2

I am considering upgrading my Nintendo Switch's storage by getting a MicroSD card with a larger capacity and then copying over the games, savegame data, etc to the new card.

Although Nintendo has a support article about this, when it comes to Mac here's all they have to say:

Important: This process may not be able to copy the microSD card contents correctly in environments other than Windows (such as Mac).

Okay, thanks for the notice. But then, how is a Mac user supposed to accomplish this?

I was wondering if this might be a task Disk Utility could handle. Or maybe there's some other utility app that can be downloaded for this purpose, or... if I'm lucky, maybe it is as simple as dragging over folder contents the way the steps indicate it is for Windows. (Probably should be sure to include any hidden files.) But the way the disclaimer is worded, it makes me concerned that there's something about trying this on a Mac that makes the process more involved.

Nintendo's "recommended" card formatting software, SD Memory Card Formatter, has a Mac version. So I'm not really clear on what part of this process is complicated on a Mac or why? All I can think of is: maybe macOS cannot read the formatted card after formatting?

If anyone who has tried this could enlighten me regarding what this process involves on a Mac, I would really appreciate it.

(I'm currently using Mojave and Monterey, on different machines.)

Mentalist
  • 1,102

1 Answers1

2

I see no issues at all with the file copying itself. The Mac is perfectly capable of such a simple operation to & from an SD card.

What might be an issue is if the Nintendo doesn't like the Mac's 'dot files' which it will add to the card. These contain a lot of Mac-specific information & are hidden in normal use. On other OSes, though, you can see them. Sometimes this makes no real difference other than cosmetic, but occasionally a device will be confused by them

This is quite a topic to go into deeply here, but there is already a popular QA on Ask Different covering all aspects of these files, from what precisely they are to how to deal with them. [Personally, I use Blue Harvest, which does it automatically - I use a lot of camera SD cards & this just keeps them 'tidy'. It might be a bit expensive for a one-off task.]

See Why are dot underscore ._ files created, and how can I avoid them?

Tetsujin
  • 115,663
  • Thanks, this is a helpful lead. Do you think it is likely that the method described in this answer would be sufficient? – Mentalist Sep 05 '22 at 07:07
  • No, I'm afraid not - it will only be partial. Spotlight isn't the only data it will add - see https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/208495/85275 for the full list of data types. tbh, I'd just try a regular copy as per the instructions & see if the Nintendo even sees them, or is upset by them. if it just ignores them then there's nothing further to do. – Tetsujin Sep 05 '22 at 07:10
  • … or see if Blue Harvest has a free trial ;)) – Tetsujin Sep 05 '22 at 07:51
  • I was looking at this answer, which has a screenshot of the settings in Blue Harvest. I don't see any way to apply the cleaning rules to just one disk volume. But also, only the "Simple" settings are shown. I suppose if I only enable "Keep Non Mac Disks Clean", this might be just what I need. But do you know if it's "opt-in"? I don't want to inadvertently mess up Macintosh HD. Looking at the FAQ, I see it can cause data loss. – Mentalist Sep 05 '22 at 08:31
  • 1
    It's changed since then, see http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest/ It's safe at default settings. It won't clean regular Mac disks. – Tetsujin Sep 05 '22 at 09:14