Backup Wii U Saves To Flash Drive

You can backup saves for Wii U games to flash drives. There are some caveats:

• The Wii U must reformat your flash drive
• (To my knowledge) PCs and Macs cannot read save files from the flash drive

Let's get started!

Connect your flash drive to your Nintendo Wii U before turning the system on. This is an absolute requirement and your system will give you a warning message if you plug-in your drive after system startup.

Also, do not disconnect the flash drive while your Wii U system is on. You'll see a nasty, scary error message telling you to restart the system.

Formatting Flash Drive for Use with Wii U

After you turn-on the system with your flash drive already connected, you might see a screen that says:

"You have connected a USB storage device that has not been set up for use with this console. Do you want to format the device so that it can be used with this console?"

There are two buttons that appear underneath this message. Selecting Format will erase all data that is currently on the device.

To format the flash drive, select 'Format.' On the next screen, select 'Format' again.

Your flash drive can now be used with your Wii U system.

Copying Saves from Wii U to Flash Drive

From the main Wii U menu:

1. Select 'System Settings' (wrench icon)
2. Go right by one screen (you can press the ZR button) and select 'Data Management'
3. Select 'Copy/Move/Delete Data'
4. Select 'System Memory'
5. Press the X button on you gamepad -or- press the 'Copy/Move' button on your screen
6. Select software titles by moving over to one and either pressing the A button on your gamepad -or- by pressing the on-screen button associated with that game
7. Press the Y button on your gamepad -or- press the 'Copy' button at the top of the screen
8. Select 'Copy'

After you're done, turn-off the Wii U and unplug your flash drive.

Copying Saves from Flash Drive to Wii U

From the main Wii U menu:

1. Select 'System Settings' (wrench icon)
2. Go right by one screen (you can press the ZR button) and select 'Data Management'
3. Select 'Copy/Move/Delete Data'
4. Select 'USB Storage Device 1' (or 'USB Storage Device 2')
5. Press the X button on you gamepad -or- press the 'Copy/Move' button on your screen
6. Select software titles by moving over to one and either pressing the A button on your gamepad -or- by pressing the on-screen button associated with that game
7. Press the Y button on your gamepad -or- press the 'Copy' button at the top of the screen
8. Select 'Copy'

After you're done, turn-off the Wii U and unplug your flash drive.

Overwriting Data

 After Step 7 of each process, you might get a screen that says the following:

"Data for the same software is already present in the system memory. Do you want to overwrite it?"

The message might be a little different to indicate that data is already on a USB storage device. This is normal, but you should pay close attention to the fine text that mentions data loss.

PCs Cannot Read Wii U Saves

If you plug-in your Wii U-formatted flash drive into a PC or Mac, you will be prompted to format the drive. The Wii U seems to use a proprietary file system: Windows will see the Wii U flash drive as having a RAW partition as large as the device.

You can still copy saves from the drive, but it's a much more complicated process that involves disk imaging. It's a bit beyond the scope of these simple tutorials.