3DS:Rebuild Title Database

This article will guide you in rebuilding the title.db file in your SD card.

title.db is a file on both the 3DS' SD card and its CTRNAND which contains a list of all installed 3DS titles for its respective place (e.g. The SD card's title.db only has entries for titles installed to the SD card). For more information, check out 3dbrew.

What you need

• The latest release of save3ds for your operating system
• A version of Python 3
• A 3DS console with custom firmware
• seeddb.bin

Section I - Preparing the files

1. Launch GodMode9 by holding START on boot
2. Navigate into [M:] MEMORY VIRTUAL
3. Press A on boot9.bin then select Copy to 0:/gm9/out
4. Press A to continue
5. Press B once to return to the main menu
6. Navigate into [1:] SYSNAND CTRNAND -> private
7. Press A on movable.sed, then select Copy to 0:/gm9/out
8. Turn the 3DS off
9. Insert the SD card into your computer
10. Go to the GitHub repo for Rebuild Title Database
11. Click the Code button, then click Download ZIP
12. Extract the contents of the downloaded .zip into a folder
    • This folder will be referred to as the "rebuild folder" from now on
13. Go to gm9 -> out on your SD card
14. Copy movable.sed and boot9.bin into the rebuild folder
15. Create a folder called 3ds in your user directory
    • On Windows, the user directory is C:/Users/[your username]/
    • On macOS, the user directory is /Users/[your username]
    • On Linux, the user directory is /home/[your username] (often shortened to ~)
16. Copy seeddb.bin into the new 3ds folder
17. Copy save3ds_fuse.exe from the save3ds .zip file into the rebuild folder

Section II - Rebuilding the Database

If you are not on Windows, replace py -3 with python3 in all commands.

1. Navigate to the rebuild folder in file explorer
2. Hold SHIFT and right-click anywhere in the folder's empty space, then click the option that opens a terminal, PowerShell, or Command Prompt
3. In this new window, enter the following commands one at a time:
   1. py -3 -mpip install --user -r requirements.txt
   2. py -3 fix-titledb.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed -s X:
   3. py -3 rebuild-title-database.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed -s X: -o out
      • replace X: with your SD card's drive letter
   4. save3ds_fuse --db sdtitle out --import --boot9 boot9.bin --movable movable.sed --sd X:
      • replace X: with your SD card's drive letter
4. If you didn't get any errors, your apps should reappear on the HOME Menu immediately
   • If they only appear in System Settings -> Data Management and they have an X through their icons there, run faketik.
   • If they do not appear anywhere in the system, you should check your SD card for errors - the apps are likely gone.

Troubleshooting

• boot9.bin is missing in [M:] MEMORY VIRTUAL
  • You are not using boot9strap. You should switch to boot9strap or consult the documentation of the bootloader you use, such as fastboot3DS.
• The first command in Section II gave the error ERROR: Could not open requirements file: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'requirements.txt'
  • Make sure you are in the rebuild folder and that you extracted the contents of rebuild-title-database-master.zip into it.
    • Once this is fixed, delete the out folder and try the command again.
• The second or third command in Section II failed
  • Make sure you have boot9.bin and movable.sed in the rebuild folder.
  • Make sure the SD card is inserted and you can view and edit its contents.