Homebrew [RELEASE] Howling Theme Tool - Create your own CIA theme packages with Custom and Official themes

[Chizko]

when i install another theme pack or something from eshop i lose the installed themes, its normal?. Other .cias (games, homebrew) work fine. Curiously three themes stay installed (always the same)
emuNAND 10.4-10.5 reiNAND 3.1-3.2b NEW3DS XL 9.2 sysNAND

 

[SomeGamer]

when i install another theme pack or something from eshop i lose the installed themes, its normal?. Other .cias (games, homebrew) work fine. Curiously three themes stay installed (always the same)
emuNAND 10.4-10.5 reiNAND 3.1-3.2b NEW3DS XL 9.2 sysNAND

It's normal.

 

[EpicLPer]

Okay, why the heck does this tool need admin rights AND creates various "autorun.exe" files when starting up? I've monitored this thing, those actions make me very suspicious...

 

[EpicLPer]

Okay, why the heck does this tool need admin rights AND creates various "autorun.exe" files when starting up? I've monitored this thing, those actions make me very suspicious...

So I found out this tool actually writes directly to the C: root folder, not a "portable" one... Why?

 

[Cornholio309]

After adding a bunch of themes, this tool has started to act really strange and I can't figure out why. I have a total of 47 themes now (this includes the Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy ones that came with the program), and now every time I try to pack the themes, the first 20 or so display as completely unrelated official themes (such as Abstract Black-Red from 3DSThem.es showing as the official "Amy Rose Theme"). They still work fine, but they display completely incorrectly now in the Change Theme Menu.

To fix this, I tried making a completely new theme folder and just moving the abstract ones in there, then told Howling Theme Tool to use that folder so it'd just create a .cia of the abstract themes I wanted to use (which is only 7 or so). For some odd reason, the program bundled themes that weren't even in the theme folder I pointed to, but rather my old one.

As a last resort, I tried moving my theme folder out of it's current directory, and deleted everything related to Howling Theme Tool save for the original zip. I re-extracted it and tried the huge theme folder again, but it still doesn't work and keeps showing a good majority of my themes as "official" ones.

Trying to recover my old cia before I added these new ones, but does anybody have any idea why the tool is suddenly starting to act finicky even when I create a relatively small collection of themes?

 

[hallowersv]

Hello i installed my CIA pack with FBI and when i open the theme selector in homemenu (emunand) nothing appears, just the default themes (yellow, ,red, black etc...)

 

[Cornholio309]

Hello i installed my CIA pack with FBI and when i open the theme selector in homemenu (emunand) nothing appears, just the default themes (yellow, ,red, black etc...)

For whatever reason, FBI does not install these .cias correctly and nothing will change.

Use FBI to install BigBlueMenu (can't link it here apparently, but it should literally be the first thing if you do a quick Google Search), and install it through BigBlueMenu (or "import" as BBM calls it).

 

[hallowersv]

For whatever reason, FBI does not install these .cias correctly and nothing will change.

Use FBI to install BigBlueMenu (can't link it here apparently, but it should literally be the first thing if you do a quick Google Search), and install it through BigBlueMenu (or "import" as BBM calls it).

I already had that installed but i just followed the instructions, never thought that program would made a difference, thanks, it worked!

EDIT: When i finished playing, i shut down my 3ds so i could charge it, now when i try to enter my CFW by pressing L+power (Menuhax) it doesn't work, apparently this kills menuhax...

 

[Cornholio309]

I already had that installed but i just followed the instructions, never thought that program would made a difference, thanks, it worked!

EDIT: When i finished playing, i shut down my 3ds so i could charge it, now when i try to enter my CFW by pressing L+power (Menuhax) it doesn't work, apparently this kills menuhax...

I've been able to shut off my 3DS with a custom theme enabled, turn it back on, and it works fine (save for the issues I'm having above with installing more). Assuming both your SysNAND and EmuNAND are completely unlinked, the theme in your EmuNAND can be changed without it breaking anything. In fact, it works as a nice visual aid to tell what you're on.

...But if you're in SysNAND, then changing the theme will screw up menuhax and you'll have to reinstall.

