Trying to get Nook's Cranny, but failing

[Dad2024]

My daughter is nine years old. She's been playing Animal Crossing for months, and is frustrated because she can't seem to get the option for Nook's Cranny to appear. We've watched tutorials together, but we must be missing something. When she talks to Timmy, there isn't an option for "About building a shop". She has been to countless islands and caught creatures on land and sea. She has paid off her house at least 3 times. She has a museum and has given tons of specimens to it. She buys and sells things all the time. Multiple times she has collected the four required materials for the upgrade, but none of it results in receiving the kit needed to make Nook's Cranny. I don't play the game myself, so my knowledge is based on what I've seen her do, and what I've seen online. I've read about bringing visitors to the island, but I don't know what that really means, or how it works. Are they NPC visitors or does it require real people? I am including an image from a tutorial to show the prompt that we don't see. She wants to start over, but she doesn't want to lose all the things she has collected. I would appreciate help from anyone who has been in this situation, or knows how to troubleshoot it. Thanks.

 

[MrBox]

I like your username
If I remember correctly, I believe the requirements are - you must be the island rep and you must own a house?

 

[Dad2024]

I like your username
If I remember correctly, I believe the requirements are - you must be the island rep and you must own a house?

Thanks! She does own a house, and she has upgraded it a few times. The island she is on is the one she started with. She would be the rep for her own island, right? How do you check that?

 

[MrBox]

Thanks! She does own a house, and she has upgraded it a few times. The island she is on is the one she started with. She would be the rep for her own island, right? How do you check that?

How many profiles/users are on the Nintendo Switch?
To check, you can go to your Nookphone , then select your passport and at the bottom of the photo of your character,
it will say "Resident Rep" if you are the Island Representative!

Also, I was googling a little bit and actually somebody else on this site had a similar problem-
link to TBT thread: https://www.belltreeforums.com/threads/timmy-wont-ask-for-building-materials.615782/
I'm not sure if it's the same circumstances? I'm actually not even sure what option they clicked on but it sounds like the daughter deleted a profile by accident and it was the representative?

OP's Solution:

Ok. So there were a few people on the island map, but only one at game start. She selected 'add a new character' and it gave her the option to reload one of the others she had previously deleted. She re-upped the Res Rep and all is golden, she was literally bouncing around like Tigger. She asked me to pass on her thanks and said "she would be eternally grateful". Thanks everyone, we have a very happy camper!

Ah, I'm searching Reddit and it seems that if you have deleted the island rep who doesn't have a Nintendo account linked with it- you can get the data back?
link to reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/s89oev/i_stupidly_deleted_the_island_representative_user

OP's solution:

i just resolved it! i created another user and opened up animal crossing as a new user and was able to use the existing data of the representative who did not have a linked user account!

 

[Dad2024]

Thank you! I think you identified the problem. She checked her most accomplished profile and it doesn't have "Resident Rep" by the photo. She has a few other other profiles, and the least used one—probably earliest—has the "Resident Rep" tag. Can she use her current profile to go to a different island and set up there? Or, is there a way to remove the older profile without losing everything the later profile has done? I'm trying to find an option that won't require her to lose everything she has accomplished. Thanks.

Post automatically merged: May 11, 2024

I just saw your update reply and I'm looking through it

 

[MrBox]

Thank you! I think you identified the problem. She checked her most accomplished profile and it doesn't have "Resident Rep" by the photo. She has a few other other profiles, and the least used one—probably earliest—has the "Resident Rep" tag. Can she use her current profile to go to a different island and set up there? Or, is there a way to remove the older profile without losing everything the later profile has done? I'm trying to find an option that won't require her to lose everything she has accomplished. Thanks.

Post automatically merged: May 11, 2024

I just saw your update reply and I'm looking through it

I see!
Hmm, honestly, in my personal opinion, it'd probably be easier for her to transfer all of her current character's belongings and bells to her older profile and start using that profile when playing New Horizons..

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As for your other questions, I'm not really sure since I'm not personally testing it out but I do believe you can move non-rep residents off of the island to a new island ?But that would require another Nintendo Switch and two copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Just googled it and it seems that Nintendo does have a help page for it:

Nintendo Support: Can I Change Which Island Resident is the Resident Representative? (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

en-americas-support.nintendo.com

Nintendo's Solution:

It is not possible to change which resident on your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island is the Resident Representative. The role of Resident Representative is given to the first player that moved to the island.
A resident can move to a new island on a different Nintendo Switch system. If they are the first player to move to the island on that system, they will be Resident Representative of that island.

 

[Dad2024]

Thank you for taking the time to explore this issue. She is going to move resources from one profile to another and see if that works for her. If not, we will try something more drastic. Her tears of frustration are gone and she is moving forward with hope. Thanks!

 

[MrBox]

Thank you for taking the time to explore this issue. She is going to move resources from one profile to another and see if that works for her. If not, we will try something more drastic. Her tears of frustration are gone and she is moving forward with hope. Thanks!

No problem! I'm happy hear that and to have been of service :^) !!
Also, I'm not sure if this will bother her since she is so young but you can also change the order of the users!
When you go to the home page, click on settings then go to Users then "Change Order"

Also another Reddit link to look at if you want to do a work around with changing the Island Rep:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/irsq4c/how_to_transfer_island_to_a_new_user_on_the_same