How to Transfer an Individual Resident to a New Island (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)
In this article, you’ll learn how to move an individual resident (a single player) in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to an island on a new Nintendo Switch system.
Important:
Access to both the source Nintendo Switch system and the target Nintendo Switch system is required to transfer a resident. Local wireless must be enabled on both systems.
A copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on both systems is required.
The resident you want to transfer must already be living in a house.
The island resident representative cannot be transferred individually. You can only transfer the resident representative along with the entire island using the Save Data Transfer Tool. For steps to do so, see How to Transfer an Island to a New Nintendo Switch System.
Complete these steps
Will the player that you’re transferring use only the new Nintendo Switch system moving forward?
Yes
Transfer the User Data of the player from the source (original) Nintendo Switch system to the target (replacement) Nintendo Switch system.
This will transfer all software save data other than Animal Crossing: New Horizons tied to the user account to the target system.
Make sure that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is updated to the latest software version on both systems.
On the source system, launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons using any other user (such as the island resident representative).
Press the – Button at the title screen to open the Settings menu.
Select Move to a new island.
Select Move another resident.
It is not possible to move the island resident representative. You may wish to transfer the entire island to the new Nintendo Switch system in order to transfer the resident representative.
Select the name of the resident that will be moving, then select Yes, that is correct.
Review the details of the transfer process and select OK.
Select Yes, I’m Ready! and then Let’s do it! to send a transfer request.
On the target system, launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons using the user that you transferred.
Select I’m moving when asked by Timmy and Tommy.
Select Yes, I have! when asked if you have already sent a transfer request.
Select Start the process to search for the transfer request sent from the source system.
When the island name and resident’s name are displayed, select Yes, that is correct.
On the source system, select Let’s do it! to confirm the target Nintendo Switch you will be moving to. At this point, the transfer cannot be canceled.
After the message “Thank you so much for being patient. Everything is ready!” is displayed, you can close the game on the source system.
On the target system, you will arrive on the island and get to choose a location to set up the same house you had on the source system.
If you are the first user to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system, you will be the new island’s resident representative. Moving a house takes some time, so you will be sleeping in a tent on your first night on the island.
No, they will use both systems
Make sure that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is updated to the latest software version on both systems.
On the source system, launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons and select the user whose resident will be moving.
Press the – Button at the title screen to open the Settings menu.
Select Move to a new island.
Select Move me off the island.
It is not possible to move if you are the island resident representative. You may wish to transfer the entire island to the new Nintendo Switch system in order to transfer the resident representative.
Select Yes, that is correct.
Review the details of the transfer process and select Yes, I’m ready, then Yes, I’m ready! again to send a transfer request.
On the target system, launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons and select the user account that you want to use for your resident.
You cannot select a user that has already played Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system. If you need to create a new user account, see How to Add a New User Account.
Select I’m moving when asked by Timmy and Tommy.
Select Yes, I have! when asked if you have already sent a transfer request.
Select Start the process to search for the transfer request sent from the source system.
When the island name and your resident’s name are displayed, select Yes, that is correct.
On the source system, select I want to move to confirm the target Nintendo Switch you will be moving to. At this point, the transfer cannot be canceled.
After the message “Thank you so much for waiting. Everything is ready!” is displayed, you can close the game on the source system.
On the target system, you will arrive on the island and get to choose a location to set up the same house you had on the source system.
If you are the first user to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the target system, you will be the new island’s resident representative. Moving a house takes some time, so you will be sleeping in a tent on your first night on the island.