What Folder Are Games Installed To on a Homebrew Switch SD Card?

If you're running custom firmware (CFW) on your Nintendo Switch, understanding where games and related files live on your SD card is essential for managing storage, troubleshooting, and keeping your setup organized. The folder structure isn't random — it follows a consistent logic once you know what each directory is for.

How Homebrew and Game Files Are Organized on the SD Card

When you set up a homebrewed Switch with CFW like Atmosphère, your SD card becomes the central hub for almost everything: the CFW itself, homebrew apps, dumped game files, and save data backups. The folder structure is a mix of Atmosphère-specific directories and Nintendo's own internal folder system — both coexist on the same card.

Here's what the top-level structure typically looks like:

Where Installed Games Actually Live: The /Nintendo/ Folder 🎮

This is the key answer. When you install a game to the SD card — whether it's a dumped cartridge (XCI or NSP format) installed via a title manager like Goldleaf, Tinfoil, or DBI — the installed title files end up inside:

/Nintendo/Contents/registered/ 

This mirrors exactly how the Switch handles games installed to an official microSD card through the eShop. The files are stored in Nintendo's encrypted NCA (Nintendo Content Archive) format, organized into subfolders with hashed names. You won't see a tidy "GameName.nsp" file sitting there — the contents are split, encrypted, and named with long alphanumeric strings. This is intentional: the Switch OS reads and manages this directory directly.

You should not manually move, rename, or delete files inside /Nintendo/Contents/registered/ unless you know exactly what you're doing. Doing so can corrupt your title database and cause games to disappear from your home menu.

Where Homebrew Apps Are Stored: The /switch/ Folder

Homebrew applications — things like emulators, file managers, media players, and utilities — use a completely different location:

/switch/ 

These files carry the .nro extension and can be launched through the Homebrew Menu (accessed by holding R while opening an album or a compatible app). Unlike installed games, .nro files are standalone. You can drop them directly into /switch/, organize them into subfolders, and delete them without any risk to your title database.

Some homebrew tools also create their own subdirectories inside /switch/ to store config files and data — for example, /switch/Tinfoil/ for Tinfoil's settings.

What About XCI Files and NSP Files Stored Directly?

Some users keep their game files as raw XCI (cartridge image) or NSP (packaged software) files on the SD card without installing them. These can be stored anywhere you choose — there's no required folder. Common conventions include:

• /XCI/
• /NSP/
• /games/

These are just personal organization folders. Title managers like Tinfoil and DBI can scan custom directories you point them to. The files only become "installed" once a title manager processes them and writes the contents to /Nintendo/Contents/registered/.

Atmosphère and System-Level Files

The /atmosphere/ folder handles CFW operations and doesn't store game content, but it does house a few things worth knowing:

• /atmosphere/contents/ — where LayeredFS mods live. Game mods that replace assets go here, organized by Title ID.
• /atmosphere/config/ — system settings for CFW behavior
• /atmosphere/exefs_patches/ and /atmosphere/kip_patches/ — low-level system patches

If you're applying game mods or cheats, this is where those files belong — not in the Nintendo directory.

Variables That Affect Your Specific Setup

The folder structure above describes the standard Atmosphère + Hekate setup, which is the most common homebrew configuration. But several variables can shift what you see on your own card:

• CFW version — Older or alternative CFW setups may use slightly different directory structures or additional folders.
• Title manager choice — Tinfoil, Goldleaf, and DBI each handle installation similarly but may store config data in different locations.
• SD card formatting — The Switch requires FAT32 or exFAT. exFAT is officially supported but can cause issues with some CFW tools; FAT32 has file size limits that affect large XCI files.
• emuMMC vs. sysMMC — If you're running an emuMMC (emulated NAND on the SD card), there will be an additional partition or folder (commonly /emuMMC/) that mirrors the system NAND. Game data installed to emuMMC lives within that partition's own Nintendo directory, separate from any sysMMC-installed content.
• SD card size and organization habits — With large cards (512GB+), some users keep separate folder structures for raw files vs. installed content, which changes where you go looking for things.

Why the /Nintendo/Contents/registered/ Structure Matters

Understanding that installed games live in a Nintendo-managed directory — rather than a simple folder you can browse like a file cabinet — changes how you approach storage management. 🗂️

If you want to remove an installed game, do it through a title manager or the Switch's own data management menu, not by manually deleting folders. If you're checking how much space a game is using, your title manager will give you that information more reliably than browsing the folder directly.

The distinction between installed titles (in /Nintendo/) and uninstalled game files (wherever you've stored your XCI/NSP files) is also practically important: only installed titles show up on your home menu. Raw files sitting in a /games/ folder do nothing until a title manager installs them.

Your exact experience will depend on which tools you're using, whether you're on emuMMC or sysMMC, and how your SD card is partitioned — each of those choices shapes what your directory looks like and where you need to go to find or manage specific content.