So the other day I came home from work to find the worst had happened. My dog found my 3ds. She got the part with the sd card reader pretty bad, but it still powers on. The sd card was all but destroyed, and somehow I was miraculously able to recover the data and it's now sitting safe on my PC. There is no option of plugging the SD card back into the 3ds. I know I'm going to replace my 3ds with an XL (had been planning to anyway), but I need to make sure that I can transfer all my licenses from the only 3ds to the new one. On the old 3ds when I go to the eshop "downloads" section, all of my games are still there. I'm assuming that if I do the system transfer, all of those licenses will transfer over to the XL and all I'll lose is my save data, correct? I want to verify before I purchase a new 3ds. Thanks!

yaeh it should work, as long at the OG 3ds has enough battery power or can charge, and can also connect to internet it should be fine
everything in the original 3ds should be transferred into the XL, then just put the sd card from the original in the xl

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woomy

So I just watched a video of the transfer process, and it looks like the OG 3ds HAS to have an SD card in it for the transfer, to transfer the licenses and things

You will be okay without the SD card, the licenses transfer with the eShop account.

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Fantastic, na magic!

The SD card is only needed if you have any DSiWare games you want to transfer over from your old 3DS to your new 3DS.

DSiWare games are stored on the internal memory of a 3DS but during a system transfer they get moved onto the SD card.
Then once the system transfer is finished you have to move your SD card from your old 3DS to your new 3DS.
Then during the final setup process on your new 3DS any DSiWare titles found on the SD card will get moved to the internal memory of your new 3DS.

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3DS Friend Code: 1848-2545-8027 Wii U: Sadangelman

They can still be re-downloaded after the transfer even without the SD card. Every purchase is permanently tied to the eShop.

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Fantastic, na magic!