EDIT: This tutorial maybe outdated, technically it still work but please use Plailect's Guide, it covers even more things:



https://plailect.github.io/Guide/



EDIT: MANY USERS ALREADY BRICKED THEIR DEVICE, SO BE ABSOLUTELY SURE WHAT TO DO, THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS. WITHOUT A HARDMOD AND A NAND BACKUP A BRICK IS PERMANENT!!!

I'm doing this tutorial quickly only because we don't want to answer all "How to downgrade" question-threads seperately.

All credits belongs to TuxSH, Jason Dellaluce, Steveice10 (and some other, don't know who else right know)

KEEP IN MIND: BRICKS CAN HAPPEN AND HAPPENED TO SOME USERS!!! NO WARRANTY FOR A SUCCESSFUL DOWNGRADE!

1. You need a 3DS with any hax installed, if you have non, use Browserhax (http://yls8.mtheall.com/3dsbrowserhax.php) by yellows8 or menuhax. And of course, at least boot.3dsx in SD card root.

2. Download sysupdater and, unzip it and copy it to sd card:/3ds/ (if it does not exist, just create it...)
Mirror: https://mega.nz/#!JE1R3RhQ!MqY_OTyYrVM_DMOltiDfaZvTGZ8gCoUcATmOYEimM-U

3. You will need a complete firmware package of your desired Firmware. I recommend 9.2.0-20E/U/J.
Where do you get this package you ask? Well, Nintendo deleted all titles from their server older than 9.9.0-X, so you have to google it. I will help you to google it: http://bfy.tw/3Xqo

Cha0s Em3rald made MD5 checksum's for 9.2.0-20E/U/J N3ds/O3DS, check archive's checksum before using it! https://gbatemp.net/threads/md5-checksums-crc-for-all-9-2-update-packs.408114/

PLEASE NOTE: JP N3DS Users, you'll need to remove the 000400102002CA00 title from the download package in order to not get bricked! Do NOT install it!

4. Copy all firmware title .cia on SD Card:/update/

5. Remove smea's DNS, in case of unsuccessfull downgrade, you need in that case to start 3DS in Recovery mode to update and repair your system.

6. Start 3DS and go into Homebrewlauncher.

7. Start sysupdater

8. Wait for application to be ready. (ca. 1-5min)

9. Press Y to downgrade

10. Wait and pray until "Succeed. Reboot in 10 sec"

11. Done - Downgrade is (hopefully) complete!

I recommend to create an EmuNAND after downgrading and using a cfw Loader, like cakesFW or rxTools.


Q: Help! I have a blackscreen after the reboot!!!
A: Unplug SD Card, reboot. I think some SD data can't aren't compatible with downgraded titles, so delete your current "Nintendo 3DS" folder on SD card, if needed.

If it still doesn't boot, try to get into recovery mode, by pressing Power-Button to boot while holding L+R+Up+A, update and try again.

Q: sysupdater crashes/won't start/freeze.
A: (Hold L+R+DpadDown+B to return to Homebrew Launcher, then) start/reboot again. Some users needed over 30 attempts.
Try another hax; I used menuhax to start ctr boot manager.
TuxSH wrote that it can raise succeed boot of sysupdater if you started 3DS-FTP before and return with L+R+Down+B, then start sysUpdater

Alternative Way:
1. Backup/delete your boot.3dsx in sd root
2. Copy "sysUpdater.3dsx" to root and rename it into "boot.3dsx"
3. Plug SD card in and start hax (recommended: Menuhax)
4. *hax will load directly sysUpdater.

Q: What firmwares can be downgraded?
A: All firmwares up to newesest (10.3) can be downgraded. New 3DS is not confirmed because of no testing by TuxSH, but many users already tried and successfully downgraded their N3DS.

Q: I have an 2DS, which Firmware do I need?
A: Firmware for Old 3DS. MSET for 3DS can wants to move 3d slider after formating - you need to install only Firmware/MSET that was supported by 2DS, so NO 4.5! O3DS 9.2.0-20E should be fine, but not confirmed.

Q: It won't reboot after the finished downgrade.
A: What I did: Waited 10 minutes, then I powered it off. Downgrade suceed. You don't have another choice anyway.

 

[AdamWTS]

Got a problem.
After downgrading to 9.2 with SysUpdater, my Old3ds rebooted without problems, I can play cartridge games too, but whenever I try to run Ironfall or even System Settings my system gets stuck at "Nintendo 3DS" logo screen. Removing the SD card did not help. Anybody had problems like this? What can I do?

 

[SomeGamer]

Got a problem.
After downgrading to 9.2 with SysUpdater, my Old3ds rebooted without problems, I can play cartridge games too, but whenever I try to run Ironfall or even System Settings my system gets stuck at "Nintendo 3DS" logo screen. Removing the SD card did not help. Anybody had problems like this? What can I do?

Update to 10.3 in safe mode,then try downgrading again!

 

[I_AM_L_FORCE]

Got a problem.
After downgrading to 9.2 with SysUpdater, my Old3ds rebooted without problems, I can play cartridge games too, but whenever I try to run Ironfall or even System Settings my system gets stuck at "Nintendo 3DS" logo screen. Removing the SD card did not help. Anybody had problems like this? What can I do?

Try settings via Hans. Ironfall has 9.5 encryption...

