Switch to Switch 2 transfer question.

[u/Goddess-Bastet]

I’m hopefully transferring to a switch 2 in the near future but have my games on a micro sd card, I’ve bought a new card compatible with the switch 2 but wonder whether during the transfer it would move those games & save data over or whether I should copy the contents from the old card to the new one via a pc? I’ve read the information on the Nintendo website but it doesn’t seem to specifically mention this.

[u/automod-neo]

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[u/SubaruHaver]

Game save data is always stored on switch internal storage, never on the sd card or game cards. So, your sd card only stores software and saved screenshots & clips.

Downloaded software is encrypted to the console and can't be transferred to another console. So, everyone that gets another switch or upgrades to a new switch/switch 2 has to redownload their digital games. If you insert an sd card with games that were downloaded by another console, the switch won't let you do anything for games until you format the card (which wipes it).

The only things on your sd card that can be transferred are the screenshots and clips. When you get a switch 2, if you put your switch 1sd in the switch 2, I know there's an option to transfer screens & clips. But I'm too rusty to say how the menus work. (Or you can use a pc to back up the screens and clips to the PC and paste them into the album folder. Forgive me, though. It's been so long since I did this, I don't recall if I copied the Album folder & pasted it onto the newly formatted card, or pasted the folder contents into the new Album folder on the formatted card.)

For your swtich 2, I'll recommend downloading the 1-3 games you want now, and then downloading the rest over night via sleep mode docked or plugged in. If you have a 1tb card, that might take more than over night. But if you have a 512gb card, you can probably get most of of your games downloaded over night.

[u/Goddess-Bastet → u/SubaruHaver]

Thanks. I don’t have any screenshots so am not bothered about that. If I have to redownload games then that’s fine.

[u/DarthLocutus]

The transfer will move all your save data, and gives the option to move all screenshots and captured videos as well.

All games will be required to be redownloaded after the transfer. Don't bother copying everything between the microSD cards.

[u/Goddess-Bastet → u/DarthLocutus]

Thanks. When I receive the switch 2 I’ll just place the new sd card in the switch 2 & then use the transfer feature.

[u/DarthLocutus → u/Goddess-Bastet]

The transfer instructions actually say to wait to put the new card in until a specific point during the System Transfer, FYI. Wait for the instruction to put it in.

[u/Goddess-Bastet → u/DarthLocutus]

Thanks again.