PSA: Unlinking an NNID from your 3DS

R

rpmurphy

Member
In case people haven't taken a look at this yet, the update added NNID management (and new BGM for this) in the 3DS system settings.

There are only two options at the moment to unlink an NNID from your 3DS:

1. Do a system transfer to another 3DS. An NNID can only be linked to one 3DS at any given time.
2. Reformat the system, as explained: https://twitter.com/VOOK64/statuses/410284333442686976

Note: deleting an NNID is NOT the same thing as unlinking. It will delete it off of Nintendo's servers, which means you will lose your eShop balance and purchase history forever.

Anyway, this raises some questions about what happens when you cannot perform either option, as would be the case if you lose or break your 3DS.
 
You would obviously call Nintendo support. This is the primary guidance for many of these inquiries related to new Nintendo shit. They likely have a solution, even if it's suboptimal. And by calling, you make the issue known so that they can work on delivering a more consumer friendly solution whenever their elephant-tier desire is sparked.

As it is, my money is on a sizable amount of people deleting their NNID for all sorts of issues/reasons without realizing the consequences.
 
w1gglyjones said:
As it is, my money is on a sizable amount of people deleting their NNID for all sorts of issues/reasons without realizing the consequences.
Click to expand...

Atleast Wii U warns you of the consequences if you try to delete your ID. They probably assume their customers are able to read.
 
w1gglyjones said:
You would obviously call Nintendo support. This is the primary guidance for many of these inquiries related to new Nintendo shit. They likely have a solution, even if it's suboptimal. And by calling, you make the issue known so that they can work on delivering a more consumer friendly solution whenever their elephant-tier desire is sparked.

As it is, my money is on a sizable amount of people deleting their NNID for all sorts of issues/reasons without realizing the consequences.
Click to expand...
There shouldn't be any consequences, but Nintendo!
 
It is very bizarre (not to mention stupid) that the option to permanently delete your account and all associated purchases, an option that should not be available by normal means, is so easily accessible. Yet un-linking your account with a device, which should be available by normal means, is downright impossible unless you call Nintendo's support.

Well, at least we can thank people like the OP for warning us against Nintendo's incompetence.
 
El Sabroso said:
Thanks for the warning, not linking my account by any means then, I hope I can still enter eShop wothout my NNID
Click to expand...

You will be unable to obtain demos and free stuff if you don't link. There is no significant drawback (at least for users in the US) to linking either. You're still screwed if you break or lose your 3DS. Just be careful to not hit the delete option ever.
 
El Sabroso said:
Thanks for the warning, not linking my account by any means then, I hope I can still enter eShop wothout my NNID
Click to expand...

Of course you can - but you will need a NNID to download free content like demos.
 
Raytow said:
There shouldn't be any consequences, but Nintendo!
Click to expand...

A "consequence" is a result of an action, good or bad.

Assuming denotation over connotation, your statement reads, in context, "Deleting my NNID SHOULD do absolutely nothing, but Nintendo insists on making that action have a result!"

I know what you mean (though I don't nessecarily agree), but I just thought that was funny if you viewed it like that.
 
Sophia said:
You will be unable to obtain demos and free stuff if you don't link. There is no significant drawback to linking either. You're still screwed if you break or lose your 3DS. Just be careful to not hit the delete option ever.
Click to expand...

Well will have to link the canadian NNID then, full games (no eShop only games nor VC) are overpriced in Mexico so sadly no more region switch as expected
 
Sounds kinda scary having the ability to delete your entire account+purchase history at the click of a button. Is it hidden away/explained well?
 
Sophia said:
You will be unable to obtain demos and free stuff if you don't link. There is no significant drawback to linking either.
Click to expand...
...unless you're in Europe and your NNID is set to another country. The 3DS eShop has a bunch of monolingual games, so enjoy playing all of your games in French/German/Spanish/Italian forever.
 
