Here’s Why You Should Transfer Your Switch Data To Switch 2 Before Doing Anything Else

Did you just get your hands on a Switch 2? We need to give you some fair warning.

As reported by GoNintendo, you don’t want to skip transferring your Switch data to the Switch 2. Of course, it would be perfectly understandable if you’re eager to get to playing on your new console and that would create the urge to skip now and do it later.

But if you decide to delay your system transfer, you will have to factory reset your Switch 2 later. If you think about it, this logically makes sense. You can visualize that data as an entire Switch console, virtually being transferred to a new device. If you think about it this way, it isn’t possible to retain any new data you made with the Switch 2 if you’re moving a virtual new console to it.

With all that said, you do have other options, which were also supported by Nintendo’s new systems, especially including Virtual Game Cards. You can manually move your games and game saves from your Switch to the Switch 2. This could be considerably more work, but if you’re only playing a few games on the Switch 2 at one time, then it should be fine.

The Virtual Game Card system should make it easy to manage what games are loaded on which systems and can be played at one time. You will want to remember that save data is managed separately, though. For most games, you can choose to access and upload the cloud data before you play the game, by pressing the + button and choosing Save Data Cloud.

Some games don’t have cloud saves, but you can transfer save data by bringing your consoles together and processing the transfer through System Settings. Some specific games, like Animal Crossing New Horizons and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have their own dedicated apps you’ll need to use to transfer data. Moving only Virtual Game Cards and game saves may be the better option for you if you don’t want to quite dispose of your old Switch quite yet. For example, if you have a Switch Lite, that can remain a great alternative daily driver to the Switch 2 for select games.

Of course, there will still be a lot of gamers who will want to go cold turkey on the Switch in favor of their new console. If you did sell your Switch console earlier, you will definitely want to make sure your cloud backup will transfer over to your new Switch 2 without any issues. In any case, it’s pretty easy to keep this molehill from becoming a mountain, if you’re decisive out of the gate.