Title Database

These files contain data relating to install/usage/management of installed 3DS titles. The database files are located at:

• nand/dbs
• sdmc/Nintendo 3DS/<ID0>/<ID1>/dbs

ID0 is the first 0x10-bytes from a SHA256 hash. The installation of SD Card titles was introduced in the 2.0.0-2 update and the SD dbs files are encrypted by the general SD filesystem encryption rule. These files are DIFF containers. These DIFF files do not use external IVFC level 4, so all database data is duplicated in the container. In this page only the inner content of the container is described.

These files are only created on SD (via AM) if they don't exist when the eShop application is starting up, during network init etc (prior to showing the "system update required" dialog).

These files are stored under this directory:

Stored on SD card	Stored in CTR-NAND	Filename	CTR-9DB0 ID	Description
No	Yes	ticket.db	0x0	This contains the installed tickets (NAND and SD).
No	Yes	certs.db	0x1	This contains the certificate chain used to verify TMDs and other certificates.
Yes	Yes	title.db	0x2	Title database, this contains entries for all installed titles (TWL & CTR) on the 3DS (Each database is responsible for titles installed on its medium).
Yes	Yes	import.db	0x3	This is an Import Database, it contains entries for titles (or versions of titles) not yet installed, ready for transferring to the title.db. (Automatic Update uses this, so completing the update takes seconds.)
No	Yes	tmp_t.db	0x4	This is the temporary Title database containing one entry for the currently installed Download Play Child.
No	Yes	tmp_i.db	0x5	Similar to import.db, except it's used in conjunction with tmp_t.db, for installing Download Play Children.

The inner content of the container consists of a pre-header with size of 0x80 identifying the Database Type, followed by a BDRI container. The offsets in the BDRI header are usually relative to the offset to the start of the BDRI header (0x80 in the file)

Pre Header

Start	Length	Description
0x00	8	Database Type "Magic" (see below)
0x08	0x78	Reserved

For ticket.db different pre header is used:

Start	Length	Description
0x00	4	Database Type "Magic" (see below)
0x04	0x04	Unknown (always 0x00000001 ?)
0x08	0x04	Unknown
0x0C	0x04	Unknown (0x30 smaller than previous one)

Database Magic

Database Type	Magic
CTR-NAND ticket.db	TICK
CTR-NAND import.db	NANDIDB
CTR-NAND title.db	NANDTDB
CTR-NAND tmp_i.db	TEMPIDB
CTR-NAND tmp_t.db	TEMPIDB
SD Card import.db	TEMPTDB
SD Card title.db	TEMPTDB

BDRI

This is a variant of FAT filesystem. It consists one "root" directory and multiple "files". Each "file" is one title info entry described below.

Title Info Entry

An entry contains information taken from both the application NCCH file(s) and TMD.

Start	Length	Description
0x0	8	Title Size
0x8	4	Title Type(usually 0x40)
0xC	4	Title Version
0x10	4	Flags_0
0x14	4	TMD Content ID
0x18	4	CMD Content ID
0x1c	4	Flags_1
0x20	4	ExtdataID low (zero if title doesn't use Extdata)
0x24	4	Reserved
0x28	8	Flags_2
0x30	0x10	Product Code
0x40	0x10	Reserved
0x50	0x4	Unknown
0x54	0x2c	Reserved

For ticket.db title info contains a small header and actual ticket data:

Start	Length	Description
0x0	4	Unknown (always 0x00000001?)
0x4	4	Ticket data size X (=0x530)
0x8	X	Ticket data

Flags_0

Index	Description
0	Electronic Manual
1	?
2	?
3	?

Flags_1

Index	Description
0	SD Save Data
1	?
2	?
3	?

Flags_2

Index	Description
0	DSiWare Related (Visibility on Home Menu/Export Flag?)
1	?
2	?
3	?
4	Found with DSiWare Titles and titles with an 'Application' Title ID
5	DSiWare Related (Visibility on Home Menu/Export Flag?)
6	?
7	?

NOTES:

It is important to note the database doesn't contain a hash of the .cmd. So if a user has more than one valid set of application data for a given .cmd Content ID they can be manually interchanged without issue. Though renaming a .cmd file to match the Content ID which the title.db is expecting will result in an error, as the CTR for the per-console encryption layer changes depending on the file path, and the MAC of the .cmd is probably generated with the .cmd Content ID in mind.

These NAND/SD /dbs images seem to be loaded by the ARM9 while NATIVE_FIRM is booting.

Removing ticket.db from a New-3DS with signature checks disabled will not result in an unbootable system, however all icons except Slot-1 will disappear from Home. Applets can however still be used. Recovery can be accomplished via hardmod or arm9loaderhax plus a known good backup of the file (or the whole partition or disk); Gamecard exploits were not tested, and Browserhax did not work.