The ACNH companion tool that never leaves your Switch.
A 100% native Nintendo Switch homebrew application for editing Animal Crossing: New Horizons save files directly on your console. No PC, no pulling the SD card, no complicated dumping tools required.
Note: This is an educational project. Always keep backups of your save files. Modifying save data always carries a risk. The author is not responsible for corrupted islands or banned consoles. Use offline and at your own risk. Not affiliated with Nintendo.
Responsible Use: This app edits only items and values that exist in the base game. Please do not trade or use unreleased/internal items in online play, as they can ruin the experience for other players and are not easily removable on non-CFW consoles.
| ACNH Save Editor IS: | ACNH Save Editor IS NOT: |
|---|---|
| A safe, offline save editor with automatic backups and hash healing | A RAM editor, live spawner, or online mod |
| 100% on-console (no PC, phone, or sysmodules required) | A companion app or web tool |
| Clamped to in-game maximums (no impossible values) | A way to spawn unreleased/internal items |
- Paginated Favorites Menu: Browse 22 curated high-value items with smooth auto-scrolling and A-Z sorting.
- Applet Mode Guard: Hard-blocks Album launches to prevent permission-based crashes, with on-screen instructions to relaunch correctly.
- Embedded Homebrew Icon: The
.nronow includes the custom leaf icon for the Homebrew Menu. - Search & UI Polish: Fixed search footer overlaps, corrected pagination jumps, and added DBI/MTP drag-and-drop installation support.
For full memory and SD card access, you MUST launch this app via Title Override (hold [R] while launching a game like Animal Crossing) OR install it as a forwarder.
Do NOT launch it from the Album / Applet mode — the app will refuse to run and show you exactly how to relaunch correctly, preventing save-access crashes!
- Dual-File Engine: Edits both
personal.dat(Wallet, Bank, Pockets, Nook Miles) andmain.dat(House Loan) simultaneously. - Forensically Clean Save Engine & Auto-Repair: Safely updates EncryptedInt32 checksums without overwriting untouched memory. Includes a permanent heal loop that automatically repairs saves corrupted by older versions the next time you save.
- Native Item Search: Press Plus (+) to open the native Switch keyboard and instantly search the 13,000+ item database by name, with smooth paginated results. No more guessing hex codes!
- Graphical UI: Built with SDL2, featuring a clean, highlight-bar navigation system with an expanded, perfectly centered layout (900x480 panel) to prevent text overflow.
- Favorites Menu: Press X to browse an alphabetically sorted, paginated list of 22 curated high-value items (NMTs, Bell bags, 99,000 Bells, gold roses, cherry-blossom petals, pearls, gold bars, all 6 golden tools, and both crowns). Favorites resolve by name at boot, so they always stay in sync with your
items.txt. - Visual Slot Picker: Choose exactly which pocket slot to inject items into without guessing.
- Pocket Loadouts: Press Y to save and load up to 5 custom pocket setups (Mining, Fishing, Terraforming) to your SD card.
- Bulletproof Safety Net: Automatic SD card backups before every single write, byte-verified after creation. Press ZL on the main menu to instantly rollback to your last backup.
- Applet Mode Guard: The app hard-blocks Album/Applet launches and shows on-screen instructions for relaunching correctly.
- Embedded Homebrew Icon: The
.nronow includes the custom icon.
When loading a save on Switch, a full backup copy is created before any modification:
sdmc:/switch/acnh_editor/backup_personal.dat
sdmc:/switch/acnh_editor/backup_main.dat
One-Button Rollback: Press [ZL] on the main menu to instantly restore the last backup to NAND.
Safety Guarantees:
- Every save operation creates a backup before writing to NAND
- All edits are clamped to in-game maximums (no impossible values)
- EncryptedInt32 checksums are recalculated on every save, and untouched memory is left pristine
- The app refuses to run in Applet Mode to prevent save-access crashes
Honest Note: The backup is a single rolling slot (your last known-good state). For long-term archiving, occasionally copy these two files to your PC. Your island, your redundancy.
| Game | Tested Version | Save Format | Edited Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Crossing: New Horizons | 3.0.3 | Dual-file (personal.dat + main.dat) |
Wallet, Bank, Miles, Loan, Pockets |
Tested by the author on FW 22.5.0 (Atmosphère 1.11.2 E). When Nintendo ships an ACNH update, compatibility is re-verified and noted in the changelog.
Based on your feedback! Inject furniture, wallpapers, and flooring directly into your rooms.
