Nintendo Switch - Game Saves Syncing

p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 15:56

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with syncing save games for the Nintendo Switch.

I'm thinking of buying a Switch Lite for on-the-go play so that I can leave my OG Switch at home in the dock permanently. Having played with the Lite, I appreciate the smaller size and tougher build quality.

What I want to know is how the syncing of saved games will work. I've read some info here - https://au.ign.com/wikis/nintendo-switch/How_Nintendo_Switch… - but it's not clear whether the saves are automatic, or whether I will have to manually sync them, or if they will only be updated when I launch the game?

So basically, let's say I play Zelda BOTW at home and I save. Will that automatically push to my Switch Lite, or will I have to put Zelda into the Switch Lite and load it up for it to go find the save file?

Gaming Game Console Nintendo

Comments

  • lint on 23/10/2019 - 16:18

    From my limited experience, it backs up automatically if you're online when saving. I don't know whether it creates a backlog of saves to upload when offline.

    The caveat here is there's no syncing of cloud saves and you have to manually download the save from the cloud on the other system. At least that's what I've had to do the few times I've played a game between systems. Somebody can correct me if that's wrong.

    • p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 16:28

      Sigh, this is such a pain, I thought that one of the benefits to using flash media was that the save games could be kept on the cartridge itself (i.e. what Gameboy and DS games used to do). Pity that it's not the case with the Switch.

      • Diji1 on 23/10/2019 - 16:29
        -1

        Nope.

        Unfortunately only hackers get local save backups. And I don't think the Lite has been exploited anyway?

        It's not that they can't do it it's that they want to charge you for it.

        • p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 16:35

          It's not that they can't do it it's that they want to charge you for it.

          They don't even offer it - the Nintendo Online cloud backup is honestly a fiasco. It's not what I want because it's not seamless.

          I hope that the Switch Lite makes Nintendo reconsider the way it's approaching some of these issues with the Switch. I think that the Switch is a great portable console, but it's designed like a home console.

  • trustnoone on 23/10/2019 - 16:20

    I'm not sure if this is still the case since I last used it. But with my friends, you needed to have the Nintendo Online thing for cloud saves. This worked for almost all games I had except Pokemon, I'm guessing theres a few games out there that they don't do it on so that you don't keep multiple saves to take advantage of the game in some way.

    • p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 16:28

      Yeah, Pokemon Let's Go doesn't allow it, and also Splatoon 2. i'm not sure why that's the case. I have Nintendo Online, so I don't mind that part.

  • MoltenTesseract on 23/10/2019 - 16:22

    Actually read about this a few hours ago.

    It's a bit of a mess.

    Nintendo Switch Online is required.

    When a game is saved, the save file goes to pending state. Then it uploads in the background (mostly when sleeping).

    As for the downloads, I can't find a direct answer. It seems as though you need to do manually download the save state.

    Not all games support it, mostly Pokemon and Splatoon.

    • p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 16:29

      As for the downloads, I can't find a direct answer. It seems as though you need to do manually download the save state.

      The most painful thing - I'm just hoping they fix this up given that I'm not the only person I know who's looking to buy the Switch Lite as a second system.

      • lint on 24/10/2019 - 10:02

        Yep. I expected it to just work, but it didn't and it annoyed me quite a bit.

        Unrelated to saves, but with Tetris 99, I have the DLC but I don't know how to load the DLC onto my account on the second system. If I play the game on a second system while I let kids play on my main one, I only get the barebones experience.

  • the frost on 23/10/2019 - 16:26

    I'd like to suggest this article from Kotaku:
    Using One Nintendo Account On 2 Switches Is Tricky, So Here's The Best Way To Do It

    • p1 ama on 23/10/2019 - 16:31

      Yeah, I had a look at that (and several other articles as well), but it seems as if they're all geared towards digital games. I only have physical titles, so I doubt it'd be a real issue. I'm just more concerned about save games.

  • meeowth on 23/10/2019 - 17:03
    +1

    It's possible to move saves between systems that are physically near each other without the use of the online membership.
    https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/…

    • lint on 24/10/2019 - 10:05

      Good to know that's possible for games like Pokémon Let's Go and Splatoon 2, but why the heck doesn't the Switch download the latest save from the cloud when it's in sleep mode…

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