Help With Corrupted Alpha Sapphire Save Data (1000+ Hours)

[AndrewShaw19]

Hi, 

I'm sorry in advance  if I'm not posting this in the right place/forum section. So I have a Pokemon Alpha Sapphire cartridge (AUS copy if that's relevant) that has 1000+ hours and 20+ years of my Pokemon collection on it that now has unreadable corrupted save data. I tried to repair/restore the save data using a modded New 3DS XL with the help of ChatGPT because I didn't really know what I was doing and I was able to extract several copies of my save data through GM9, JKSM & Checkpoint and tried to open it with PKHeX to see if works, but I get an error message every time. I even have unredeemed mystery gifts on the file so I'm really hoping that I can somehow get the full file back and reload it back to my 3DS cartridge if possible so I can get my collection back and then hopefully transfer it all over to Pokemon home. I've attached severa of the different files I was able to extract, some may be identical duplicate files. If anyone is able to help me I'd be extremely appreciative. 

Thanks :)

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire Save Files.zip

[Kaphotics]

`main` opens just fine if you truncate it to the proper save file size (0x76000) with a hex editor.

[AndrewShaw19]

That’s great news, I thought I may have lost everything completely! Is that the 640 KB file?

What do I need to do get that save file back onto my 3DS cartridge? I’m sorry but I’m very new to all of this and I’m not really sure what I’m doing. 

[AndrewShaw19]

Update: after a lot of trial & error, I was able to truncate the file and successfully open it in PKHeX. How do I get that version of the save file to load on my cartridge without showing the corrupted save data message? 

[observeroftime]

On 10/13/2025 at 12:56 PM, AndrewShaw19 said:

Update: after a lot of trial & error, I was able to truncate the file and successfully open it in PKHeX. How do I get that version of the save file to load on my cartridge without showing the corrupted save data message? 

Normally you just save the file in pkhex, then restore it. When saving the file using pkhex, the program "fixes" things like bad checksum etc. which might also be the reason why your trimmed save isn't working when you try to restore it. If pkhex loads and saves it fine and it shows as corrupted in-game after restoring, you are likely doing something wrong restoring it. Sure, pkhex isn't an infallible cure-all, but the fact that it loads your data is promising.

Simply try saving the save file with pkhex, then replacing the save file in your backup before finally restoring your now-modified backup using checkpoint or JKSM.