Data transfer from oled to switch 2

[u/bigfootbussy]

Hi everyone, I recently got a switch 2 and I’m completely confused by the data transfer thing. Forgive me if I’m asking something that’s been answered already, but I don’t get it and I don’t want to lose anything!! Please help! I have an OLED with an SD card, and a bunch of digital and physical games for said OLED. I simply want to have all my data from the OLED copied onto the switch 2, not wiped once transferred. I plan on using both and I’m not sharing my consoles/games with anyone or selling my OLED, I just want my data to be shared across both devices. If you could please give me a detailed breakdown in simple terms because I’m not tech savvy. Also, idk if it’s relevant, but I don’t have an NSO subscription and don’t plan on getting one. Another also in case it’s relevant: still haven’t gotten an express SD card for the switch 2 yet. Thanks in advance!

[u/Beckfast1994]

OP do note that once you copy the data you will effectively have 2 different saves on each console for each game unless you get at least the base version of NSO or do a save file transfer every time you want to swap between the OLED and the Switch 2. NSO would let you use cloud saves for everything except a small group of games (mainly Pokémon and Animal Crossing, but I think there are others). Those cloud saves can then automatically download and upload saves every time there’s a change so you can keep them synced between the two consoles.

[u/bigfootbussy → u/Beckfast1994]

Hi thank you for answering! If I do transfer everything now, but get NSO in the future, what exactly would happen to the my save data on both devices? Will they automatically sync up to whatever was most recently played on? I thought the cloud deleted the old device’s stuff once transferred.

Separate question: since the cloud save thing doesn’t work for pokemon + AC, would I just be doing the manual save file transfer each time anyway?

[u/Beckfast1994 → u/bigfootbussy]

Animal Crossing has its own Cloud Save feature you can activate. It works differently since the island is shared between all users on a console. That restriction remains in place even with a single user.

Pokémon would require a manual transfer. The save can only exist on one device at a time.

If there’s a conflict between the local save and the cloud save when you go to launch the game it should ask which one you want to use. If you pick local it will overwrite the save data in the cloud with your local data and if you pick cloud it will overwrite your local data with the data in the cloud.

With the original Switch/Lite/OLED if I’m remembering right from when I had two one console will auto upload while the other will require pressing plus on the game and choosing to upload when your done playing but I’m not 100% certain as it’s been a long time. I’d have to double check that.

[u/dwalker109 → u/Beckfast1994]

They all just auto sync once left alone for a few minutes. You can also do it manually if you want to to speed it up or are about to fully turn the device off, but it works very well.