Moving your Pokémon Scarlet and Violet adventure to a new Nintendo Switch doesn’t have to mean starting over. Here’s how to safely carry your progress, team, and memories between consoles without losing a single Poké Ball.
- Press X on the Pokémon game from the Nintendo Switch home screen on both consoles.
- Select “Manage Software” on both consoles.
- Select “Transfer Your Save Data” on both consoles.
- Select “Send Save Data to Another Console” on the console that you’re moving the save data off of and select “Receive Save Data” on the Switch that you’re moving the save data to.
- On the Switch with the save data, select the user that has the save, and select the respective game. Then hit “Send Save Data.”
- Keep the two Nintendo Switch consoles next to each other while the save data transfers.
- You’re done!
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet does not support cloud saves. (In fact, none of the Nintendo Switch Pokémon games do.) This means you can only have your save on one console at a time, so if you like to play on a Switch Lite when you’re away from home and an OLED Switch on the TV, you will have to keep transferring the data back and forth between the consoles using the above method.
Can I transfer Pokémon HOME data between Switches too
Yes, but not by transferring “save data” in the usual sense-Pokémon HOME’s data is stored in the cloud, not on the Switch itself.
How HOME works across Switches
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Your Pokémon HOME account (and all Pokémon in its boxes) is tied to your Pokémon HOME account (linked to a Nintendo Account and email), not to a specific console.
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As long as you log into the same Pokémon HOME account on a different Switch, all your stored Pokémon and settings will appear there automatically.
What you can and c
How to perform Nintendo Switch system transfer for Pokémon data
Nintendo’s System Transfer moves almost all of your data-including Pokémon game saves-from one Switch to another (or to a Switch 2), and it is the cleanest way to carry over your Pokémon progress.
What System Transfer does for Pokémon
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It copies all user accounts, save data, and downloaded games from the old console to the new one, including Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, Sword/Shield, etc.
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After the transfer, the old Switch is effectively reset (you can still re-set it up, but its data is gone).
Basic steps (old Switch → new Switch/Switch 2)
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On the new console, start it up and, during initial setup, choose “Transfer your data from another console” (or System Transfer in Settings if you already finished setup).
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On the old console, go to System Settings → System → System Transfer and select Send data.
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Follow the prompts on both consoles to pair them (they must be close and on the same Wi-Fi), then confirm the transfer.
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Wait for the transfer to finish; when done, your Pokémon games and saves will appear on the new console as if you never left.
Important Pokémon-specific notes
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Pokémon games do not save to the cloud or cartridge, so System Transfer (or manual Save-Data Transfer) is the only way to move their progress.
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You can still manually move individual saves later using System Settings → Data Management → Transfer Your Save Data, if you ever want to shift just one Pokémon game back and forth.
If you tell me whether you’re moving to a regular second Switch or a Switch 2, I can give you a tailored checklist with exact menu paths.