 

[nero99]

So I'm trying to downgrade my friends n3ds xl that came with factory 9.0. The downgrader just jumps strait to saying "done" with out loading the update files. Yes I put them in the correct place.. What causes this??

 

[juandiego1993]

I'm having issues with sysUpdater that it freezes on the first screen and I can only get out by hard-powering-it-off (holding the power bottom until it shuts down) and I have tried using different version's is sysUpdater, using different enterypoints (browserhax and menuhax) but nothing.. even tried using FTP-3DS and pressing L+R+DOWN+B to exit and then boot sysUpdater but it still freezes at the bingeing (it louds all the numbers #1, #2, #3.. #8 but still can't do anything (and I have every file at its corrects place..)

I'm on Old3DS v10.3U.. any help??

 

[Plasmaxyz]

Keep getting:

title exception:
main.cpp:148: Result: 0xD900182f
Failed to get CIA file info!

Im getting this error as well. How do I fix it?

 

[AdamWTS]

Update to 10.3 in safe mode,then try downgrading again!

Safe mode seemed to not work when I pressed the required buttons.
Looks like I just downloaded the wrong update package. Fortunately, it was good enough to not brick my system, so I installed Menuhax again and proceeded to downgrade with the correct .cia pack. Thankfully it worked.

Try settings via Hans. Ironfall has 9.5 encryption...

So if I understand correctly I can as well delete it at this point since it doesn't work on 9.2?

 

[I_AM_L_FORCE]

Safe mode seemed to not work when I pressed the required buttons.
Looks like I just downloaded the wrong update package. Fortunately, it was good enough to not brick my system, so I installed Menuhax again and proceeded to downgrade with the correct .cia pack. Thankfully it worked.

So if I understand correctly I can as well delete it at this point since it doesn't work on 9.2?

Well I wouldn't delete it as it could be useful for emunand but I guess for sysnand it's pointless

 

[powersaver]

Hi, this seemed to work on my 10.3.0-28U NN3DS NON-XL. Thank you.

 

[malaken]

n3ds went black screen mid update. i do have a nand backup. what can i do?

* when i start up system it goes black right away.

 

[tomazzzi]

keep getting this error message as well :

title exception:
main.cpp:154: Result: 0xD900182f
Failed to get CIA file info!

Any idea ???

 

[I_AM_L_FORCE]

keep getting this error message as well :

title exception:
main.cpp:154: Result: 0xD900182f
Failed to get CIA file info!

Any idea ???

Keep trying

 

[tomazzzi]

Tried about 100 times....

I have 2 ods i used the same files on the other one without any trouble.

Tried everything on the non working one without success :/

 

[artur3004]

well, try with another sd card, format your 3ds before trying. sysUpdater isn't very stable, so that's all i can say

 

[controlepw]

Got a problem.
After downgrading to 9.2 with SysUpdater, my Old3ds rebooted without problems, I can play cartridge games too, but whenever I try to run Ironfall or even System Settings my system gets stuck at "Nintendo 3DS" logo screen. Removing the SD card did not help. Anybody had problems like this? What can I do?

ironfall doesn't work on 9.2. Delete your nintendo 3ds folder and try to launch sys settings again

 

[juandiego1993]

Hey I wanted to reply that I got my old3ds downgrade!! I was getting the freeze screen but I think I solved it by properly transferring all the files on 9.2.0-20(full).rar to the root of my sd (checking it's MD5 of course) and extracting it from my sdcard..

It seems silly but signs I did that, sysUpdater started to react more! (Took three tries and on each try my screen booted less glitched out until it finally started the prosses and successfully downgraded)

 

[artur3004]

Hey I wanted to reply that I got my old3ds downgrade!! I was getting the freeze screen but I think I solved it by properly transferring all the files on 9.2.0-20(full).rar to the root of my sd (checking it's MD5 of course) and extracting it from my sdcard..

It seems silly but signs I did that, sysUpdater started to react more! (Took three tries and on each try my screen booted less glitched out until it finally started the prosses and successfully downgraded)

copied to root? interesting, tuxsh documented that files should be in /update... I'm surprised sysupdater even find the .cia files

 

[Rashka]

copied to root? interesting, tuxsh documented that files should be in /update... I'm surprised sysupdater even find the .cia files

As he wrote, he put the rar to root and extracted it from this location. I'll try that ;-)

 

[MAXLEMPIRA]

So I'm trying to downgrade my friends n3ds xl that came with factory 9.0. The downgrader just jumps strait to saying "done" with out loading the update files. Yes I put them in the correct place.. What causes this??

is this for real!? how do you want to downgrade from 9.0 to 9.2?? what you want is to Update it, but actually, 9.0 it's a good FW for N3DS, just search for: How to Install "Insert a CFW HERE" on a N3DS through Homebrew Launcher. That's all... you don't need anything to downgrade

 

[nero99]

is this for real!? how do you want to downgrade from 9.0 to 9.2?? what you want is to Update it, but actually, 9.0 it's a good FW for N3DS, just search for: How to Install "Insert a CFW HERE" on a N3DS through Homebrew Launcher. That's all... you don't need anything to downgrade

I think you misread that whole sentence.. His was a N3ds xl that came on factory 9.0. I was trying to downgrade him to 9.2 from 10.3. Needless to say we fixed the problem. His sd card was corrupt and had to go through a 4 hour long restore process. But I finally got him downgraded earlier today. Too bad after formatting emunand browserhax becomes un-usable :/