Kanhir said:
...unless you're in Europe and your NNID is set to another country. The 3DS eShop has a bunch of monolingual games, so enjoy playing all of your games in French/German/Spanish/Italian forever.
Click to expand...

Good point. I'll edit my post to say there are no significant drawbacks if you're in the US. I'm still surprised people in Europe even tolerate Nintendo anymore, but that's another subject for another topic. :P
 
Why would you even make it an option for a customer to completely remove their account. Is Nintendo really that hard up for database space? That's just fucking stupid. Let them remove it from their console/device like every other company in the world, but maintain the history for them if their ever choose to return.
 
Nintendo...
2Cg6It0.jpg
 
So if I want to resell my 3DS, I should format it, and that will delink my NNID (and associated purchases, stuff like ambassador games) without deleting my account? Can I ever relink it?
 
I think i will wait a while before updating my 3DS, i also want to know what impact this has on my current friends on y 3DS when linking my WiiU NNID.
 
Sakura said:
So if I want to resell my 3DS, I should format it, and that will delink my NNID (and associated purchases, stuff like ambassador games) without deleting my account? Can I ever relink it?
Click to expand...

I've been thinking abput this too. If you format the 3DS (without deleting the NNID), can you log in with the existing account on new 3DS?
 
M3d10n said:
I've been thinking abput this too. If you format the 3DS (without deleting the NNID), can you log in with the existing account on new 3DS?
Click to expand...

Should be possible. Just connect the new 3DS to your existing ID. Done.

So we have three scenarios:

You have a new 3DS (XL, custom design, whatever): Do a system transfer. Your ID will be transfered as well and your old 3DS will remain empty. Now you can sell it.

You want to sell the 3DS but keep your NNID: Format the device. ID still intact (online), but obviously the device doesn´t know about it anymore.

You lost your 3DS: Call Support. They will provide you with the options 1 or 2 if you can support some kind of proof.
 
This is confusing but how do i usee the NNID that's on my wiiu on the 3ds?i assume currently there was no NNID on 3ds prior to this update?
 
Interceptor said:
Should be possible. Just connect the new 3DS to your existing ID. Done.

So we have three scenarios:

You have a new 3DS (XL, custom design, whatever): Do a system transfer. Your ID will be transfered as well and your old 3DS will remain empty. Now you can sell it.

You want to sell the 3DS but keep your NNID: Format the device. ID still intact (online), but obviously the device doesn´t know about it anymore.

You lost your 3DS: Call Support. They will provide you with the options 1 or 2 if you can support some kind of proof.
Click to expand...

We need some tests to see if it's indeed possible. It would be finally possible to sell an old 3DS before buying the new one if it works, but there are some unknown variables: for example, what happens if you log with the existing ID into a 3DS that has non-NNID games already downloaded on it (like most bundles)? Would these games be added to the NNID? We need to find out how this works exactly.
 
M3d10n said:
We need some tests to see if it's indeed possible. It would be finally possible to sell an old 3DS before buying the new one if it works, but there are some unknown variables: for example, what happens if you log with the existing ID into a 3DS that has non-NNID games already downloaded on it (like most bundles)? Would these games be added to the NNID? We need to find out how this works exactly.
Click to expand...

A system transfer would transfer all the licenses as well as the NNID. If you format your device first it and connect your ID to a new device later, you should be able to re-download all your stuff with the associated NNID. No idea about the stuff you bought prior. I would assume Nintendo would connect your previous purchases once you create a NNID on the system but i am not sure - because the eshop is down...
 
Interceptor said:
A system transfer would transfer all the licenses as well as the NNID. If you format your device first it and connect your ID to a new device later, you should be able to re-download all your stuff with the associated NNID. No idea about the stuff you bought prior. I would assume Nintendo would connect your previous purchases once you create a NNID on the system but i am not sure - because the eshop is down...
Click to expand...

