It appears that users are being banned from 3DS online services, en masse. There's no direct cause right now, and seemingly no linking factor. This post is meant as an announcement for users, to be wary, and that GBAtemp will keep you updated as soon as more info rolls in. If you have been banned, please post in the thread below, and we will try to keep tabs on the situation. To be extra sure, it can't hurt to turn off your 3DS's wireless capabilities, so you might as well do that for now.

Edit 1: it appears that e-Shop access isn't restricted if you are banned.

Edit 2: A caller to Nintendo reported that the company said this ban is due to "unauthorized software usage".

Edit 3: @LinkSoraZelda is collecting info. Contact him if you are banned.

Edit 4: Click and fill this out if you were BANNED.

Edit 5:

[11:28:19 PM] Clector: Curiously the page of that error in Nintendo Support website used to have this:Error Code: 002-0102 Situation: You receive the error code 002-0102 when attempting to connect online. What to Do: If you continue to experience this issue, please contact Nintendo by calling 1-800-255-3700. Representatives are available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
[11:28:44 PM] Clector: Now it says this: What to Do: If you are experiencing this error code, your Nintendo 3DS family system has been banned due to unauthorized system modifications, play of unauthorized versions of one or more games, and/or connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service. This ban is effective immediately and requests to remove the ban will not be processed.

Thanks to @Joom

Edit 6: Aurora Wright is taking another poll here

Edit 7: Not a lot is known but

There are bans happening, they are happening in all regions.
All models in the 3ds family seem to be candidates for banning.
There is no indication they will be anything other than permanent.
A game or DLC may end up being a cause but there is no one game or DLC that ties banned users together.
The cause or causes are as yet unknown, though it does seem to be related to modifications. Reports of unmodified consoles being banned are as yet unproven.
The banning is tied to something you can modify, thus you can unban. Doing it while the causes are unknown is likely only going to burn a working token though.
There are semi public tokens out there, Nintendo knows how to browse a forum as well as you so don't be surprised if they also get banned.
It does not seem to be limited to a given base firmware version, it does not seem to be limited to any one custom firmware type. There is some speculation that older hacking methods are not being hit as hard but nothing to confirm this yet.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
A simple check to see is checking your friends list, by itself it will not ban you.
Some are turning their wifi off. It is doubtful this will be of much use and being banned does not seem to come with any downsides that wifi being off will not also mimic.
You may have escaped a ban thus far but it could happen at any point. It could be that they stop in the future, it has happened on other consoles, but you would be living in hope rather than any particularly well founded logic.
The bans are done on the side of Nintendo's servers rather than your 3ds so there is also that.

If you hack your devices/games then their online functionality may be troubled. This has been known for decades, Nintendo seems to have finally caught up with that.

Please continue to share information with the thread or the links in previous edits.

Update 5/30

HOW TO HELP AVOID BANS (we think)​

If I was to guess from the information we have gathered since the ban wave, it seems likely that they are looking for TitleIDs that don't exist. Homebrew shows up in the activity log as the Download Play app, and fake CIA's show up as just ??????. That last one is what I'm guessing they are looking for.

If you are not banned yet or before you unban yourself, go into your friends list, choose settings, and turn off the option to "show friends what game you are playing." This will prevent you from playing games online with friends, so turn it back on when you wanna game with someone, but ALWAYS keep it off when running custom CIAs. Next, go into system settings -> internet settings -> spotpass, and turn off BOTH options. One is auto download software, the other sends system information to Nintendo. Also, make sure you don't have your favorite title set to something stupid like FBI or any other non-Nintendo CIA.

Its VERY likely that these options are what tipped off Nintendo, but we aren't 100% certain yet. The amount of banned people that had one of these options turned on was over 80% for each. If I was to assume that some of those people overlap, its very possible (but not confirmed) that 100% of banned people in the survey had at least one of those options turned on. I personally had all of them off and I have TONS of reasons for Nintendo to ban me.... yet I am not banned (yet).

