About me
Welcome everyone to my first post on this blog! I would like to give a brief introduction of myself before I dive into the actual tutorial for today.
My (nick)name is Nevercholt and some of you may recognize me as a known name in the Nintendo Switch hacking scene over at YouTube. There I create video tutorials for the Switch, ranging from “How to hack the Switch on Firmware x.x” to “How to get an N64 emulator on the Switch” and much more. At the time of writing this post, I have around 12.500 subscribers so feel free to join the community over at https://www.youtube.com/nevercholttech
What is ChoiDujourNX?
Now it’s time to take a look at today’s topic, a Homebrew Application called ChoiDujourNX. ChoiDujourNX will allow you to update a banned Switch console or a Switch that’s not connected to the internet to the latest firmware available.
Benefits of using ChoiDujourNX
- Update firmware for banned consoles
- Update firmware for Switch consoles in airplane mode
- Add exFAT support to the Switch console without updating
- The ability to downgrade if needed
Before showing you how you can actually update your console completely offline, it is important to understand why it’s necessary for you to update your firmware and why you shouldn’t do it through the official Nintendo servers.
ChoiDujourNX allows banned consoles to update
First of all, when a console gets banned Nintendo puts your console specific ID on their blacklist and blocks any communication from your console with their servers. Not only are you no longer able to access the Nintendo eShop to update or buy games, you will also no longer be able to play online, or update to a newer firmware.
Some newly released games will require a certain firmware as a minimum and banned console users won’t be able to play these games on older firmware. Their only option is to use ChoiDujourNX to update the console to be able to play the newer games.
ChoiDujourNX allows unbanned consoles to update offline
If your console is not banned and you want to stay offline to avoid getting banned you will not able to download the latest firmware without an active internet connection. Luckily, you can use ChoiDujourNX to update offline and stay up to date and run the newest games.
ChoiDujourNX allows for downgrading of firmware (prevent using e-fuses)
Another benefit of ChoiDujourNX is that sometimes, as was the case with firmware 6.2, an update may introduce some problems that prevent users from hacking their consoles. For example, firmware 6.2 introduced some new TSEC encryption mechanism, making it impossible for existing custom firmwares to work on this release. Since this firmware also burnt a so called “e-fuse”, users were unable to roll back to an earlier firmware release by restoring a NAND backup. ChoiDujourNX enables AutoRCM by default, which is used to prevent burning the e-fuses so users can always downgrade later on in case the newer firmware doesn’t work the way they want.
Requirements
That’s enough of an introduction though and you can forget about e-fuses and AutoRCM for now, since we will see these concepts later on as well. For now it may be time to actually start with the tutorial itself 🙂 Before we actually start acquiring the necessary files, make sure that the custom firmware you’re currently using is compatible with the firmware version you want to install!
- Hackable Switch Unit
- MicroSD Card
- USB Type-C Cable
- RCM Jig or Paperclip
As for most guides currently available, you need to have an unpatched, hackable Switch unit to be able to run the Homebrew Menu and Homebrew Applications. You can check whether or not you have a hackable Switch unit by checking the serial number here.
Once you ensured your Switch is hackable, you also need to have a microSD card as well as a USB Type-C cable in hand in order to get the necessary files on your Switch. Finally, you should have some kind of RCM jig to put your Switch in the Recovery Mode. You can either bend a paperclip yourself or buy a cheap RCM jig from Amazon or AliExpress.
- How to get Homebrew on your Switch (SX OS) —
- Atmosphere tutorial coming soon
- ReiNX tutorial coming soon
Files & Installation
For this guide, we assume that you already know how to get a custom firmware (CFW) on your Nintendo Switch. Atmosphere, ReiNX and SX OS will all work for this tutorial. Once you have CFW up and running, power off your Switch and insert the SD card into your PC. Once connected, download the ChoiDujourNX Homebrew App here (official site).
1. Extract the contents of the .zip file. You will see a file called “ChoiDujourNX.nro”. Copy this file to the SD:/switch folder, where all other Homebrew Applications should be located as well.