We still need to confirm a NNID can be linked to a second 3Ds after formatting the old one (without performing a system transfer). I never formatted a 3DS, but it would need to be online during the process is order to unlink the NNID and we still done't know if that happens after the update.

Anyway, as you said it's impossible to test while the eShop is down. This test would also require someone to erase all their digital saves, friends list and activity log data, so it's not something just about anyone can try.
 
did VOOK do a delete?

I hope they warn people well in advance I don't want to mess up my main Wii U ID maybe I'll use one of my ALTs from my Wii U on My 3DS
 
UNCMark said:
Why would you even make it an option for a customer to completely remove their account. Is Nintendo really that hard up for database space? That's just fucking stupid. Let them remove it from their console/device like every other company in the world, but maintain the history for them if their ever choose to return.
Click to expand...
I don't know if there is a regulation, but at least at my company (online job board), if a user of our site requests to be removed from our system, we scrub that user off of our databases as if he/she never existed (tape archives aside). I forget if that can be done only through customer service, however. Had Nintendo created a web portal to manage that, it would have been better to put it there than in the console settings.
 
M3d10n said:
We still need to confirm a NNID can be linked to a second 3Ds after formatting the old one (without performing a system transfer). I never formatted a 3DS, but it would need to be online during the process is order to unlink the NNID and we still done't know if that happens after the update.

Anyway, as you said it's impossible to test while the eShop is down. This test would also require someone to erase all their digital saves, friends list and activity log data, so it's not something just about anyone can try.
Click to expand...

Hey I'm in this boat. So I linked my NNID I made with Wii U on a 3DS XL couple days ago. I needed to return it and rebought another 3DS XL (exchanged for a Zelda one). Anyway I just did the format system memory thing in settings pg 4 where I thought it would have unlinked my NNID. I actually googled it first and saw this thread and thought it would be enough. We'll today just now I was able to link club ID but wanted to do a demo on my new zelda 3ds. Well I tried linking my NNID again and it now says that it is linked to another 3DS (old one). Which sucks. So I will have to call nintendo tomorrow morning to see of they can remotely remove the NNID associated with the old 3DS

Sorry ipad typos
 
Wait, is this implying that the NNID can't be linked to multiple 3DSes? Guess that's why there's no more transfer limit... I wonder why no NNID keeps you out of free content but not the paid stuff. So strange.
 
emb said:
Wait, is this implying that the NNID can't be linked to multiple 3DSes? Guess that's why there's no more transfer limit... I wonder why no NNID keeps you out of free content but not the paid stuff. So strange.
Click to expand...

One NNID to one 3DS and one WiiU. The thing is, getting an NNID for the 3DS and linking purchases doesn't seem to confirm that you can transfer content just by linking NNID to a new 3DS after you unlink it from an old one. Don't you still have to call Nintendo if you want to do so for a WiiU? Like say if you get a new WiiU or when your WiiU breaks down and you want your purchsed content on your new one? The linking of purchases is there but doesn't seem easy for users to move around freely short of doing a system to system transfer still.
 
entrydenied said:
One NNID to one 3DS and one WiiU. The thing is, getting an NNID for the 3DS and linking purchases doesn't seem to confirm that you can transfer content just by linking NNID to a new 3DS after you unlink it from an old one. Don't you still have to call Nintendo if you want to do so for a WiiU? Like say if you get a new WiiU or when your WiiU breaks down and you want your purchsed content on your new one? The linking of purchases is there but doesn't seem easy for users to move around freely short of doing a system to system transfer still.
Click to expand...

ATM yes to transfer your NNID from WiiU to WiiU you have to call Nintendo, but they have stated that they're working on implementing a system transfer app like on the 3DS.
 
If I sell my 3DS and just format the system, NOT wipe the Nintendo ID can I still use that ID on another 3DS? I know purchases are not transferrable but can I reuse this Nintendo ID on another 3DS lets say in the fall? I also use the same ID on my Wii U.
 
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