Nintendo switch: can you copy "save data" to external storage? If yes, how?

[jeanid]

In the past I have lost all my data:

• When my harddrive broke on my PC
• when my daughter's tablet broke and she lost all of her Minecraft worlds from the last three years

Ever since those two incidents I do regularly scheduled backups.

I want to do regularly scheduled backups on the Nintendo switch because I want to avoid losing my daughter's entire animal crossing island from the last many years.

Can you copy "save data" to external storage? If yes, how?

Where external storage means: an SD card or hard drive (spinning or solid state).

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P.s. I looked at this question here https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/360909/how-can-i-transfer-my-games-from-the-system-memory-to-my-micro-sd-card to try and answer this question... But it is different because it is only interested in copying game data... Not "save data" files.

[emran]

As of today, the only way to backup your Nintendo switch "save data" files is to pay Nintendo yearly for their service called "Nintendo Switch Online"

https://www.nintendo.com/switch-online - Individual & Family Membership ... Get an Individual Membership for only $19.99 or a Family Membership for $34.99 per year. Play together online in...

• I searched and found this https://www.nintendo.com/ph/support/switch/data_management/index.html which states clearly that you can not copy "save data" files to external storage.

• Additionally I found this third party source which concurs that you can not copy "save data" files to external storage.