The Nintendo 3DS (and Wii U) online services will be coming to an end in April 2024. While Pokémon Bank will continue to be available for use for an indeterminate amount of time afterward, it won’t be possible to transfer your Pokémon from Bank into Pokémon HOME on the Nintendo Switch without these online services. Additionally, players will be at risk of losing the Pokémon they’ve stored in Bank if the app closes at any point after the 3DS online service shutdown. It is highly recommended that Trainers transfer all their Pokémon from Bank into HOME while the 3DS online services are still intact. Below is everything you need to know about transferring Pokémon from Bank into HOME.
What You Need to Transfer Your Pokémon from Bank into HOME
These are all the things you’ll need to complete the process of transferring your Pokémon from the 3DS to Switch. It’s a good idea to prepare these all ahead of time.
While it isn’t required, consider taking this opportunity to replay any Pokémon games from the 3DS or earlier that you’re interested in, especially if you know you’ll want to eventually transfer Pokémon from them. Once the Nintendo 3DS online services shut down in April 2024, transferring your Pokémon to HOME will no longer be possible, even if Bank remains available for use.
About the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan
How Much Does the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan Cost?
There is one Premium Plan for Pokémon HOME. The difference is simply how much it costs and how often it renews. The longer renewal periods cost more upfront but cost less on a month-to-month basis. The different Premium Plan renewal periods and their associated prices (in USD) are as follows:
What Are the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan Benefits?
Since you have to get the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan to transfer your Pokémon from Bank, you might as well take advantage of the plan’s other features while it’s active.In addition to the ability to transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Bank(in the Nintendo Switch version of the app),other benefits of the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan include:
How to Select a Pokémon HOME Premium Plan
Once you’ve decided which renewal period you’d like for your Pokémon HOME Premium Plan, follow these steps to activate it:
You know your plan is activated if the Nintendo eShop button no longer appears at the bottom of the main menu.
How to Turn off the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan Automatic Renewal
If you don’t want your Pokémon HOME Premium Plan to automatically renew once you’ve finished transferring your Pokémon over from Bank, follow these steps to turn off the automatic renewal:
Under “Your Subscriptions,” the Pokémon HOME Premium Plan information will now show the plan’s expiration date and list “Automatic Renewal” as “Inactive.”
*You have until up to 48 hours before your current subscription term expires to cancel automatic renewal for that subscription duration.
Sinceyou can continue to use your Premium Plan until its final date, it’s recommended to cancel the automatic renewal as soon as possible if you don’t plan on using HOME’s extra features after you’ve finished transferring your Pokémon.
What Happens if Your Premium Plan Expires but You Have More than one Box of Pokémon still in HOME?
According to the official Pokémon support website, “If you deposit more than 30 Pokémon in Pokémon HOME while you have the Premium Plan and your plan then changes to the no-cost Basic Plan, then only the 30 most recently deposited or traded Pokémon will be in your Basic Box. The Pokémon will remain in Pokémon HOME for a certain period of time. You will not be able to view or withdraw any Pokémon that are not in your Basic Box.”
This unhelpfully vague statement is the only official word regarding the fate of extra Pokémon stuck in a HOME Basic Plan account. Different players have expressed different findings over the years, including Pokémon still being available after not having a Premium Account active for more than a year, as well as statements of Pokémon disappearing after not renewing a Premium Account after more than a year.
Ultimately, if you’re going through the trouble of transferring your Pokémon out of Bank and into HOME, it’s in your best interest to not risk them being lost under any preventable circumstances. Although the information isn’t completely consistent,there is a nonzero chance that your Pokémon could be erased if you keep them outside of the Basic Box when you don’t have a Premium Plan.
If you plan to cancel your Premium Account after transferring your Pokémon from Bank to HOME, ensure your extra Pokémon are placed in a copy of Pokémon Sword, Shield, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, Legends: Arceus, Scarlet, or Violet so that you only have 30 or fewer in HOME once your Premium Plan expires. If you don’t have enough room in any of your game files, you can make a separate file exclusively for Pokémon storage (described later).
How to Transfer Pokémon from a Nintendo DS (or Older) Game into Pokémon Bank
Before you send all your Pokémon over to HOME in one fell swoop, it’s important to ensure every Pokémon you want to transfer is in Bank already. Using Bank with a 3DS Pokémon game is straightforward, but transferring Pokémon from an older game can be a bit trickier. Follow these steps to transfer Pokémon from a DS (or older) game into Bank:
The following disclaimer will appear: “Pokémon sent to Pokémon Bank can’t be returned to the original game from which they were moved. Additionally, any items held by moved Pokémon will be sent automatically for [the player]’s Bag. But please note that your items will simply disappear if your Bag is full.”
Once the transfer is complete, the following text will appear: “Pokémon moved to Pokémon Bank’s Transport Box. Please open Pokémon Bank to check the Pokémon in your Transport Box.”
How to Transfer Your Pokémon from Bank to HOME
Once you have everything set up, all that’s left to do is transfer your Pokémon out of Bank and into HOME. You’ll need both your Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch ready at the same time to make the transfer.
HOME will inform you that “Moving Keys are only valid for three minutes. Enter the key into Poké bank as soon as you’re able to. Once a Moving Key is active, you won’t be able to go back until it expires. Do you want to create a Moving Key?” Select “Display.”
If for whatever reason you can’t have all of your older Pokémon in Bank to transfer at once, not to worry.You can transfer Pokémon from Bank to HOME as many times as you’d like so long as you have a Premium Account active.
How to Make a New Pokémon Game Save File on Nintendo Switch Without Erasing Your Previous File
Normally, you’re able to only have a single save file per Pokémon game. If you need to make another file to store your Pokémon (or if you just want to play the games again without erasing your old save files), you can do so by making a new Switch user.Each Switch user has their own save data for physical games,so by making a new Switch user, you can start your physical games over from the beginning without losing your existing save data.
To make a new user on your Nintendo Switch system:
Your new user will now be added to your Switch console. Now, when you select a Pokémon game, you’ll be prompted to select which user is playing. If you select the new user, they will begin a new save file, and your prior save file on your older user account will remain unaffected.The only caveat is that this only works for physical copies of the game. Digitally downloaded games will only appear for the user who downloaded the game from the eShop.
Each Nintendo Switch console can have up to eight users, and each user has their own save data per Pokémon game. This means you can effectively have up to eight save files for each Pokémon game that you own as a physical copy.
How to Move Pokémon Between Switch User Accounts Using Pokémon HOME
To move Pokémon between the save files of your different Switch user accounts:
Remember to actually start the new save file and get to a point in the game where you can access boxes before trying to move Pokémon into the save file! When deciding which Pokémon to store in what save files, remember that not every Pokémon can enter every game. Check out ourlist of transferable Pokémon for Sword and Shield, and ourlist of returning Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Maskto help you decide where to send your Pokémon to.
Niki Fakhoori
Niki’s love for video games encompasses a wide range of genres, but she is especially fond of RPGs, adventure games, visual novels, simulation games, and fighting games. Her favorite video game-related pastime is asking her unwieldy backlog why she doesn’t have any new games to play. When she isn’t playing or writing about video games, she’s playing with cats, journaling, painting, or obsessing over the latest news in the world of stationery and planners.
