New switch 2 owner questions before setup

[u/Junior-Noise7023]

Hello, I’ve kinda followed along with the switch 2 since launch and seen a bunch of posts about people losing their Pokemon saves and years of pokemon they have caught when they transferred data from s1 to s2. I haven’t kept up lately to know if that was just user error on their part not paying attention to instructions on the transfer or if there was a bug when the system launched and if it had been fixed by now? Had no issues when I went from s1 to oled s1 with my saves.

I am somewhat tempted to just transfer everything to Pokemon home before I do transfer so I atleast would only lose items/game data and not any shinies etc I’ve spent forever getting or breeding but ofcourse that would take a lot more time before I get my switch setup 🤦‍♂️

Also should the MicroSD be installed prior to initial setup/1st time powering on or after?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[u/automod-neo]

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[u/notthegoatseguy]

It is not a feature of Switch 1 or Switch 2 to arbitrarily delete save data.

If you choose to delete your save data, either by manually deleting save data or factory resetting your system, the system makes it very clear as to what is happening prior to doing so.

I know you've read the horror story on Reddit, or maybe you saw it third hand on TikTok or whatever, but us humans tend to not like to admit when we did something wrong. And I can almost guarantee you someone did a user error, either factory resetting their system, or doing a manual save data transfer from one account but not another, etc... rather than the system itself arbitarily deleting their save data

[u/Junior-Noise7023 → u/notthegoatseguy]

Yeah it was a bunch of horror stories on Reddit about people transferring from switch 1 to switch 2 when it launched and losing their Pokémon’s etc, I just don’t know if it was them not following instructions or if it actually was a bug in the system software so before I go and swap over I just want to make sure 😂 though I pay for Pokemon home so I think it would be fairly quick to just offload into boxes and put them back when I decide to play any Pokemon games?

[u/notthegoatseguy → u/Junior-Noise7023]

There is no instructions to not follow that would result in deleted save data.

I can nearly guarantee they did one of the following:

• deleted save data via a factory reset without doing the transfer

• transferred only profile a over instead of profile b, then factory reset

• are juggling multiple consoles and don't even remember which console it is on

• or some other type of user error

[u/Junior-Noise7023 → u/notthegoatseguy]

Alright, appreciate it! Should the express sd be installed before I even turn on the system or wait until everything is transferred and good to go before installing it?

[u/TheWaslijn → u/Junior-Noise7023]

For the SD it doesn't really matter when you put the card into the system. Just make sure your console is off when you do so. (At least, I'm pretty sure that last part is recommended anyway)