Switch system with a new one and all players who have played Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be using the new Nintendo Switch system. It is also the only way to transfer your island resident representative when you have not backed up your island.

You must have access to both the original system and the new system to use this feature.

Resident Move

You must have access to both the original system and the new system to use this feature.

Island Backup and Restore

Is It Possible To Move To Another Town In Animal Crossing

For the first time in Animal Crossing, it is possible for a character to Move to Another Town. This will allow a player to effectively hop from being the resident of someone elses town to create a new town and become mayor. This option can be found when selecting your character and asking Isabelle about Other Things.

Dont Miss: What Is A Bell Voucher On Animal Crossing

Also Check: How To Use Amiibo In Animal Crossing New Leaf

Nintendo Warns Animal Crossing Fans To Backup Before Transferring To Switch Oled

Backup your Save Data if you want to carry your island over

Nintendo has warned Animal Crossing: New Horizon players to backup their save data before switching to the Nintendo Switch OLED or they could lose their island for good.

• READ MORE: The best Nintendo Switch games in 2021

If youve sunk hundreds of hours into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, youll probably be keen not to see your island disappear into the ether.

Nintendo has warned players to enable Island Backup in the game before transferring to the new Nintendo Switch OLED and make sure your save data is uploaded.

PSA: If youre picking up a #NintendoSwitch OLED Model and want to carry over your #AnimalCrossingNewHorizons island, make sure you back up your Save Data beforehand.

Find out more:

Nintendo of Europe

Island backup is an exclusive feature which allows New Horizons players to save their island to the Nintendo Switch Online Save Data Cloud service.

In order to make sure your island is backed up youll need to do the following:

Enable Island Backup

First of all, open Animal Crossing: New Horizons and select a user with a compatible Nintendo Account.

To enable Island backup, you must:

• Have a Nintendo Account with an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
• Have a Nintendo Account that has a resident on the island you want to backup.
• Have a stable internet connection.
• Have the latest game update .

Can You Just Move Sd Cards Or Cartridges

While an obvious workaround to the disabled save transfer feature might seem like using an SD Card, its unfortunately impossible to put your Animal Crossing: New Horizons save on an SD Card. The Nintendo Switch automatically stores all game save data on the systems internal storage and it cannot be moved.

This also means that owners of a physical cartridge copy of the game cannot simply swap the game cart between systems to move islands either. Each system will store its own separate save data file, regardless of the physical game cart.

Another side effect of this is that you can only have one Animal Crossing: New Horizons island per Nintendo Switch, even if you own multiple copies of the game. Its a real pain sometimes!

Read Also: Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards How To Use

How To Reset Animal Crossing: New Horizons Save Game

To restart your Animal Crossing New Horizons game, you will need to delete your saved data for the game. Keep in mind this will permanently delete your current character and island, so only go through the following steps if you really want to restart over.

Follow the steps below to reset your game and delete your saved data.

• Step One: Navigate to system settings on your Switch.
• You can do this by pressing the icon on the home menu next to power options.

Related: How to get Log Stakes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Once you have done this, you will have deleted your Animal Crossing New Horizons save game, and will be able to restart your game by creating a new character. Along with this, you will also get the chance to rename your island and pick a new layout.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Save Data Transfer Is Coming This Month

Soon, players will finally be able to transfer single-player resident data or even whole islands over to other Nintendo Switch systems.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is prepping up for the holidays. New Winter content is on the way with Turkey Day in November, Toy Day in December, and plenty of new activities to go along with both of them. That said, theres another great addition coming in the new content. Players who have been looking to move Animal Crossing: New Horizons islands or resident data between Nintendo Switch systems will soon be able to via the new save data transfer system coming in the next update.

Nintendo revealed the new data transfer update on the official , along with further details on the Animal Crossing Website. Beginning on November 19, 2020, players will be able to access a free Island Transfer tool. Despite its name, players will now be able to transfer both their island and their resident data over to a new Nintendo Switch system where it will be fully playable just the way it was previously. Its a much requested and long awaited feature for those who may have gotten new Switches, but had no way of moving their Animal Crossing: New Horizons progress between them.

The ability to transfer your island and resident data to another #NintendoSwitch system will be available on 11/19 with the free Island Transfer Tool app on Nintendo eShop.

Isabelle

Dont Miss: How Long Do Shooting Stars Last Acnh

You May Like: How To Get The Cafe On Animal Crossing New Leaf

If I Purchase A Second Console Can I Transfer The Save File To A Different Console

After updating your Animal Crossing: New Horizons software to the latest version, you will be able to transfer your island save data or individual resident to a new Nintendo Switch console. See How to Transfer Animal Crossing: New Horizons Save Data for full details on the different options to transfer save data.

Additionally, if you have backed up your island data on your first Nintendo Switch console and lost access to it, you will be able to restore it on your second console. For instructions, see How to Back Up and Restore Island Save Data.

How To Backup And Restore Your Animal Crossing: New Horizons Data

You can use the island backup feature to make sure that you can recover your island save data. If you lose access to your Switch or something goes wrong, this will allow you to back up the data.

When you use the backup feature, your last saved version will be restored.

Note: Island backup must be enabled on the original console to use this method. You will need to use the new Switch console to restore the island save data.

You May Like: Animal Crossing New Leaf Who Was Supposed To Be Mayor

Your Household Will Be Using Both Systems

If you plan to continue using your source system, please follow the steps below. Its important to note that your island will be completely transferred and you will no longer be able to play on your source system.