***Unlock ANY Locked PS3 Save Tutorial with Jailbreak/FTP***

[hasnopants]

Hey Guys!

New to the PSX-Scene, so forgive me for the post if I am breaking any rules. I'm not sure if I am the first to discover this method but I thought I would share it with this community...

**DISCLAMER**

I have only tested this method on Star Ocean 4 and Demons Souls, and it worked great both times (only locked game saves for games that I own ). So ANY might be wrong if we find this doesn't work for some games....

**Tutorial**

So after banging my head against the wall for the last couple of days the solution was remarkably easy. We will use SO4's file structure since its simple, but the same process applied to Demons Souls.

SO4 Save Directory looks like this

/SAVEDIR/

ICON0.PNG <---picture you see when highlighting the game in XMB
PARAM.PFD <---stores the signature encryption for the game's data file
PARAM.SFO <---stores data about the save like time/basic info/account ID
PIC1.PNG <---extra picture for SO4 and some other games, provides a background picture.
USR-DATA <---The meat of the save file, some games have multiple, some have only one .dat file.

Now that we have the basic structure and functions of files within a save directory, (there are a few other files I have seen in save dirs but I believe they are situational based on the game and are not relevant to the actual data of the save, prove me otherwise though!), we can move on to how to actually perform this little trick.

Load up the game in question, in my case SO4 and start a new game. Get to the first save point and save. Now go back to the PS3 FTP program and browse your newly created save. In this case, for SO4 we would see the files I have listed above appear. Now go to where you have your saved backup of your old save or one you've gotten off the internet. And copy:

PARAM.PFD
USR-DATA

to the directory on the PS3 overwriting the newly created game(S04)'s PARAM.PFD and USER-DATA (or other .dat files depending on the situation). Go back to your PS3, and load up your game and VIOLA! I went from a 4 minute playtime S04 save to the grand 204 hour save I have been working on since it came out.

Only drawback is trophies don't come with this trick. If someone else can figure out how to copy those over that would be grand. Not that they matter really when we are talking about losing precious saves. I hope this helps the community! Please reply with any questions or modifications to this tutorial, criticism/feedback is welcome!

One FINAL note:

If someone else has discovered this method please tell me as I don't want to take credit for someone else's discovery!

UPDATE:

I have just confirmed this method also works with the SYSTEM data for Star Ocean 4. Also, looking over the Trophy folders on the PS3 hard drive while FTP'd they seem to have the same basic structure. I would like to try out this method on them as well. So if anyone has a backup of their trophies they could try copying over the new data folder created automatically by the game with their old PARAM.PFD and their .DAT files. I will test this once I rack up a trophy on one of my games though!

UPDATE 2:

While you can get system data to load into your save (I could get my system data in SO4 to show my collection data, ect) when you save it locks up at 100% forever forcing you to quit game and corrupting the system data in the process. As of now, this method only allows you to see your system data of old but not to update is Anyone with any ideas is welcome to comment. I am giving up on system data for now and moving on to trophies. If anyone has trophy data for demons souls or star ocean that they can upload for me to test with it would be appreciated as I do not have any trophies in either since my new HDD was installed.

UPDATE 3

Ok, this should be my last update. I have confirmed at least with one game Katamari Forever that the same method but applied to trophies does not work. It seems that in contrast to save files which individually maintain themselves there seems to be 2 .dat files in the upper /trophy/ directory that probably overlord over the rest of the trophies for all your games probably provided a list to the console of games with trophies, ect. Obviously you dont want to modify that by copying over it just for one game's trophies so I cannot seem to make this happen in the same way as with locked saves. Any ideas are welcome and or questions about my tutorial. Keep the homebrew coming!

[coolboy]

actually posted this on another site, but that is okay
here is my tut
(feel free to message the user to if you find the site i posted this on, seeing my name is different on there)

thx to NtRnOs for the SSF4 save and images


You will need
-PS Jailbreak (or Groove)
-FTP Server


Not i don't have the device it self or FTP but it should work.

