PS3 Archiving my library of PSN games

  • You need to have activated account, which means proper "dev_hdd0/<user number>/exdata/act.dat".
  • You need valid licenses for secured by NPDRM contents, which means "dev_hdd0/<user number>/exdata/*.rif".
  • You cannot transplant ACT and RIF from one console to another. That's why You must activating account using Your own NP Account ID and importing earlier exported licenses in RAF format.
  • Deactivating console means deleting act.dat from ALL users, and (I'm not sure about that) clearing NP Account ID for all users. There is no reason in deactivating console if You still planning use SEN on it.
  • Importing licenses via Apollo (it will convert RAP to RIF; the same with opposite way for exporting).
  • Activating account via Apollo but if You will not create XML with Your info, it will be used random NP Account ID (which means all saves and trophies will loose ownership).
 
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Berion said:
  • You need to have activated account, which means proper "dev_hdd0/<user number>/exdata/act.dat".
Click to expand...
I don't have this. Can i make a new one with Cobra and have that work for me?
Berion said:
  • You need valid licenses for secured by NPDRM contents, which means "dev_hdd0/<user number>/exdata/*.rif".
Click to expand...
I seem to have a bunch of .rif files for my downloads, I'm not sure how i got them

rifs.png


Berion said:
  • You cannot transplant ACT and RIF from one console to another. That's why You must activating account using Your own NP Account ID and importing earlier exported licenses in RAF format.
Click to expand...
I also seem to have a bunch of .raf files, again, i'm not sure how i got them
raps.png


Berion said:
  • Deactivating console means deleting act.dat from ALL users, and (I'm not sure about that) clearing NP Account ID for all users. There is no reason in deactivating console if You still planning use SEN on it.
Click to expand...
I wish I'd known this. I've now lost a game forever as a result of my deactivating the console. I though it was only done on a per user basis. This way Sony are doing it, is stupid!

Berion said:
  • Importing licenses via Apollo (it will convert RAP to RIF; the same with opposite way for exporting).
Click to expand...
Does this mean I can still use my content with what I have?

Berion said:
  • Activating account via Apollo but if You will not create XML with Your info, it will be used random NP Account ID (which means all saves and trophies will loose ownership).
Click to expand...
At this point I'd be happy to get something rather than nothing. I'm really not keen on having to scrub this machine clean and then putting it back on to PSN and risk getting a ban.


If there is hope for me yet, please explain, precisely, what I have to do, one step at a time. PLEASE!
 
Rissy said:
I don't have this. Can i make a new one with Cobra and have that work for me?
Click to expand...

No, you must activate your console via PSN. Don't use Cobra to activate it, we've already explained that the fake act.dat is never meant to be used with a real PSN account.

Rissy said:
At this point I'd be happy to get something rather than nothing. I'm really not keen on having to scrub this machine clean and then putting it back on to PSN and risk getting a ban.
Click to expand...

Quit with the ban crap. For the last time: IT WON'T HAPPEN.
 
GuilloteTesla said:
No, you must activate your console via PSN. Don't use Cobra to activate it, we've already explained that the fake act.dat is never meant to be used with a real PSN account.



Quit with the ban crap. For the last time: IT WON'T HAPPEN.
Click to expand...

Never meant to be, but could be?

What's the point in having that option in Cobra then?

Please explain fully so that I understand. I need to understand before my brain will accept it.

From my current understanding, if I have the game, and an associated .raf for it, then I can make it work, even without a legitimate act.dat from PSN. I just don't know HOW to make it work without someone telling me. Or am I wrong?

What do I do with my PSN content which installs faster than I need, to be able to select "install in background"? Or do I just let it all install next time?

When I download all my content from PSN (either keeping it as package or letting it fully install), what does that give me? .rif or .raf + act.dat

You're saying I NEED to leave my console activated. That presumably leaves me with my personal act.dat, but what with it? Rif or Raf?

Remember I want to port all my content over to join my .ISO games on the other console. So I need to be able to move all my PSN content over and have it work on a different console from the one which it was first downloaded to. So please keep me straight, and correct, by telling me exactly, step by step, what I need to do. If I knew, or understood already, then I'd just go do it. I only ask because I still don't know.

