v01.11.2024 - Woomy

Migration guide for Wii U and CemU!

This Guide was made with love by a Wii U owner for Wii U owners!

Welcome, You're probably reading this guide because Nintendo will discontinue Nintendo Network services on Wii U and 3DS, and that means no more online play on Wii U and 3DS. But don't worry about it: Pretendo Network have us covered with their great service replacement for these two consoles! But that means You will have to make a new user on Wii U...

"What about my save data?"

"What would I do without my 100% save data?"

"I don't want to play this game again in a new save data..."

Don't worry!

In this guide, I will show you how to migrate your save data from your Nintendo Network user to your Pretendo Network user. This is a work in progress guide, so make sure to check my twitter for updates!

Alternatively, if you have difficulty understanding this guide, I have a video guide that can help you, go check it out!

Lets get started!

For this guide You will need the following tools:

1st Part: Save data migration from NNID to PNID using SaveMii.

Turn on your Wii U and wait until you are in the Home menu. After that, open SaveMii.

SaveMii
SaveMii icon in the Home Menu - Aroma.

Once SaveMii is open, You will see 3 options:

SaveMii
SaveMii main screen.

Select the first option, "Wii U Save Management", and press the A button in your controller.

On this screen, press Down on the d-pad on your controller to scroll down in the list to find the game that you want to migrate.

SaveMii
"Wii U Save Management" main screen.

Select the game that you want to migrate to your PNID user, and press the A button in Your controller.

I will be using Splatoon for this guide.

SaveMii
Splatoon in SaveMii.

On this screen, you will see 5 options:

SaveMii
Options for Splatoon in SaveMii.

Select the first option, "Backup savedata", and press A in your controller to continue.

KEEP IN MIND, THIS IS THE TITLE ID FOR THE EUROPEAN VERSION OF SPLATOON, THE ID IS DIFFERENT BETWEEN REGIONS.

  • Splatoon America ID: 10176900
  • Splatoon Japan ID: 10162b00
  • Splatoon Europe ID: 10176a00
  • Title IDs are different between games. You will need to remember the ID for the game that you are migrating save data from for the next steps.

    On this screen You will see 2 options

    SaveMii
    Backup options for Splatoon in SaveMii.

    If you already used SaveMii before and a slot already has a save file, I would recommend you use an empty one to avoid problems, confusions, and data loss (the existing data in that slot will be replaced with the new backup).

    Now press the Down button in Your controller to select the second option.

    SaveMii
    Selecting "Select Wii U user" option.

    And then press the Right button in Your controller to select the user You want to migrate save data from.

    SaveMii
    Selecting a user (Woomy) in the "Select Wii U user" option.

    If Your game Allows You to backup the "common" Folder, You can do it, but You will not need it for the migration process, it will just give You an error.

    If You already have a backup in the slot 000, it will ask You if You want to overwrite it, press the A button in Your controller if You want to continue, otherwise press the B button to cancel and select a empty slot!

    SaveMii
    SaveMii waiting for the user to overwrite the existent data in the selected slot or if the user wants to cancel the backup and go back to the previous screen.

    As mentioned before, I Recommend You to use a empty slot, but If You want to use the slot 000, go ahead

    After the backup is done, You will be sent to the previous screen.

    Now on this screen press the Down button in Your controller to select "Restore a savedata" option and then press the A button to continue.

    SaveMii
    Selecting "Restore a savedata" option in the options screen for Splatoon.

    On this screen You will have 3 options

  • Select slot:
  • This option allows You to select a backup slot to restore.

  • Select SD user to copy from:
  • This option allows You to select between if You want to restore save data for everyone or just to a specific user

  • Select Wii U user to copy to:
  • This option Allows You to restore the save data from one user into another user.

    SaveMii
    Options to restore save data for Splatoon .

    Press the Down button in Your gamepad to select the second option "Select SD user to copy from" and then press the Right button to be able to select a specific user in the console.

    Now press the Down button again to select the third option "Select Wii U user to copy to" and then press the Right button to select Your PNID user.

    SaveMii
    Selecting the PNID user (woomy) to migrate save data.

    Now press the A button to start migrating Your save data!

    SaveMii
    Confirmation screen for "Restore savedata" in Splaton

    Press the A button to continue

    SaveMii
    Confirmation screen for "Restore savedata" in Splatoon asking to make a backup in the next empty slot.

    This screen will appear if You already have a save data in your PNID user, if You want to make a backup of it, press A, otherwise press B to migrate Your save data in Your PNID user without making a backup of its save data

    Once the export is done, you will be sent to the previous screen.

    SaveMii
    Options for Splatoon in SaveMii.

    If everything went okay, you can now close SaveMii by pressing the Home Button.

    You will be sent to the Home menu again

    2nd Part: Verifying save data after the migration.

    Once you're back in the Home menu, I recommend you to enable Pretendo Network if you haven't done it yet, once you enabled it and you're back in the home menu again, open Your game, in my case, it will be Splatoon.

    Splatoon
    Splatoon icon in the Home menu.
    Splatoon
    Splatoon loading screen.

    Once the game is open, it's time to check if your save data is in there.

    That's easy to check in Splatoon simply because of the main screen:

    Splatoon
    Splatoon main screen.

    As you can see, my PNID user now has my NNID save data, everything is loading fine wihtout any issues

    Splatoon
    Splatoon news screen.
    Splatoon
    Splatoon news screen showing Camp Triggerfish map in the current rotation (01/08/2024) - Pretendo.
    Splatoon
    Callie and Marie saying "Staaaay fresh!".
    Splatoon
    Inkopolis plaza.
    Splatoon
    Pretendo Juxt posts in the plaza.
    Splatoon
    My wife left me at taco bell and she took the kids.
    Splatoon
    Showing the tower with the Great Zapfish
    Splatoon
    Splatoon lobby in Pretendo Network.

    Continue to the next guide: Migration from Wii U to CemU

    So that's all for this guide, I hope this helps anyone that wants to migrate their save data from NNID to PNID, I will be glad if you share this guide with anyone that needs it!

    And thank you so much Jon (from Pretendo) for allowing me to make this guide, I really enjoyed all the process I went through to make this guide!

    And thank you c08o. for helping me to fix my typos, i appreciate your help :)

    Improvements coming soon1

    Woomy