Another bit of advice: Only run custom CIAs when offline, and after you close them, run a "legit" game like Smash Bros. or something before shutting down or going back online. This way your most recent title won't show up as a fake CIA

Current Theories as to what causes a ban
​

* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

• From the information that we've gathered from some people that have used a packet sniffer such as WireShark, the following data is sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers as soon as the 3DS connects to the internet:
  • Amount of time spent online (timer stops when either the system is disconnected from the internet, or connection drops out, then starts the timer again in a new session when it reconnects to the internet).
  • The game being played and amount of time spent on it during that session.
  • The console's unique hexadecimal ID used in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB, along with it's RSA-signed signature.
  • The console's serial number in which is broadcasted from the SoC and is hard coded in the SoC.
  • Friend Code generated on the Nintendo 3DS system, if one has been generated.
  • Internet connection status (either online or offline).
  • The Nintendo Network ID, if there is one linked to it.
  • Even if the sending of SpotPass Information is switched off, or even hiding your currently playing games. It does not prevent the system from sending currently playing information to Nintendo's online gaming servers, it only hides it from your friends in your friend list (like being invisible on the forum, while mods and admins can still see you). Why? Because even people without a Friend Code on their system have been getting banned too!

• The following data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers:
  • The data from the Nintendo 3DS's Activity Log. Oddly enough, while Nintendo does explicitly state that they collect Activity Log data, they're actually referring to their own server's Activity Log, which always tracks every console's online activity, and keeps a record of them that is stored forever. And is only collected in increments of data through a timer and a currently playing list.
    
  • Games or apps that have not been played, regardless if they're legitimate or not. You only get tracked when you're online and using that game or app.
  • Using games or apps while offline. Even though it is stored on the 3DS console's Activity Log, that data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers.
  • Custom Firmware. Though we can't rule out the possibility of them releasing a 3DS update in the future that adds such function to collect MD5 hashes of files and FIRM data and send them to Nintendo online gaming servers (which would also be updated in a maintenance).

• Things that people think what happens with consoles, but really doesn't:
  • "LocalFriendCodeSeedB is transferred to the system upon doing a system transfer". This is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB remains on the system and does not move to another system.
  • "The console generates a LocalFriendCodeSeedB upon first startup". Again, this is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is made during the manufacturing process at Foxconn. It is generated at the factory, flashed to the NAND flash memory storage, then created as an account on Nintendo's online gaming server and Nintendo eShop server immediately when being manufactured. It is absolutely impossible to generate a LocalFriendCodeSeedB and be able to connect to Nintendo's online gaming server and/or Nintendo eShop server, even if you knew the RSA generation key for it. You'd end up with Error Code 002-0102 "This console's online services have been restricted by Nintendo" if you even tried (the error can either mean two things: The hexadecimal ID doesn't exist on the server, or the request to access the hexadecimal ID has been denied which in other words... banned). So a LocalFriendCodeSeedB generator will NEVER happen! Because it's not worth doing, if it can't connect.
  • Switching off "Currently Playing" information. Once again, this does not hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only hides it from your friends.
  • Switching off SpotPass. Nope, this too doesn't hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only opts-out of receiving SpotPass data, sorry.

So pretty much the bottom line is, if anyone has been using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop while online in the past, guess what? You're screwed! And it is only a matter of time before your console's unique hexadecimal ID in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is banned from Nintendo's online gaming server. This will mean, your console can't access the Friend List or play any online functions in games.

If you have been online while using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop and haven't been banned yet, that's because Nintendo hasn't caught up to you yet. They're still going through each unique hexadecimal ID's Activity Log on their server, and by Activity Log, I mean the Activity Log on their server, not the 3DS console's activity log. And it will be only a matter of time before you're banned too.

Thanks to @Platinum Lucario @MadMageKefka and @ShadowEO !

 

[Joshwraith]

Zaphod, that's a very tall order that you've written up there with nothing to support it. :/

Haven't seen any indicator of ANY OF THAT being the cause. But hey, I've been trying to keep this thread on topic and not spinning like a damn Journey song since Thursday. So I'm gonna step back, continue looking at the data that supports the OPPOSITE of what you're proposing, and observe the conversation from here.

