Switch Do I need to break the bad news to my sister that our ACNH progress is lost?

[nacreousnereid]

Hi friends, my sister and i share and trade off a Switch. My daughter dropped our old system in a bucket of water, and aside from a small voltage it is totally inoperable, so I had to purchase a new system.
We share an Animal Crossing game, which my sister purchased on her Nintendo account, so I can’t redownload the game until i trade it off with her. She had a paid Nintendo Online account that lapsed quite a few months back. My N.O. Account is currently active (and I’ve backed up our island into dreams recently).
So my question is, will the game only pick up from where it left off when her N.O. Account was last active? Or is my active N.O. Account enough to backup at the true last progress? I want to tell her beforehand so that she’s not badly shocked if we are so far back. Thank you for your help.

 

[crunchyg]

Did you call Nintendo?

 

[nacreousnereid]

@crunchyg, I spoke to them on chat. They asked for my device serial number (why?) and said that an active Nintendo online account should be sufficient. I then said yes that would back up my data, but what about the person who owns the game who doesn’t have an active Nintendo online account? They then said not sure, it could go either way, since I didn’t purchase the game from my account. I guess we’ll find out. Asked here since I was hoping others had experience with this.

 

[nacreousnereid]

Well, a sad update for anyone reading, if anyone is. The glimmers of good news are that my sister did in fact have an active Nintendo Online account at the time, and also that we don’t have to repurchase the game. However, according to this article, it wouldn’t even be possible to transfer an old island to a new console regardless if even both consoles functioned perfectly. It’s just locked onto the original console. I’m guessing it’s because of the sheer size of the game. So yeah, 500+ hours of game play gone. Completely gone. That’s curtains on my island and probably Animal Crossing for the rest of eternity for me, it’s just too sad lol. I’ll miss you Prince Ed. Time to break the bad news to my sis.

 

[crunchyg]

That totally sucks, I feel for you guys

 

[nacreousnereid]

@crunchyg, Aw thanks, it’s a huge bummer but she was gracious and forgiving. Disappointed obviously but life goes on. Clean slate right?