Okay run FTP server and locate this following directory on their
/dev_hdd0/home/00000013/savedata
something like that




Okay now find a gamesave of a game that is locked
once you have found a game that is locked go open
Homebrew PS3 system editor v.80 (you might need to copy that save over to your PC)

Now go to load and find that save
now go to advance settings
this is how you unlock the save
where it says attribute, if the number is bigger then zero that means the save is locked, to unlock it simple delete that number and place a 0 in its spot.

there save is unlocked



For those non jailbreak people who want to test this feature
copy this Super street fighter 4 MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service thx NtRnOs again for the save

Open it up in Homebrew editor V.80

go to attribute and change it to 1
put it in a usb device
and try to copy it over to the system, it will be locked to the usb device
go back and change it back to 0 you can now copy it


pretty neat, so my question is now that we can unlock gamesaves people should take a look at locked gamesaves such as rainbow six vegas 2, or demon souls, or assassin creed to see if they are editable or trophy pop up, cause they are locked for a reason right?



also good for people who want to back up their own saves and format their own HDD without losing that data now

[hasnopants]

Right on. One thing about this method though is I didn't use SFO editor to modify the .SFO. It remains untouched. I just copy PARAM.PFD and .DAT files. Not sure if that is what you are outlining above at all or not, so forgive me if I missed something. One other thing of note in my situation is I do not have a PSN account id linked anymore since my new hdd. So in SFO editor my .SFO's now have the null account id 00 00 00 00 ect. Forgot to mention that...

EDIT: When re-reading your method you have posted. I am PRETTY sure, not certain that this does not work. I tried this and it gave me a "Corrupted Save" error when trying to load up the save on my new HDD. Maybe it matters, but this helped me in the situation where I had a save file that was locked on my computer but had upgraded my hdd on my ps3 without properly backing up using the utility and therefore losing the ability to copy over the SO4 save from my old hdd. Copying the files as I have outlined above circumvented that issue by tricking the new save into having the data from the old save...I think .

[coolboy]

Right on. One thing about this method though is I didn't use SFO editor to modify the .SFO. It remains untouched. I just copy PARAM.PFD and .DAT files. Not sure if that is what you are outlining above at all or not, so forgive me if I missed something. One other thing of note in my situation is I do not have a PSN account id linked anymore since my new hdd. So in SFO editor my .SFO's now have the null account id 00 00 00 00 ect. Forgot to mention that...

ahh okay
what you just did was the basic hacking way most user did for gamesaves that were not locked, my method is getting the gamesave out and actually being able to copy the whole thing over.
Pretty much you are doing what others been doing only on a locked gamesave

[hasnopants]

ahh okay
what you just did was the basic hacking way most user did for gamesaves that were not locked, my method is getting the gamesave out and actually being able to copy the whole thing over.
Pretty much you are doing what others been doing only on a locked gamesave

Yes. And I am looking for more people to test it. So if you have any locked game saves by all means!

[coolboy]

Yes. And I am looking for more people to test it. So if you have any locked game saves by all means!

lol i just realized it
put to and to together and this can work
unlocking the save copy it, and then dump those specific files over and bam it should work

[hasnopants]

Well I don't want to steer people away from the method I have just tested successfully twice. I literally did NOTHING with PARAM.SFO. It was the same . SFO from the new save I created in my tutorial. Not my old save .SFO, not a hacked .SFO with .SFO editor. UNTOUCHED. Just wanted to be clear

[hasnopants]

One problem I just encountered this morning while playing S04 was that my old system data, which I successfully copied over my newly created system data at got to show up in game did not save correctly when I went to save my game. My save game remained fine but my system data got messed up. I think I am going to investigate this further after work. Also will be testing the trophy idea soon as well as I think this same method could be used to import other people's or old trophy data onto a new ps3/ps3 hdd!

[Da Teej Masta]

I can confirm that this works with Bayonetta! I followed the method from OP and my saves loaded fine. The PS3 said some of the system and autosave data was corrupt, but it just wrote new ones, not affecting the main save data at all. It even started to reload the trophies I already won.

Been searching for a solution for days. Finally. Thanks!

[m0usju1c3]

Excuse the noob question, but i'm not understanding the difference/benefits between locked and unlocked saves?