I've never felt so stupid about anything in my life before now. I have high IQ, a good job as a professional engineer. I taught myself how to code in Python in less than two weeks to build a home monitoring system using a raspberry pi I'd never seen before I started. I can strip down engines in cars and rebuild them. Etc. I don't understand why this bloody PS3 thing is causing me such issues. I can only put it down to the lack of anything proper to help me learn. So despite peoples best efforts to try and help me; it's clearly still not doing the trick. I'm sorry. I'm truly very very sorry. Please have patience with me and spell it all out as though you're trying to teach a baby carrot how to grow in the ground. Hopefully then, I'll get to understand.


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When user buying something, downloading are: package file and license. RIF is encrypted key so called klicense, and this key determine if eg. game was bought (this key is not unique). RAF is that key decrypted and that's why it is needed to create RIF on target environment. And reason behind that You cannot transplant activation and licenses is that, per consoles keys are involved in signing. Wise heads on the scene has figure out how this works and it is what Apollo allowing to do.

It is not matter of begin stupid or wise, but having or not having wide imagination and interdisciplinary brain type. Thing with which You must born or trained. Otherwise, You will be feeling lost, struggle, especially that if You forgetting what You doing, when, for what etc. Consider making notes. In this thread I has many times deja vu. ;]

If You still not sure about that: ALL contents can be moved to another console or emulator. There are few exceptions which needs extra care but in majority of cases, it is matter of copy-paste stuff + restoring licenses + rebuilding database (if You would choose "my road" instead "PKG road").
 
Berion said:
When user buying something, downloading are: package file and license. RIF is encrypted key so called klicense, and this key determine if eg. game was bought (this key is not unique). RAF is that key decrypted and that's why it is needed to create RIF on target environment. And reason behind that You cannot transplant activation and licenses is that, per consoles keys are involved in signing. Wise heads on the scene has figure out how this works and it is what Apollo allowing to do.

It is not matter of begin stupid or wise, but having or not having wide imagination and interdisciplinary brain type. Thing with which You must born or trained. Otherwise, You will be feeling lost, struggle, especially that if You forgetting what You doing, when, for what etc. Consider making notes. In this thread I has many times deja vu. ;]

If You still not sure about that: ALL contents can be moved to another console or emulator. There are few exceptions which needs extra care but in majority of cases, it is matter of copy-paste stuff + restoring licenses + rebuilding database (if You would choose "my road" instead "PKG road").
Click to expand...

So what we're saying is this:

  • .rap describes GAME identity and associated permission to download it
  • .rif describes GAME identity and associated activated console hardware to be allowed to play it
  • Purchase from PSN requires activated console = GAME package + .rap
  • Download from PSN requires activated console = GAME package + .rap (this is not tied to hardware at this point)
  • Installation of GAME = GAME unpackaged + .rap converted to .rif (this becomes tied to the activated console at the time of unpackaging it)
  • If you have GAME and .rap for that game, then you can copy these on to a completely different hardware, either in packaged format, or unpackaged fully installed format.
  • If the console you're moving these to, is not activated with a PSN account, then.......?
 
Berion said:
  • Activating account via Apollo but if You will not create XML with Your info, it will be used random NP Account ID (which means all saves and trophies will loose ownership).
Click to expand...

Just a correction there, you can offline activate with Apollo Save tool and set a custom account-ID. So you can activate using your personal account-ID (assuming you have the ID value).
In the latest version v2.0.0 you can even input the account ID using the on-screen keyboard, so it's super simple.

By default Apollo will offer an auto-generated ID, but as mentioned, the user can edit the value with the screen keyboard.
 
bucanero said:
you can activate using your personal account-ID (assuming you have the ID value).
Click to expand...

Is this the value which appears at the top right of the screen when you select to display user ID from the menu options in (i think) Cobra, or is it PSN Tools? What's this value based on? From what you're saying here, you're suggesting I can recreate the act.dat file if I know this value....? rather than having to go back on PSN and activating the console there? Will this value be upset (changed) by me already pressing the option to create an activation file, or will it remain as it was, based on my email address and password still being there?
 
Rissy said:
Is this the value which appears at the top right of the screen when you select to display user ID from the menu options in (i think) Cobra, or is it PSN Tools? What's this value based on? From what you're saying here, you're suggesting I can recreate the act.dat file if I know this value....? rather than having to go back on PSN and activating the console there? Will this value be upset (changed) by me already pressing the option to create an activation file, or will it remain as it was, based on my email address and password still being there?
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I don't know if it's known how it's calculated, but you're given an account id by just creating an account. It's in decimal format, then converted to hex on the system iirc. You can get your id from a saved game I think.
 
