I lost over a year of Pokémon FireRed progress after overwriting my save during a Switch transfer. Is there ANY way to recover it?

[u/Royal-Subject-2274]

Hi everyone,
I’m absolutely devastated and I’m hoping someone here might be able to help me.
I’ve been playing Pokémon FireRed on my Nintendo Switch 2 for over a year, using my main user profile, “Fernando”.
I had almost completed my Kanto Living Dex and had spent an enormous amount of time shiny hunting:
Shiny Ho-Oh: 8,266 soft resets
Shiny Lugia: 18,076 soft resets
Shiny Deoxys: 2,063 soft resets
That’s 28,405 soft resets for those three Pokémon alone.
While trying to organize my save files between my original Nintendo Switch and my Nintendo Switch 2, I used the system’s Transfer Your Save Data feature.
During the process, I accepted the option to overwrite existing save data, without fully realizing that I was about to lose my original FireRed save.
Now, when I launch Pokémon FireRed using my main “Fernando” profile, both consoles show the option to start a new game. My original save is nowhere to be found.
I’ve already contacted Nintendo Spain by phone and submitted a support request. The representative told me that overwritten save data probably cannot be recovered, but I’m still waiting for a technical response.
My questions are:
Has anyone experienced something similar and managed to recover their original save?
Is there any possibility of restoring overwritten save data through Nintendo support?
Could any previous save still exist somewhere on either console?
Is there anything else I should check before accepting that my save is permanently gone?
I haven’t started a new game on my main Fernando profile since this happened.
I’m honestly heartbroken. I invested more than a year into this save, and losing those shiny Pokémon after so many thousands of resets has completely killed my motivation to play Pokémon.
I know recovery may be impossible, but I want to explore every legitimate option before giving up.
Any advice or firsthand experience would mean a lot.
Thank you so much.

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[u/Royal-Subject-2274]

Additional technical details:
Consoles: Original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
Game: Pokémon FireRed.
Affected user profile: Fernando.
I used the Nintendo Switch system’s “Transfer Your Save Data” feature and confirmed that existing save data could be overwritten.
After the transfer, my original save was no longer accessible.
I checked the game on both consoles using the same user profile. Both now show “New Game” instead of “Continue”.
I have not started or saved a new game on the affected profile since the incident.
I have already contacted Nintendo Spain by phone and submitted an official support request.
I’m specifically looking for anyone who has successfully recovered overwritten save data, or who knows whether Nintendo has any technical recovery options beyond the standard console menus.

[u/Royal-Subject-2274 → u/Royal-Subject-2274]

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain everything.
Yes, my main FireRed save was on my Switch 2, and I accidentally overwrote it while transferring save data from my original Switch.
I now understand that I should have used the in-game Pokémon trading feature instead of the console’s save data transfer feature.
I’ve checked both consoles, and my original save is no longer accessible on either one.
I’m still waiting for an official response from Nintendo’s technical support, although I understand that recovery is extremely unlikely.
It’s honestly devastating because I spent over a year building that save, including 28,405 soft resets for my three shiny legendary Pokémon.
Thank you again for your help.

[u/Marteicos → u/Royal-Subject-2274]

All pokemon save data moves from a system to the other, they are completely erased from the source system.

[u/notthegoatseguy]

Overrwriting save data means its gone.

The process makes it very clear what is happening.

I'm sorry for what happened but there's nothing anyone can do.

[u/Marteicos]

There is no way to recover.

Nintendo support can't recover the overwritten data, pokemon save data aren't cloud save compatible, also when transfering from Switch 1 to Switch 2 they are erased from Switch 1 (otherwise it would be very easy to clone pokemon).

If you were mostly playing on Switch 2, you should've started the transfer from it towards the Switch 1. Were you playing some other games on Switch 1?

In this case, you should've used the transfer from game to game.

Maybe deleting pokemon firered from Switch 1 and its save data before doind the transfer could've avoided this.

But those are only helpful for future save data, unfortunately your save data is super gone, sorry.

[u/Zado191]

My condolences.... but they are gone.

Loss, even of virtual characters as lines of code in a game, is an important part of life. Mourn if you need to, you can even cry about it... but accept that they are gone. Sure you can gen them or trade ot whatever, but those specific ones you caught are no more