The boot rate seems to be 50/50, so make sure it isn't a one time fluke thing too.

 

[hallowersv]

I've been able to shut off my 3DS with a custom theme enabled, turn it back on, and it works fine (save for the issues I'm having above with installing more). Assuming both your SysNAND and EmuNAND are completely unlinked, the theme in your EmuNAND can be changed without it breaking anything. In fact, it works as a nice visual aid to tell what you're on.

...But if you're in SysNAND, then changing the theme will screw up menuhax and you'll have to reinstall.

The boot rate seems to be 50/50, so make sure it isn't a one time fluke thing too.

I installed menuhax again and booted into my CFW, there was no themes setted up, but the themes i installed with the CIA pack were still there in the theme selector, idk what's happening lol

So what the real flaw here is: everytime i change theme in my emunand, this kills menuhax.

 

[angela18]

Is this working on GateWay emunand already?

 

[joguersan]

Hi there, recently my themes have been behaving strange. The first time I installed them, they work flawlessly, but the second time I tried (adding some new custom themes) in the theme menu appeared the same quantity of themes I installed in the first time. I chose one, and it happened to be one of the new ones I had installed, and from that moment, no matter how many themes I install, the menu just shows the same as the first time even if they are new ones.
Any idea? I tried installing them with BigBlueMenu and some new themes appeared, but they looks like official ones, and I don't have any.
Sorry for my bad english, I hope everything is understandable.

 

[Eddypikachu]

Why don't my themes show up on the program, they're in the correct file structure and they contain everything needed in their fodlers

 

[Eddypikachu]

Oops wait the custom themes are showing up now, they werent showing because I named the text files "name.txt" instead of just "name" lol

 

[smileyhead]

I just had a weird bug happening to me.
I compiled two themes (an Undertale Battle Menu theme from 3dsthem.es and one of my own themes, a Gumball theme (also available on the site)), compiled them into one .CIA, and when I installed it, one of them (presumably the Gumball theme) changed into the Dual Destinies: Mood Matrix theme. Here's the list of weird things:
-It had the icon and everything.
-Upon setting it as the HOME Menu theme, it was the Undertale theme.
-I've never had the Mood Matrix theme to begin with.
-The contents of the Gumball theme are right, and they are neither the Mood Matrix or the Undertale theme. Even the title and icon are custom.
-The theme is not an edited Mood Matrix theme.
I don't know WTF happened, but I'm thinking on making a separate Themes folder on my microSD and compiling them into separate CIAs.

 

[lefthandsword]

I also got stuck on the creating icons stage, tried OS X w/ winebottler and Windows 10 with the same results.

 

[C0ntroller]

I have problems with installing the cia :o

So I took some themes from 3dsthem.es and edited the icons and made some preview files, just for a good look.
Then I opened the checktool and it said everyhting is fine.
At third I opened the tool, clicked add on all themes I want to pack (just 7) and created a themepack, at least thats what the program said.
But when I install the created cia the themes are not showing up in the theme selector in home menu. I deinstalled and installed it several times (also created a new pack) but it doesn't help. I tried it even to install in NAND.

O3DS sysNAND 9.2//emuNAND rxTools 10.5 (want to install in emuNAND).
Whats wrong? And yes I took the right region

EDIT: forgot to say - I have no other themes installed

 

[GKGC34]

Hi @C0ntroller!

Did you install these themes with FBI? If yes that's why they don't show up. Use BigBlueMenu Instead.

 

[smileyhead]

Hi @C0ntroller!

Did you install this themes with FBI? If yes that's why they don't show up. Use BigBlueMenu Instead.

Hi, I have the same problem as well, but I did use BigBlueMenu.

 

[GKGC34]

Hello @smileyhead!

You can try to delete the theme cache located in your sd card:
- "Nintendo 3DS\<ID0>\<ID1>\extdata\00000000\000002ce" for EUR
- "Nintendo 3DS\<ID0>\<ID1>\extdata\00000000\000002cd" for USA
- "Nintendo 3DS\<ID0>\<ID1>\extdata\00000000\000002cc" for JPN

But before installing themes, make sure you rebuild the cache by entering at least once into the theme selector in Home Menu. Hope it helps.