If any of you have any questions, please feel free to @mention me, I'll answer as I can.

Any news from your side ?

 

[Omnifarious]

Banned people can still add dlc from freeshop. but if the game needs to go online to use the dlc (like fates) you are screwed.

Fates dlc is playable offline

 

[ShadowEO]

Any news from your side ?

Besides that nothing that we've been looking at for the past week has been conclusive? No, it looks like we're missing a very crucial variable that isn't being asked yet. Not sure what it is, but perhaps once we find it, we'll find the ACTUAL CAUSES INSTEAD OF STRAWMEN OVER AND OVER!

(Sorry, very annoyed that this thread keeps going back to the same mostly debunked theories without any valid argument as to why they aren't ruled out now that we have some valid data to test those theories with, and no data to support ANY assertions. It's literally people coming in at least once a day, posting more speculation as fact, and then running with it, at least the majority of the legitimate speculation wasn't meant to be proposed as fact.)

The fact that Nintendo hasn't said anything either, means that no one can be for sure, we can have ideas, we can have speculations, but we CANNOT have facts, especially not with the data we have now. Not even with the data we've collected are any patterns forming, nor is there any data to support today's claims.

 

[Xe-rom]

Hah, i've been banned. gg (i can just easily make a new nnid when this mess is over)

 

[Ruryk]

Sorry if I'm repeating myself but do we have anything new in the last 24 hours or, still, just speculations?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

what if the culprit was actually a game?
what if it was the recent free to play kirby one? it had a spotpass-feature that people used to get those free apples.

There's almost definitely no way it was a single common software and is more likely they were collecting data in some other way. Many who were banned have completely different setups and installed titles.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hah, i've been banned. gg (i can just easily make a new nnid when this mess is over)

It's not an NNID ban, though. Your console is banned based on your friend seed or serial number.

 

[Aletron9000]

Sorry if I'm repeating myself but do we have anything new in the last 24 hours or, still, just speculations?

some reports of new bans and a weird ? title in activity log for some people. No definite proof of the cause though.

 

[RustInPeace]

some reports of new bans and a weird ? title in activity log for some people. No definite proof of the cause though.

New bans? As in from today, yesterday, any time after Friday? It tends to be people dusting off their 3DS and finding out they were banned, could mean they got it Wednesday and didn't know until much later.

 

[BL4Z3D247]

Besides that nothing that we've been looking at for the past week has been conclusive? No, it looks like we're missing a very crucial variable that isn't being asked yet. Not sure what it is, but perhaps once we find it, we'll find the ACTUAL CAUSES INSTEAD OF STRAWMEN OVER AND OVER! (Sorry, very annoyed that this thread keeps going back to the same mostly debunked theories without any valid argument as to why they aren't ruled out now that we have some valid data to test those theories with)

Is there a list that shows valid and debunked theories? If not maybe we should get one going because it might bring a little order to the thread if people can see what's on and off the table right now. Just a suggestion. If one already exists, please disregard.

 

[ShadowEO]

Sorry if I'm repeating myself but do we have anything new in the last 24 hours or, still, just speculations?

We have actual data from approximately 250 users finally. But no correlations or patterns from that data. We're either missing a very crucial variable that isn't being asked, or a combination of variables that isn't being thought of.

 

[Aletron9000]

New bans? As in from today, yesterday, any time after Friday? It tends to be people dusting off their 3DS and finding out they were banned, could mean they got it Wednesday and didn't know until much later.

i thought earlier in the thread someone said they were banned and had proof they were not banned when they checked after friday. Maybe it was just a flag in Nintendo's system and they weren't banned till now

BTW: still not banned (yet)

 

[KytuzuEX]

New bans? As in from today, yesterday, any time after Friday? It tends to be people dusting off their 3DS and finding out they were banned, could mean they got it Wednesday and didn't know until much later.

Exactly.
Only people who wanted to open their 3DS after hearing the banwave news because they had no choice.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

some reports of new bans and a weird ? title in activity log for some people. No definite proof of the cause though.

