How to transfer Pokemon from 3DS games to Home before eShop shuts down

Nintendo is shutting down the 3DS eShop very soon, so here’s everything you need to know to transfer your creatures from Pokemon Bank to Home before it’s too late.

While players are still waiting for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to finally have compatibility with Pokemon Home, longtime fans of the franchise should keep an eye on their 3DS adventures. Nintendo announced that they’ll be shutting the 3DS eShop down very soon, keeping players from downloading new games and apps.

Players who caught beloved Pokemon in different games from Pokemon X and Y to Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, among many others, can keep and transfer them to Pokemon Home to reunite with them in other installments.

In this article, we’ll show you how to transfer Pokemon from 3DS games to Pokemon Bank using Poke Transporter and what you can do from there to get your creatures in Pokemon Home.

• How to download Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter
• How to transfer Pokemon to Pokemon Bank
• How to transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Bank to Home

How to download Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter in the Nintendo 3DS eShop

Fans can download the Pokemon Bank app on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for free until March 27, 2023. Once the store shuts down, players won’t be able to download it anymore. So trainers interested in keeping their 3DS Pokemon should have the app installed by March 27.

Although Pokemon Bank requires a paid subscription, the app will let players store and transfer their Pokemon at no cost starting March 27.

Once players download Pokemon Bank, they can download Poke Transporter from the app’s main menu.

Once again, players should download these apps before March 27. If you don’t want to spend the $4.99 of the annual subscription for just a few days of service, you should download the apps as soon as possible and wait until after March 27 to use them for free.

How to transfer Pokemon from 3DS games to Pokemon Bank

To transfer Pokemon from 3DS games to the Pokemon Bank app, players must follow these steps:

1. Open the game you want to transfer Pokemon from and fill the first box in your in-game PC only with the Pokemon you want to transfer.
2. Open the Poke Transporter app and use it to transfer them to the Pokemon Bank’s transfer box.
3. Open the Pokemon Bank app and transfer those Pokemon to a Pokemon Bank box you choose.
4. Make sure to empty the transfer box before repeating the process.

It’s important to note that “Pokemon transferred to Pokemon Home from Pokemon Bank cannot be transferred back to Pokemon Bank or used with Nintendo 3DS titles,” according to the official Nintendo support site.

With that in mind, make sure you don’t want those transferred Pokemon in your 3DS games anymore before jumping to the next step. If you want to transfer Pokemon between 3DS games, you can do it from Pokemon Bank using Poke Transporter any time you want.

Pokemon games supported for transfer are Pokemon X/Y, Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Pokemon Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, and Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow Version.

Pokemon Black/White and Black/White 2 are also supported, but you’ll need the actual cartridge since these games were never released in digital format. You can transfer Pokemon from other classic games like Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal if you played them on the 3DS Virtual Console.

How to transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Bank to Home

Once players have Pokemon stored in the 3DS Pokemon Bank app, they must follow these steps to transfer them to Pokemon Home:

1. Open the Pokemon Bank app.
2. Select Move Pokemon to Pokemon Home from the main menu.
3. Select all the boxes you want to transfer.
4. Open Pokemon Home on the Nintendo Switch or your mobile device.
5. On Nintendo Switch, select the 3DS Icon, then tap Begin Move.
   • On mobile, press the green Menu icon, then Options, and select Move Pokemon.
6. Enter the Moving Key that is generated in Pokemon Home into Pokemon Bank.
7. Wait until the transfer is completed.

You’ll need Pokemon Home’s premium plan for this. It costs $15.99 a year and lets you store Pokemon from Pokemon Sword/Shield, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee!, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The mobile device version of Pokemon Home also supports connectivity with Pokemon Go.

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And there you have it. Make sure to download the apps before March 27

For more Pokemon content, check out our other guides and content we’ve whipped up:

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Image Credit: The Pokemon Company / Game Freak