Transferring island to brand new Switch

[kayleee]

Hi all, sorry if this has been discussed before, but I need some help from anyone who has experience transferring their island from one switch to a brand new one that hasn’t been set up yet. Namely, I’m trying to figure out what order to transfer everything, and how exactly to do it. I’m super paranoid about losing my island, so I want to make sure I know exactly what I’m doing before I try transferring anything.

When setting up the new Switch, if I choose that the source Switch will no longer be used when transferring the user data, will that wipe everything from the original Switch after the transfer? Should I choose the option that I’m still going to be using my original Switch as a secondary console? Do I need to transfer my island first before transferring my user profile? I have my island backed up to the cloud also, if that’s relevant.

Any insight would be super appreciated - the more detailed the better. I’m so nervous about losing my island that I’m considering just returning my new Switch so I don’t have to deal with it lol

 

[Sanaki]

I just did this today with mine and this was my experience. I was stressed out too.
I followed this guide.
You'll want to transfer the user first. However, following this guide, I did encounter an issue of my own of not being able to use the User transfer tool with the placeholder user after I completed the transfer with my original user (violet) until I basically logged back in to my nintendo account on the original switch, which in turn linked my original user again on the original switch even after the user transfer was successful and complete to the new switch because the tool wasn't "purchased" with that user, my switch currently has my original user on two of them. I am not able to play the games I originally had on the source switch, even though they show up on the home screen. It says they need to be redownloaded. I'm not touching that incase it messes with stuff. I think it was a problem with me downloading the tool before the transfer. Can't say for sure.

If that was confusing, I have a bad habit of repeating stuff in order to be more clear. I had to log back in on the original user to access the island tool and save data, because the dummy user I had created on the old switch in order to use the tool wasn't able to use it because I didn't link it to an account beforehand, my bad lol. But the save is completely gone on the original switch after I used the Island Transfer tool so it worked out in the end, I'm currently playing my transferred save with no issues. Can't say for sure if this will happen with you, but this is what I did, and it ended up being fine, although I was terrified I messed something up.

It says it transfers your user and save data when you transfer your user initially, but you'll still need to use the island transfer tool to have your island on the new switch and have it installed on both in order to do this.

On to the individual questions...

Should I choose the option that I’m still going to be using my original Switch as a secondary console?
I chose no, because I will not be. If you are, I'm not 100% on the outcome but I doubt you will be able to use the same user with no issues such as purchasing stuff. You won't be able to play the games you originally had before the switch on the source switch anymore, although the icons show up on the screen. I'm going to be wiping mine. You will probably need to link a fresh account and purchase new copies of the games you had if you wanted to still play them, but like I said, I'm not 100% sure.

No matter what option you choose I'm pretty sure the end result will be similar. I can't say 100% what will happen, but what I wrote above is basically true in this case from what I think. User transfers first, as per the guide above that I linked. I also had previously backed up my island to the cloud in case of problems.

I also might have interchanged my words with saying source and original, they're the same switch. I wrote this out when I'm tired, apologies

 

[Khaelis]

This video explains the process very well:

Just take it a step at a time, don't stress about it. Sanaki also explains it very well.

 

[kayleee]

Thank you both!! Both those videos will be helpful I think; @Sanaki thank you for typing all that out, good to know I need to transfer the user data first and then the island. I’m still pretty nervous to transfer everything, but I think with these video guides I should be able to figure it out! The only thing I’m unsure of is, since I have a physical copy of the game rather than a digital copy, do I need to put the cartridge in my new Switch and download the game data before I can transfer the island?

 

[Sanaki]

Thank you both!! Both those videos will be helpful I think; @Sanaki thank you for typing all that out, good to know I need to transfer the user data first and then the island. I’m still pretty nervous to transfer everything, but I think with these video guides I should be able to figure it out! The only thing I’m unsure of is, since I have a physical copy of the game rather than a digital copy, do I need to put the cartridge in my new Switch and download the game data before I can transfer the island?

Yeah, put the cartridge in the new switch beforehand. The save data is per switch