Vita:Creating Game Backups

Circumventing 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.

Backing Up a Game Card

To run a game in an emulator like Vita3K or install your physical games onto your Vita/PSTV, a dump of your game will be needed.

NoNpDrm Method

This method, while not preserving the entirety of the cartridge, will be good enough for gameplay. If you are looking for backups of cartridges for purely archival purposes, look into GcToolKit or PSVgameSD.

If you don't already have the NoNpDrm plugin, follow the instructions on Vita:Installing Plugins to install NoNpDrm plugin (if it's not already installed).

The Quick 3.65 Install built into VitaDeploy comes with NoNpDrm, so if you did that then you can proceed with the instructions.

1. Launch the game you wish to dump. This will allow NoNpDrm to create a fake license for the game.
2. Launch VitaShell.
3. Press and set the SELECT mode for FTP.
4. Press to enter FTP (see Vita:Transferring Files with FTP).
5. On your PC file browser, navigate to gro0: → /app/ and copy your game folder /TITLE_ID/ to a location on your PC.
6. Go to ux0: → /nonpdrm/ → /license/ → /app/ → /TITLE_ID/ and rename the .rif file to work.bin.
7. In your PC game backup folder, go to /TITLE_ID/ → /sce_sys/ → /package/ and copy work.binto the /TITLE_ID/ → /sce_sys/ → /package/ folder on your PC.

GcToolKit Method

GcToolKit is a very recent application developed for the PS Vita that allows for fully complete backups of PS Vita cartridges, including the grw0: partition and authenticiation data. Backups are stored as .vci files.

PSVgameSD Method

PSVgameSD is a cartridge dumping application developed for the PS Vita that strives for a complete dump of a Vita cartridge, however it will not copy the authentication data or (if the game has one) the writable grw0: partition. Backups are stored as .psv files.

Backing up PlayStation Store Content

From the Console (NoNpDrm)

If you don't already have the NoNpDrm plugin, follow the instructions on Vita:Installing Plugins to install NoNpDrm plugin (if it's not already installed).

The Quick 3.65 Install built into VitaDeploy comes with NoNpDrm, so if you did that then you can proceed with the instructions.

1. Launch the game you wish to dump. This will allow NoNpDrm to create a fake license for the game.
2. Launch VitaShell.
3. Press and set the SELECT mode for FTP.
4. Press to enter FTP (see Vita:Transferring Files with FTP).
5. Find the directory where the content is installed and copy it to the computer. It will be in these file paths:
   1. Games: ux0:/app/[TITLE_ID]
   2. DLC: ux0:/addcont/[TITLE_ID]
   3. Title Updates: ux0:/patch/[TITLE_ID]
6. Go to ux0: → /nonpdrm/ → /license/ → /app/ → /TITLE_ID/ and rename the .rif file to work.bin.
7. In your PC game backup folder, go to /TITLE_ID/ → /sce_sys/ → /package/ and copy work.binto the /TITLE_ID/ → /sce_sys/ → /package/ folder on your PC.

Getting PKG/License Entitlement Links from a PSN account

PSDLE

With PSDLE, it is entirely possible to get the PKG download links directly from your account without even needing a modified PS Vita.

1. Download the PSDLE browser extention from the extention stores for Firefox or Chromium based browsers.
2. Sign into your PSN account on PlayStation.com and navigate to this link. PSDLE will change the page to show a detailed view of all of your PlayStation purchases, including options for platform categorization. You can hide all of the platforms that aren't for PS3, since that is what this guide is for and will reduce the size of the list.
3. Click the Export View button on the top of the page. On the pop up window, click Import.
4. Paste the following into the text field pop up as one line:
   • [{"property":"platform","title":"Platform"},{"property":"name","title":"Name"},{"property":"pkg","title":"PKG direct link"},{"property":"id","title":"Content ID"},{"property":"size","title":"File Size"},{"property":"baseGame","title":"Alternate Name"},{"property":"productID","title":"Product ID"},{"property":"url","title":"Store URL"}]
5. Once these properties have been pasted, you can export the list of your purchases as a CSV or JSON file. From there, you can see the PKG links from Sony's CDN in that exported database file and can be easily downloaded with a computer.

RIF Rapper

RIF Rapper is a homebrew app that will allow you to easily batch download every license file for any PSP, PS3, and PS Vita content purchased by the currently signed in PSN account.

View the main RIF Rapper page for details on its usage.

Installing a Backup to LiveArea

This assumes you dumped a game card using the method outlined earlier.

1. Launch VitaShell.
2. Press to enter FTP (see Vita:Transferring Files with FTP).
3. Transfer the game backup /TITLE_ID/ from your PC to the  ux0:/app/ folder on your PS Vita memory card.
   • If you have DLC, it would instead go to the ux0:/addcont folder.
4. Press on your PS Vita to exit FTP/USB mode.
5. Go back to the VitaShell root directory list.
6. Press and select [Refresh LiveArea™].
7. Exit VitaShell and launch your game from the LiveArea.