Nintendo Switch Storage Cards Cannot Transfer Between Consoles

Those who want to transfer a storage card between Nintendo Switch consoles will be unable to do so, as the new Nintendo console does not accept cards with pre-existing Switch data.

Storage options for the Nintendo Switch were a topic for discussion since the launch of the console, but it's likely that talk over external storage may continue for some time yet. As it turns out, storage cards cannot be transferred between consoles, with any Switch data on a specific card resulting in the card itself being blocked on other Switch consoles.

If a user inserts a storage card that has been used in another Switch, the following error message will appear:

"The microSD card is being used by another Nintendo Switch console or was used on this console before it was initialized.

Delete the Nintendo Switch data on the microSD card to use it on this console.

Save data, screenshots, and other data not related to Nintendo Switch won’t be deleted. You can remove the microSD card if you don’t want to use it on this console."

This will undoubtedly be disappointing for those who were looking to transfer data across multiple consoles. However, it does in fact help put into context that Nintendo Switch save games are locked to the console, given that save data itself would be inaccessible because of this block on pre-used microSD cards. What's interesting is that Nintendo does mention that save data could be excluded from deletion in the error message, so maybe there are plans for save data to be transferred between consoles in future - though it could just be to ease concerns that save data in general could be deleted.

Some gamers have been continuously disagreeing over the Storage options for the Switch, who were hoping that the console's hard drive would be of a substantial size. However, the console only has 32 GB of hard drive space, so users must depend on the use of external microSD cards for data storage.

The Nintendo Switch is available now.