2. Next, we will need to download the actual firmware you want to upgrade to. All firmware for the Nintendo Switch can be found here.
3. After downloading the firmware, create a folder on the root of your SD card and call it something like “FirmwareUpdate6.1” or whatever firmware you’re using. Extract the downloaded .zip file to this folder and then the firmware folder should look something like this
4. Once the firmware is on the SD card we’re ready to go ahead and start with the installation procedure. Start your Nintendo Switch by injecting the payload of your choice. For example, Hekate.bin, ReiNX.bin, fusee-primary.bin or payload.bin in the case of SX OS. Alternatively, you can load SX OS via the SX OS dongle. Then, head over to the Homebrew Menu by clicking on the “Album” icon from the Switch home menu. You will see a new application called ChoiDujourNX added to the menu.
5. Press A to start the application. You’ll see a screen resembling a file explorer, where all content stored on your SD card is visible.
6. Go ahead and open up the folder where you extracted the firmware files to and you’ll see all the .NCA firmware files inside this folder. In the bottom right, you’ll see a checkmark called “Choose”. Tap “Choose” to move on to the next step.
7. Here, the program will first of all scan all the .NCA files to make sure all necessary files are there. Then you will be given the option to either select firmware x.x or firmware x.x (exFAT). I recommend you to choose the exFat option, since this will allow you to use exFAT formatted SD cards (in addition to FAT32 cards) to be used on the Switch, giving you more freedom to choose what format suits you best.
8. After selecting the firmware x.x (exFAT) option, ChoiDujourNX will once again verify the NCA files before bringing you to the next page. On this next page, you’ll see a short summary of the firmware you have currently installed as well as the firmware that will be installed. In my case, I’m upgrading from firmware 6.1.0 (exFAT) to firmware 6.2.0 (exFAT).
Before installing the firmware, I briefly inform you about two options you can select before starting the firmware installation.
Prevent fuse burning (Enable AutoRCM)
Advantages of enabling AutoRCM:
- Being able to downgrade
- RCM Jig or Paperclip not needed
Disadvantages of enabling AutoRCM:
- Unable to start the Switch without injecting a payload
- Nintendo can detect AutoRCM and ban the console
- Some users report standby battery drain
Below the firmware versions, you will find two other options. The first one is called “Prevent fuse burning (enable AutoRCM)”. This option “bricks” the boot0/boot1 files of your Switch so it will always boot into recovery mode instead of booting normally. Therefore, you will always be required to inject a payload to fully boot the Switch.
The advantage of AutoRCM is that you no longer have to use a paperclip or RCM jig to boot into recovery mode. Additionally, by enabling AutoRCM you won’t burn any of the aforementioned e-fuses.
By not burning these fuses, you will be able to restore a NAND backup of a lower firmware version in case something goes wrong. Also, as is the case with firmware 6.2, it took a few weeks for developers to crack this firmware version. By enabling AutoRCM there is always a way to roll back to a hackable firmware version. The “Prevent fuse burning” option is enabled by default and I would strongly recommend you to leave AutoRCM enabled. In case you don’t longer wish to have AutoRCM, you can simply disable it using either Hekate (Tools>AutoRCM) or using ChoiDujourNX itself.
Choose to do a factory reset
The second option lets you choose also perform a factory reset to start “fresh” on the new firmware version. Since I’d like to keep my game save data, I do not wish to perform a factory reset.
Continuing the update process…
9. Now that options have been selected simply hit “start installation” and sit back and wait while it finishes. ChoiDujourNX will now upgrade the firmware of your Nintendo Switch within 5-10 seconds. It then gives you a popup asking you whether you want to shutdown or reboot your system. Simply hit reboot and, if you enabled AutoRCM, your Switch will boot into recovery mode.
Now is a good time to ensure the custom firmware files on your SD card are up to date and support the newly installed firmware. Then, you can inject the payload of your preferred CFW to boot into your updated firmware! Enjoy!
Questions?
Thanks for taking the time to read my first article. Please let me know where I need to improve and also let me know if you still have any questions regarding the upgrading process using ChoiDujourNX 🙂