Nintendo Support
How to Transfer an Island to a New Nintendo Switch System (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)
In this article, you’ll learn how to transfer an entire island and all residents in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to a new Nintendo Switch system.
Important
Access to both the source Nintendo Switch system and the target Nintendo Switch system is required to transfer a resident. Local wireless communication must be enabled on both systems.
The Save Data Transfer Tool (free software) must be downloaded from Nintendo eShop on both systems.
The island will no longer be available to visit on the source Nintendo Switch system after transferring. If you would rather only transfer individual residents (not including the island resident representative) to a separate island on the target system, see our steps on How to Transfer an Individual Resident to a New Island.
Complete these steps
Will the target (new) system be completely replacing the source (original) system in your household?
Yes, only the target system will be used
Follow these steps if you will no longer be using the source system. These steps ensure that all your users and user data will be transferred to the target system.
Make sure that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is updated to the latest software version on your source system.
Download the Save Data Transfer Tool for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on your source system, if you haven’t already.
Transfer the user data for your user account to the target Nintendo Switch system. This will transfer all user information and save data except for Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data to the target system.
Repeat this step for each user account. If you are transferring all user accounts, a default account named “User” will remain on the source system.
On the target system, update Animal Crossing: New Horizons to the latest software version.
On the target system, download the Save Data Transfer Tool for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Open the Save Data Transfer Tool on each system.
Follow the on-screen instructions and select Continue, then Let’s Begin.
On the source system, select Source.
Select Yes to confirm when the name of your island on the source system is displayed.
If Animal Crossing: New Horizons has not been updated to the latest software version, your console nickname will be displayed instead of your island name.
On the target system, select Target
On the source system, select Continue. On the target system, select Proceed.
When the target system is detected, select Transfer data on the source system.
When the source system is detected, select Proceed on the target system. The transfer will begin.
When the transfer is complete, a message will appear on both systems. The save data is now deleted on the source system and present on the target system.
Launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system to continue playing on your island.
No, my household will use both systems
Follow these steps if you will continue to use the source system. Note that your island will be completely transferred to the target system, so you will no longer be able to play on the island on your source system.
Make sure that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is updated to the latest software version on both systems.
Download the Save Data Transfer Tool for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on both systems, if you haven’t already.
Open the Save Data Transfer Tool on each system.
Follow the on-screen instructions and select Continue, then Let’s Begin.
On the source system, select Source.
Select Yes to confirm when the name of your island on the source system is displayed.
If Animal Crossing: New Horizons has not been updated to the latest software version, your console nickname will be displayed instead of your island name.
On the target system, select Target.
On the source system, select Continue. On the target system, select Proceed.
When the target system is detected, select Transfer data on the source system.
When the source system is detected, select Proceed on the target system. The transfer will begin.
When the transfer is complete, a message will appear on both systems. The save data is now deleted on the source system and present on the target system.
Launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system using the user account you will be using for your resident.
When prompted, select the resident name for the user account. You cannot change the resident associated with your user account later, so be sure it is the correct one.
Repeat this step for any other user accounts and residents that will be playing the game.
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