🗳️ Help Decide v1.6.0! We're choosing between Turnip Price Trends and DIY Recipe Unlocks for the next major update. Cast your vote here: 👉 Vote in the Community Poll
Ensure your Switch is running Custom Firmware (Atmosphere).
- Download the latest
acnh_editor_v1.4.0.zipfrom the Releases page. - Extract the
switchfolder to the root of your SD card. - Verify your folder structure matches this exactly:
SD:/
switch/
┗ acnh_editor/
├ acnh_editor.nro
├ font.ttf
├ icon.png
└ items.txt
- Fully close Animal Crossing: New Horizons (do not leave it suspended).
- Hold [R] and launch ACNH from the Home Menu to open the Homebrew Menu.
- Select "ACNH Save Editor" to launch (do not run ACNH at the same time!).
For users with DBI installed on their Switch, you can install via USB MTP:
- Download
ACNH-Save-Editor-DBI-v1.4.0.zipfrom the Releases page. - Connect your Switch to PC via USB.
- Launch DBI on your Switch and select MTP responder.
- On your PC, open the DBI MTP drive and navigate to NAND Titles or SD Card.
- Drag and drop the
acnh_editor.nrofile from the zip into the drive. - Launch via Title Override (hold [R] on ACNH from Home Menu).
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| Up / Down | Navigate menus / Select items |
| L / R | Big step values (+/- 10 or 100,000) |
| A | Backup to SD & Save changes to NAND (or select "Quit App") |
| X | Open Favorites Menu |
| Y | Open Loadout Manager |
| Minus (-) | Clear the currently selected pocket slot |
| ZL | Restore from last SD backup (Emergency Rollback) |
| Plus (+) | Open Native Item Search |
See ROADMAP.md for the full list of shipped and planned features.
Known Gaps (v1.4.0):
- Single resident only (edits
/Villager0/); multi-resident selector planned for v1.6 - No map editing yet (weed/rock cleanup planned for v1.6)
- No turnip price preview yet (under consideration for v1.6)
- No design pattern preview yet (planned for v1.7)
Q: The app won't launch, or it shows a black screen/error message.
A: You are likely launching from the Album (Applet Mode). Applet Mode restricts SD card and memory access. You must launch via Title Override: fully close ACNH, then hold [R] while launching the game from the Home Menu to enter the Homebrew Launcher.
Q: The app opens but shows a blank green screen with no text.
A: This usually means the font.ttf file is missing or in the wrong place. The graphical UI requires this specific font file to render text. Ensure font.ttf is located directly inside the acnh_editor/ folder alongside the .nro. If you renamed the folder to acnh-editor (hyphen) or just ACNH, the app may also fail to find its assets. Rename the folder to exactly acnh_editor (underscore).
Q: Why can't I edit my second player's (Player 2) items or pockets?
A: v1.4.0 currently only edits the primary resident (/Villager0/). Multi-resident support (Player 1–8 selector) is actively being developed and planned for v1.6.0.
Q: My game crashed when I tried to save.
A: Ensure Animal Crossing is fully closed (not just suspended in the background) before launching the editor. Also, never run the editor and the game at the exact same time.
Requires devkitPro with switch-dev installed.
pacman -S switch-sdl2 switch-sdl2_ttf switch-sdl2_image
git clone https://github.com/cbreezy210/ACNH-Save-Editor.git
cd ACNH-Save-Editor
make
After building, copy acnh_editor.nro and icon.png from the repo root, along with items.txt and font.ttf from the assets/ folder, to your SD card at sdmc:/switch/acnh_editor/ before running.
- kwsch and the NHSE project — ACNH save-structure research and reference: https://github.com/kwsch/NHSE
- devkitPro and libnx communities — Switch homebrew tooling: https://devkitpro.org
- SDL2, SDL_ttf and stb_image authors
- micaturtle — community testing and documentation contributions
- The ACNH homebrew community — for feedback, testing, and feature requests
This is an educational project. Always keep backups of your save files. Modifying save data always carries a risk. I am not responsible for corrupted islands or banned consoles. Use at your own risk!
- GitHub Releases (Download): https://github.com/cbreezy210/ACNH-Save-Editor/releases
- GameBrew Wiki: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/ACNH_Save_Editor_Switch
- GameBanana: https://gamebanana.com/tools/23811
- GBATemp: https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-acnh-save-editor-a-new-save-editor-for-animal-crossing-new-horizons.683771/
- Reddit — v1.4.0 release thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/SwitchHacks/comments/1vzs3p7/updaterelease_acnh_save_editor_v140_native_switch/