Ryujinx is a Nintendo Switch emulator for PC, and one of its most-used features is continuing a game where the real console left off. Because JKSV exports genuine save files and Ryujinx stores saves in its own per-game folders on the PC, the two can exchange saves for the same game. This guide explains the transfer in both directions and its conditions. You need JKSV from our download page on the console side. More workflows are on the game saves hub.
The condition that makes it work: same game, same version
A transferred save is only meaningful to the copy of the game that matches it. Keep the game and its version the same on console and emulator before moving a save in either direction, because a save written by one version can be rejected or misread by another. This is the single rule behind most failed transfers, and it is entirely within your control: update or hold versions deliberately around a transfer, and note the version in the backup’s folder name so future-you knows what it belongs to.
On the console side, export with JKSV as an unpacked folder, not a ZIP, because you will be placing the actual save files into Ryujinx’s folder structure on the PC. The export lands in /JKSV/ on the SD card, ready to copy across.
Console to Ryujinx
Back up the game for your user in JKSV, copy the backup folder to the PC, and locate Ryujinx’s save directory for that title — Ryujinx organises saves per game inside its own data folders, and you can open the relevant save location from within the emulator’s interface for the title. Before replacing anything, copy Ryujinx’s existing save folder somewhere safe, because the emulator may already hold progress you want back. Then place the console save files into that location, keeping the file structure as exported, start the game in Ryujinx, and confirm your console progress is what loads.
If the game reports no save or damaged data, do not experiment destructively: restore Ryujinx’s original folder from your safety copy, then re-check the two usual causes — mismatched game version, or files placed one folder too high or too low.
Ryujinx back to console
The return trip mirrors the first. In Ryujinx, let the game save normally and close it cleanly, then copy the save files from Ryujinx’s folder for the title into a JKSV backup folder structure on the SD card, matching how JKSV laid out the original export. In JKSV on the console, restore that backup under the same user, then launch the game and verify the emulator progress is present. Working with a known-good exported folder as the template for structure is the reliable method; do not improvise the layout.
Treat edited or emulator-side saves with the same caution as any modified save where online play is concerned, and keep the pre-transfer backup from each side until both are verified. The general editing loop is covered in the Pokémon and PKHeX workflow.
A tidy two-way routine
Players who regularly swap between console and PC benefit from a naming habit: date every export, note the direction and game version, and keep one archive folder per game on the PC holding the chain of snapshots. That archive doubles as your backup history, and adding the cloud routine from our cloud backup hub protects it off the PC as well.
With versions matched and structures respected, console and emulator stop being separate save universes. See also console-to-console Zelda transfers and exporting emuMMC saves to PC for the neighbouring workflows.
Keep expectations calibrated in one more respect: transferring a save moves your progress, not your entire setup. Settings, installed update data and the game itself must already exist in matching form on the receiving side, which is why the same-version rule in this guide matters so much. Handle the transfer as one step in preparing the emulator or console — game installed, version aligned, save placed, then verified in play — and the process is dependable. Skip the alignment steps and the same process looks broken for reasons that have nothing to do with JKSV.