If you have searched for JKSV and been offered something called JKSM, you have met one of the most common confusions in Switch homebrew. They are related, they are by the same developer, and they are not the same program or even for the same console. This page settles which is which, once and for all. JKSV, the Switch tool, is on our download page. Platform explainers like this one are grouped from the comparisons hub.
The short answer
JKSM is a save manager for the Nintendo 3DS. JKSV is a save manager for the Nintendo Switch. Both were written by the same developer, J-D-K, and JKSV began life as a port of the 3DS tool, which is why the names differ by one letter and why search results constantly mix them. A file meant for JKSM will not run as a Switch tool, and JKSV will not run on a 3DS. If you own a Switch, the program you want is JKSV; if you own a 3DS, you want JKSM or the 3DS side of Checkpoint.
That one-letter difference also explains years of confusing forum answers, where instructions for one console are quoted at owners of the other. Always check which console a guide is about before following its file paths.
How the two are related
J-D-K originally built JKSM for the 3DS in 2016, when that console’s homebrew scene needed a dependable save manager. When the Switch scene developed, the concept was ported and became JKSV. The lineage then split decisively: in 2025 JKSV was rewritten completely, sharing no code with the older versions, while JKSM remains the 3DS tool. They are best understood as siblings by the same author for different hardware, not as versions of one product.
JKSV today is a GPL-3.0 C++ project at github.com/J-D-K/JKSV, with the current release tagged 12/02/2025. Its features — cloud backup to Google Drive and WebDAV, batch backups, all Switch save types — belong to the Switch program and say nothing about JKSM’s feature set on 3DS.
Which one do you need?
Own only a Switch: install JKSV and ignore JKSM results entirely; they cannot help you. Own only a 3DS: JKSM is your tool, and JKSV guides, including file paths like sd:/config/JKSV/ and output in /JKSV/, do not apply to your console. Own both: you may genuinely use both programs, one per console, plus Checkpoint if you prefer a single project that covers 3DS and Switch, as compared in JKSV vs Checkpoint.
Search engines will keep offering the wrong sibling because the queries overlap so heavily. Bookmark the right download page for your console and the confusion stops mattering.
Why this confusion keeps happening
Three forces keep the mix-up alive: near-identical names, the shared author, and a decade of forum posts written when only one of the tools existed in a given conversation. Add the Switch 2 questions now appearing in the same searches — answered in can you use JKSV on Switch 2 — and save-manager search results are a small maze. The reliable habit is to anchor on the console first, then the tool name.
More platform questions, including Switch save data types explained, are linked from the comparisons hub. Get the console right and every other instruction on the page suddenly makes sense.
A useful memory hook, if the names keep blurring: JKSM ends in M for the machine it manages on 3DS-era hardware, while JKSV is the Switch successor that grew out of it. Bookmarks solve the problem better than memory, though. Keep the JKSV download page saved if you are a Switch owner, and if a friend with a 3DS asks you for help, send them looking for JKSM by name and console together, so the search results they get are at least aimed at the right hardware from the start.