How to transfer your island to a new Switch in Animal Crossing
After months of fishing, shaking trees and putting up with Tom Nook’s endless demands for payment, the wait is finally over.Animal Crossing: New Horizonshas finally made island transfers a thing – meaning that you can move all your save data over to another Nintendo Switch console.
This is particularly big news if you’re aSwitch Liteplayer who wants to play the game on the main console for some reason – perhaps if you want to stream the game on Twitch.
This feature is bundled in with anotherseasonal updatefor the game – this time for Winter, which also grants players access to two new in-game events (Turkey Day and Toy Day), new hairstyles, reactions, gameplay and storage extension.
You can see the official trailer below:
If you want to transfer your island – or one of your characters – over to another Nintendo Switch console, then we have everything you need to know. You can also check out why Animal Crossing: New Horizons (and other games) can bebeneficial to your mental health.
How to do an entire island transfer on Animal Crossing: New Horizons
If you want to transfer all your save data – including your whole island, villagers, custom designs and house – then this is the option to select.Note that once you transfer your island to your new console, you won’t be able to play on your old one.
Here’s how to transfer your entire island:
You can read further instructions onNintendo’s website, which is useful if you have multiple Animal Crossing players in your household.
How to do a resident move (single player transfer) on Animal Crossing New Horizons
If you want to just move a single player (an island representative, not a villager) to another island, along with their home and items, then this is the best option.Note that island representatives cannot move, only additional players.
If they move to a game with no existing save data, the player will move to a brand-new island and their house will take a few days to move over. If, however, the device has existing save data, the island representative will move onto the island as an additional player and their house will transfer over immediately.
Here’s how to transfer single players on Animal Crossing:
You can find additional details onNintendo’s help pages.
How to back up your island online and restore your game data
In the event of losing or damaging your Nintendo Switch, you can back-up your island online to move it across to another console. This feature has been available for several months already but isn’t the same as a standard island transfer as its strictly for those who have a faulty or missing console.
To back-up your island, head into Settings on the Animal Crossing New Horizons home screen, and then select ‘Island back-up’. You’ll need access to the internet for the island to be backed up and have the most recent update of the game (1.4.0 or later) installed.
If you do need to restore your island this way, here’s the steps you need to take:
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