@Rissy If You have PS4 and using the same account, just export save to USB. Main dir under SAVEDATA will be NP Account ID. ;) It is written also in "dev_flash2/etc/xRegistry.sys" which You should have it if followed my guide. Eventually, written in each save and trophy in PARAM.SFO under ACCOUNT_ID parram.

@Charles_n_town It is not decimal but hex, just written in plain text (or You referring to what xai_plugin displaying?).
 
I think I figured out how to get it from your psn account sign in. go to here: https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/ in your browser, make sure you have no ad blockers running, and sign in. press ctrl+shift+I (I'm using chrome) to enter debug settings. in the browser, on your account's page, go down to psn account (where it shows your avatar and whatnot in the right pane). with debug settings open, open network (may have to expand the box to show it), type https://web.np.playstation.com/api/basicProfile/v1/profile/users/me in the search box. there should be listed two occurrences. iirc, its the first one you want. then click on the response tab, and your account id will be there. it's in decimal format, so drop the all number account id into a decimal to hex converter, and there you'll have your 16 digit account id. I haven't tested if it's correct, so if someone who knows their account id can verify.
 
I'm home, and i've checked out the console again, and right enough, under PSN Tools, there is the option to display accountID. Clicking this, displays my accountID in the top right of the screen.

I've gone to some backed up save files from my PS3, on my laptop, and if I go to any of my save game folders for one of my games, and open up the "PARAM.SFO" file using Notepad; clear as day, you can read in plain numbered format, the same accountID. No hex conversion or anything like that required. I've checked a few save files in this way, and verified they all have the same accountID in there. So the console is still displaying my correctly configured accountID.

Now what? Is this useful to me? Can I create an act.dat from knowing this?
 
PARAM.SFO is not text file but amorphic. You cannot open it in text editor but hex editor. Besides that, there are few editors written for that file.
 
Berion said:
PARAM.SFO is not text file but amorphic. You cannot open it in text editor but hex editor. Besides that, there are few editors written for that file.
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I've opened it using Notepad ok. Some of it, granted, is in jibberish, but some of it is written in clear to understand English. It seems that titles of a bunch of information is written in English:

"ACCOUNT_ID ATTRIBUTE CATEGORY DETAIL PARAMS PARAMS2 PARENTAL_LEVEL SAVEDATA_DIRECTORY SAVEDATA_LIST_PARAM SUB_TITLE TITLE"

After this, presumably aimed at being under "ACCOUNT_ID" is my AccountID. Same as displayed on the console.


What's the difference between AccountID and PSID? They're both different. Is PSID the console equivalent of AccountID, basically hardware version of a person?
 
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@Rissy. At 0x140 offset. 16 bytes long. Taken from ASCII field. Do not read it by text editor because every value from ASCII range will be falsified due to become interpreted (i.e 20h become blank space). You can use hex editor ONLY or dedicated editor.
  • NPAID is id identifying user in SEN.
  • PSID is generated id for user ownership stuff in case he will not get npaid (which means he never log in to SEN and activated console and account; biding local account to network one).

@Charles_n_town Are You insulting me? ;D
 
Charles_n_town said:
I think I figured out how to get it from your psn account sign in. go to here: https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/ in your browser, make sure you have no ad blockers running, and sign in. press ctrl+shift+I (I'm using chrome) to enter debug settings. in the browser, on your account's page, go down to psn account (where it shows your avatar and whatnot in the right pane). with debug settings open, open network (may have to expand the box to show it), type https://web.np.playstation.com/api/basicProfile/v1/profile/users/me in the search box. there should be listed two occurrences. iirc, its the first one you want. then click on the response tab, and your account id will be there. it's in decimal format, so drop the all number account id into a decimal to hex converter, and there you'll have your 16 digit account id. I haven't tested if it's correct, so if someone who knows their account id can verify.
Click to expand...

I can't try this as I'm not allowed to login using that page, presumably because i have 2-step verification enabled.

I tried to do it from the page I AM allowed to login using, but I don't really know what i'm looking at. I certainly cannot see any evidence of the same AccountID as displayed on the console...!? The link I used: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/playstation-network/

Can the same thing be done using that link (somehow)?

Berion said:
@Rissy. At 0x140 offset. 16 bytes long. Taken from ASCII field. Do not read it by text editor because every value from ASCII range will be falsified due to become interpreted (i.e 20h become blank space). You can use hex editor ONLY or dedicated editor.
Click to expand...

You've lost me again. I've never used a hex editor before. Can you tell me what one to use, and what to do here please?
 
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