WiiU:Creating Game Backups

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Exclamation-triangle-fill.svgCircumventing DRM mechanisms and/or creating backup copies of games and media for personal use is a right granted only in some countries. It is your sole responsibility to stay up to date with the law in your respective country. The information provided within this wiki is solely educational and its editors take no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information.


To run your own games on your computer, install your disc games onto your console, or create mods; a dump of your games will be needed.

File Formats

There are a variety of file formats that Wii U games can be dumped as, each with their own uses, and each with their own method of being dumped. Most can be converted between each other, although some are one-way conversions. Before beginning to dump games, read about which file format will be most compatible with the desired use.

Raw/Compressed Disc Images

The disc images are simply raw dumps of the entire disc, with no modifications, making them the best formats for pure preservation, as they are the most accurate. They can be acquires by using disc dumper app such as wudd from method 1. These come in the WUD format, and are 23.3 GB in size. However, WUD files can be compressed into WUX files using WudCompress. A WUX file is significantly smaller, saving a large amount of storage space. This process is also reversible, and the same WudCompress program can decompress the WUX back into a WUD, maintaining the same benefits. Note that wudd can dump a WUX directly.

WUD/WUX files can be extracted into encrypted NUS files using a Wii U disc extractor such as wud2app. To use, WUX files must first be decompressed back into WUD format. However, once WUD files are extracted, the resulting files can no longer be placed back into the WUD format. To keep the disc image, its recommended to compress into a WUX and store it, decompressing as needed. When using an emulator such as Cemu, WUD files can also be used, although they require the title's individual title key as well as the Wii U's keys. Since WUD files are so large, this method is not recommended.

Encrypted NUS Files

These files are extracted versions of the disc images from WUD or WUX files. Encrypted NUS files can be acquired by either using wudd from method 2, extracting the files from a WUD, or by using an NUS encrypter such as NUSPacker on the raw game files. This file format is fairly versatile and can be used for most things that one would want to do with backups. It consists of a folder with a set of files within it: title.cert, title.tik, title.tmd, and a set of .app and .h3 files.

They can be installed using a WUP installer such as WUP Installer GX2 on the Wii U console, or decrypted using NUS content decrypters like cdecrypt.

Raw Game Files

These files come in the form of three folders, labelled code, content, and meta, which directly contain game assets and code. They can be acquired using a dumper like dumpling from method 3, or by decrypting NUS files from using cdecrypt.

These files can be run using Loadiine GX2, as well as installed on the Cemu emulator on computers. Also, raw game files can be edited and repacked to create modded versions of games.

Method 1: wudd (WUD)

This method will dump the entire Wii U disc as a WUD file. This file contains all of the contents of the game disc, including blank space, and will need 23.3 GB of storage free in the device you are dumping to. WUD files are the most complete versions of a dump, although they are the largest in size.

Requirements:

  • A homebrewed Wii U with Tiramisu, Haxchi, Mocha, or Aroma
  • The latest version of wudd
    • The .wuhb can only be used on Aroma! If you are using the Homebrew Launcher in Tiramisu, Haxchi, or Mocha, download the .rpx release.
  • A FAT32 SD card/USB drive or NTFS USB drive with at least 23.3 GB of storage free
    • Using a FAT32 SD card will add an extra step to combine files

Steps:

  1. Copy the wiiu folder to the root of your SD Card
  2. On the console, load wudd (this can be done through the Homebrew Launcher (Tiramisu/Haxchi/Mocha) or the Wii U Menu (Aroma))
  3. Once loaded, select which device you would like to dump to and then select Dump as WUD

If you used an NTFS device, you should now have a completed WUD file. If you used a FAT32 device (which has a maximum individual file size limit of 4GB), the dump will be split into multiple files that you'll need to combine. To do so, copy the folder containing the part files to a file system with large file support (eg NTFS), open a command prompt there, then copy the following command: 

copy /b game_part1.wud + game_part2.wud + game_part3.wud + game_part4.wud + game_part5.wud + game_part6.wud + game_part7.wud + game_part8.wud + game_part9.wud + game_part10.wud + game_part11.wud + game_part12.wud game.wud

This will create the full game.wud file within the same directory. You can then rename and move it as you please, as well as delete the part files in the folder.

From here, you can either compress to a WUX file using JWUDTool, extract it for installing onto your console using wud2app, or used with an emulator such as Cemu.

Method 2: wudd (WUP)

This method will use wudd, which is inspired by wudump to dump encrypted NUS files you can later install. These will be significantly smaller, only containing the actual game files and no empty space. They can be installed onto your console or used with an NUS content decrypter to view and modify the game's files.

