Creating Game Backups

Circumventing DRM mechanisms and/or creating backup copies of games and media for personal use is a right granted only in some countries. It is your sole responsibility to stay up to date with the law in your respective country. The information provided within this wiki is solely educational and its editors take no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information.

A great feature of custom firmware is the ability to create backups of your physical and digital game copies. You can create an ISO, PKG, or extracted folder copy of your game that is playable from a storage device on a PS3, or from a PS3 emulator such as RPCS3. Extracted folder versions of games use less disk space than ISOs, due to ISO dumps copying the entire disc with the original padding.

Creating game disc backups

Making backups (with Multiman on a PS3)

To back up a game to your internal or external hard drive, insert your disc into the PS3. Highlight the game disc in Multiman, press Triangle, and select "Copy". It will ask you to choose whether you want to back up your game to your internal hard drive, or an external. If the game has files greater than 4 GB and your external drive is formatted as FAT32, it will automatically split the files and the game will be unplayable until you move it to your internal drive. Alternatively, you can format your external drive to NTFS and use prepISO (previously known as prepNTFS) to bypass the 4 GB limitation.

Alternatively, you can select "Create ISO" to make an ISO version of your game. This will take up more hard drive space.

Making backups (with a PC)

The general requirements for a Blu-ray drive to be able to fully read PS3 games are that it uses a MediaTek chipset and a +6 read offset. If your PC only displays images in the disc's directory, it is not a supported Blu-ray drive.

If you have a Blu-ray drive that supports PS3 games, you can rip a Blu-ray disc by downloading PS3 Disc Dumper, putting the game into your PC's Blu-ray drive, and following the on-screen instructions of the app. PS3 Disc Dumper will also dump your game as decrypted. From there, you can play the game in a folder format, or create an ISO out of the files using GenPS3ISO GUI, which is bundled with AldosTools.

It's recommended to delete the PS3_UPDATE folder from the backup. It will reduce the total file size and prevents the game from prompting you for an update if you are on a lower firmware version.

List of confirmed supported drives with a MediaTek chipset:

ASUS BC-08B1LT
ASUS BC-12B1ST
ASUS BC-16D1HT
BENQ BR1000
HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH14NS40
Lite-On DH-4O1S
Lite-On iHBS112
LG BD BH14NS40
LG BD BH16NS40
LG BD BH16NS48
LG BD BH16NS50
LG BD BH24NS40
LG BD BH26NS40
LG BD UH12NS30
LG BD WH12LS30
LG BD WH24LS30
LG BD-RE WH16NS40
LG BD-RE WH16NS48
LG BD-RE WH26NS40
Samsung DVDWBD SH-B083L
Sony Optiarc BD 5300S
Stock PS3 Blu-ray drives with adapter

Suspected supported drives:

Lite-On ETDU108-32
Lite-On LH-20A1S
Lite-On SHM-165P6S

Creating a PSN game backup

In the event that you want to move your PSN games to another console, you have the option of creating a RAP file, getting a backup of the game's contents or PKG, and then installing and activating it on the second console with >=8.2 Cobra CFW or PS3HEN. You can create a backup of a PSN game with the following tutorial.

Backing up licenses

Apollo Save Tool

Apollo happens to have an easy & user-friendly way of dumping a console's RIF files directly as RAP files to a FAT32 USB drive, so it is the recommended option for backing up PSN licenses.

You just have to install the PKG file of Apollo to the intended console, launch the app, go to the User Tools menu, and select Export Licenses.

Manual Method

Download and extract RIF2RAP.
FTP into your PS3 and navigate to /dev_hdd0/home/0000000#/. The number will depend on your profile number; you may have to explore to find the account with the purchased PSN content. Copy the .RIF file of the desired game to the "data" folder inside of the R2R folder.
Navigate to /dev_hdd0/home/0000000#/exdata/ and copy the act.dat file to the "data" folder.
Open Multiman and select System Information. Write down your EID0 IDPS number.
Download and run HxD. Create a new file and type in your IDPS number, starting from the very left number. Save this file as "idps" inside the "data" folder in the R2R folder.
Run R2R.exe. Type "N" when prompted to use RAP2RIF. Type "Y" when prompted to use RIF2RAP.
An EDAT and RAP file will be generated.
- To install the RAP on a new system, put the RAP file on dev_usb000/exdata or dev_hdd0/exdata and launch the game with the syscalls for Cobra or PS3HEN enabled.

Getting the game files

Method 1: Getting the PKG entitlement links from a PSN account

With get-pkg-account, it is entirely possible to get the PKG download links directly from your account without even needing a modified PS3.

Navigate to the GitLab repository for get-pkg-account and download the tool.
Log into store.playstation.com
Access this link and copy the npsso value.
Open the command prompt to where get-pkg-account is extracted to, and type the following:
- get-pkg-account.exe list --ssotoken "(your npsso here)" --psdle > account.json
Once the command has been executed, the account.json file will be generated and will contain all the PKG links for your purchased content.

Method 2: Getting a PSN game folder backup from a PS3's HDD

Since the data from unpacked PKGs are extracted into their own folder in /dev_hdd0/game, you can play them as folder format with webMAN MOD by putting them into a folder called GameI on ps3netsrv or external storage. When played on internal storage, you can instead keep the backup inside /dev_hdd0/game/ like where they're normally installed to. Rebuilding the database with the new backups in that path will also add the icon to the XMB, but this will also remove any custom folders you previously created.

If you wish to dump untouched PKG bubbles downloaded from the PlayStation Store, they will be stored in /dev_hdd0/vsh/task/XXXXXXXX.

If you did a direct folder backup of official PSN content from the HDD, make sure you have the matching RAP license for your backup placed inside dev_usb000/exdata or dev_hdd0/exdata. TrueAncestor can also allow you to re-pack a backup in this format back into a PKG file.

If you wish to remove the requirement for a RAP license, you can also convert your PSN game into a DRM-free ISO or a folder format game by using PSN Liberator.

Method 2.1: Creating a PKG from a folder backup (TrueAncestor)

Download and install TrueAncestor 2.20 (or later).
FTP into your PS3 and navigate to /dev_hdd0/game/. Select the game you wish to back up and transfer it to the "game" folder inside the TrueAncestor folder.
Move the EDAT file from the RIF2RAP process into the edat folder, and the RAP file into the raps folder inside the TrueAncestor folder.
Under the Switch section, check that Patch PARAM.SFO is set to [ON]. If not, type in P and press enter.
Under the Switch section, check that Resign EBOOT.BIN is set to [ON]. If not, type in R and press enter.
Type 4 for "Repack Pkg" and press enter.
Type the number corresponding to your game in the list and press enter. The newly built PKG will be in the "pkg" folder.

You can now transfer the PKG to the secondary console and install it, and activate it using the generated RAP file.