Platinum Lucario's evidence of his 3DS, had the ?????????? title and everyone ignored it a lot pages back.
Now it's brought again. :/

 

[Ruryk]

some reports of new bans and a weird ? title in activity log for some people. No definite proof of the cause though.

Regarding this "?" in the log, maybe it was because people with EU / US systems played a japanese game? If these systems can't recognize the japanese characters, considering they were not meant to ever have such a game, it is a possibility.

 

[Corrin]

Echoes requires an online connection to use it's dlc, so if banned, you lose it. this will probably be the case for as many DLCs going forward as possible.

Alright, where is this coming from? My 3DS is currently offline and I can play Echoes' DLC just fine.

 

[Aletron9000]

Regarding this "?" in the log, maybe it was because people with EU / US systems played a japanese game? If these systems can't recognize the japanese characters, considering they were not meant to ever have such a game, it is a possibility.

no, it was more like a question mark as the icon and the name was "????????". I think I read a while back it might just be HBL.

 

[Omnifarious]

Besides that nothing that we've been looking at for the past week has been conclusive? No, it looks like we're missing a very crucial variable that isn't being asked yet. Not sure what it is, but perhaps once we find it, we'll find the ACTUAL CAUSES INSTEAD OF STRAWMEN OVER AND OVER!

(Sorry, very annoyed that this thread keeps going back to the same mostly debunked theories without any valid argument as to why they aren't ruled out now that we have some valid data to test those theories with, and no data to support ANY assertions. It's literally people coming in at least once a day, posting more speculation as fact, and then running with it, at least the majority of the legitimate speculation wasn't meant to be proposed as fact.)

The fact that Nintendo hasn't said anything either, means that no one can be for sure, we can have ideas, we can have speculations, but we CANNOT have facts, especially not with the data we have now. Not even with the data we've collected are any patterns forming, nor is there any data to support today's claims.

yeah, people were getting paranoid about ??????? showing up in their activity logs which turned out to be specific homebrew. the only thing of note that happened to me after getting banned is that i noticed certain dlc were missing after.

 

[F3NR1S]

As for dlc. you can download all dlc for a title using freeshop. even when banned. It will show in the game

Yes, but what about Monster Hunter DLC? I don't remember ever seeing dlc cia for it

 

[ShadowEO]

Is there a list that shows valid and debunked theories? If not maybe we should get one going because it might bring a little order to the thread if people can see what's on and off the table right now. Just a suggestion. If one already exists, please disregard.

Thank you for asking, here is what I have currently, I have updated it to reflect the current survey's data:

(Copy/Paste time)
* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

(End Copy/Paste)

Now, this data assumes there is only a single cause and not a combination. So we may not actually have the right variables. Also, not all responses gave answers to the questions, so these responses are compiled based upon the responses that I had received. If you were one of the users who did not answer such information, you were skipped in my review for that angle (meaning if you didn't provide an answer for SpotPass, I didn't look at you while looking at SpotPass settings).

As I don't have fully exact numbers, I understand if you wish to comb over the data yourself, feel free to look at this sanitized version of the survey responses (troll responses [FW: iOS 3.1.2] and identifying info removed): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R3QQQtab18zavz0enZpSj5WijAWZFTlwTLjbkMe6cW0/edit?usp=sharing

Edit: Obviously I have to reiterate myself multiple times in this thread, We cannot be entirely sure if individual CIA applications or games are or are not, the cause, we'd literally have to go through each game on a case-by-case basis to check that. Because of that, I am NOT trying to propose that CIAs are by any means safe. Just the ones that we all seem to have in common.

 

[Ruryk]

yeah, people were getting paranoid about ??????? showing up in their activity logs which turned out to be specific homebrew. the only thing of note that happened to me after getting banned is that i noticed certain dlc were missing after.

I find this DLC issue quite interesting.

 

[Omnifarious]

Regarding this "?" in the log, maybe it was because people with EU / US systems played a japanese game? If these systems can't recognize the japanese characters, considering they were not meant to ever have such a game, it is a possibility.

japanese games show up with the appropriate text ( at least in US systems )