  • A homebrewed Wii U with Tiramisu, Haxchi/CBHC, Mocha, or Aroma
  • The latest version of wudd
    • The .wuhb can only be used on Aroma! If you are using the Homebrew Launcher in Tiramisu, Haxchi, or Mocha download the .rpx release.
  • A FAT32 SD card/USB drive or NTFS USB drive with at least 23.3 GB of storage free. Note that a USB drive formatted by a Wii U to store games / saves / updates / DLCs is not using these file systems: you'll be able to install your dump to such a disk later, but disc2app can't dump to one directly

Steps:

  1. Copy the wiiu folder to the root of your SD Card
  2. On the console, load wudd (this can be done through the Homebrew Launcher (Tiramisu/Haxchi/Moca) or the Wii U Menu (Aroma))
  3. Once loaded, select which device you would like to dump to and then select Dump partition as .app
  4. Select the Game partition to start dumping. This step should not take very long, but it depends on the game

After this finishes, you should have a folder in your destination drive's wudump directory named after the game's product code (WUP-X-XXXX), and inside of it a GMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX folder that contains the actual NUS files. This content can then be directly installed onto the console's storage or external memory using a WUP installer after moving the GMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX folder to the /install folder on your SD, or decrypted using a content decrypter to view the game's files.

Method 3: dumpling

This method directly dumps the raw game files. Using dumpling, digital download games, as well as DLC, updates, and system files for online play with Cemu can be ripped from the console.

  • A homebrewed Wii U with the Homebrew Launcher installed
  • The latest version of dumpling
  • A FAT32 SD card/USB drive or NTFS USB drive with at least 23.3 GB of storage free

Steps:

  1. Extract the wiiu folder from dumpling.zip to the root of your SD card
  2. Remove the SD card from your computer and place it back into the console
  3. Insert the game disc you want to dump into the console
    • If the game is a digital download, skip this step
  4. Open the Homebrew Launcher and launch dumpling
  5. Choose the desired type of game to dump from the list
    • If digital, choose all the games and software to dump
  6. Select the location to dump to between USB and SD
  7. Optionally, check the file size of the dump for the benefits listed on screen

The dump will take some time. Once finished, there will be a folder named dumpling, with multiple folders named after what they contain. Games will be located in the Games folder. Each folder will contain decrypted NUS files, which can now be installed onto Cemu, played from a USB loader on console, or encrypted back into NUS files.

Method 4: disc2app

This method was made combining wud2app and wudump into one app, directly giving you the encrypted NUS files. These will be significantly smaller, only containing the actual game files and no empty space. They can be installed onto your console or used with an NUS content decrypter to view and modify the game's files.

Please note disc2app only works on Tiramisu and legacy (Mocha/Haxchi/CBHC) setups!

Requirements:

  • A homebrewed Wii U with the Homebrew Launcher installed
  • The latest version of disc2app
  • A FAT32 SD card/USB drive or NTFS USB drive with at least 23.3 GB of storage free. Note that a USB drive formatted by a Wii U to store games / saves / updates / DLCs is not using these file systems: you'll be able to install your dump to such a disk later, but disc2app can't dump to one directly
    • The file size will be smaller that 23.3 GB for almost all games. Some titles, such as Xenoblade Chronicles X, do almost reach the limit

Steps:

  1. Extract the wiiu folder from disc2app.zip to the root of your SD card
  2. Remove the SD card from your computer and place it back into the console
  3. Take out any disc currently in your Wii U console
  4. On the console, open the Homebrew Launcher and launch disc2app
  5. Once loaded, press the A or B button to choose your destination device. A for SD, B for USB
  6. Wait for the prompt to insert the disc you want to dump, then do so. The time for this step will vary depending upon the size of the game

After this finishes, you should have a folder in your destination drive's install directory named after the game's product code (WUP-X-XXXX). This content can then be directly installed onto the console's storage or external memory using a WUP installer, or decrypted using a content decrypter to view the game's files.

Method 5: DumpsterU

Exclamation-circle-fill.svgIf you have an eShop game stored on the internal storage, you will need to copy or transfer the title from the Wii U's eMMC to a USB storage device using the Data Management tool in the console settings.


This method will directly dump games as raw game files, similarly to Dumpling. Unlike Dumpling, this tool is run directly on a PC to dump content from a Wii U formatted USB drive.

Requirements:

  • USB Storage formatted with the Wii U's file system (If you were already using a USB HDD/SSD for Wii U Games, you can use that.)
  • DumpsterU
  • otp.bin and seeprom.bin from a Wii U backup

Steps:

  1. Plug in your Wii U's USB storage into the computer.
  2. Open up DumpsterU, select the Wii U's drive, and select your console's respective otp.bin and seeprom.bin files.
  3. You should see a list of every title installed on the drive. Select the one you want to dump.
  4. Select an output folder using the drop down box on the top right of the pop-up window.
  5. Select Dump game. The game files will now be stored on a folder that matches the games title ID, which will be stored in the chosen output folder.
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