Help:Dumping PlayStation 3 games

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This guide explains how to obtain your PlayStation 3 (PS3) games and then use your backups with RPCS3. This process is often referred to as dumping and includes different processes depending on the format of your game. PS3 games are available in two formats: physical Blu-ray discs and digital PSN packages. For Blu-ray discs, dumping refers to decrypting the Blu-ray image and extracting all the files on the respective Discs. Whereas for Digital games and DLCs, it involves downloading the original game (.PKG) file and creating the necessary license (.RAP) file for it.

Overview

Before we begin, please read the Quickstart guide to familiarise yourself with how PS3 games are to be handled. Most of the tools and information covered here are already present there. This guide aims to elaborate on what is present in the Quickstart guide and help users avoid common mistakes. If you have questions after reading this guide, do not hesitate to join our Discord server and interact with the community members.

There are two ways to dump your games for RPCS3:

  • Disc games with either a jailbroken PS3 or a compatible Blu-Ray Disc drive.
  • PSN (digital) games and DLCs with a jailbroken PS3.

Note: In case the above information wasn't clear enough, for Disc games a jailbroken PS3 is optional as you can opt for a Blu-Ray Drive instead, but for Digital games and DLCs your only option is a jailbroken PS3.

Software Distribution laws in your country

When dumping video game software, users are subject to country-specific software distribution laws. RPCS3 is not designed to enable illegal activity. We do not promote piracy nor do we allow it under any circumstances. Please take the time to review copyright and video game software dumping laws and/or policies for your country before proceeding.

How to jailbreak a PS3 using PS3HEN

There are two ways of jailbreaking a PS3: PS3HEN or also known as HEN (Homebrew Enabler) and CFW (Custom Firmware). In this guide we will cover PS3HEN/HEN since it is compatible with every PS3 model and is also the safest, easiest and fastest jailbreaking option out there.

BEFORE PROCEEDING ANY FURTHER, FIRST MAKE SURE TO UPDATE YOUR PS3'S FIRMWARE TO THE LATEST VERSION!

  1. Insert a USB drive into to your PC and format it to FAT32 using Rufus.
  2. Download the HFW (Hybrid Firmware) PUP file from here.
  3. Extract the PUP file into your USB drive using 7-zip, the folder structure should look like this in the end.
  4. Insert the USB drive into your PS3 -> Turn your PS3 off -> Press and hold the power button -> Your PS3 will turn on again -> Keep holding the power button until the PS3 shut downs again -> Press and hold the power button once more until you hear 2 quick beeps -> You should now be taken into the console's Recovery mode.
  5. Connect your PS3 controller to the console -> Select System Update -> Follow the onscreen instructions and finish installing HFW -> Once booted into the OS, verify that the PS3 is activated.
  6. Once you have verified the PS3 is activated we can finally proceed with HEN installation. Open the PS3 browser and go here: http://ps3addict.github.io/alternate/
  7. Follow the on-screen instructions and complete the process. It may take a few tries so if you see failed errors it's fine, keep trying until it works.
  8. If all went well, you will see an option called Enable HEN on your home screen now (reboot the PS3 if needed), which means HEN has successfully been installed on your PS3!

How to install Homebrews on a jailbroken PS3

Before you can get to dumping the games for RPCS3, you first have to install a couple of Homebrews on your jailbroken PS3. In this guide we are mainly focusing on dumping Disc and Digital games (as well as DLCs), and for that purpose the following Homebrews will be needed/used:

Once you have downloaded the Homebrews above on your PC, place them on the root directory of your USB drive as shown in this screenshot (make sure the USB drive is formatted as FAT32 beforehand). Then insert the USB into your PS3, click Enable HEN on the XMB if you haven't already, then finally follow the steps in this imgur album and finish installing the Homebrews.

An important note about game dumping via USB

The PS3 natively only supports FAT32 format for USB drives and this format comes with limitations, the main one being it only supports transferring files in 4GB chunks. This is not ideal when you're dumping games that can sometimes be as large as 40GB. Best way to get around this limitation is to format your USB drive to NTFS with MBR partition scheme. This will increase the limit of external drives on the PS3 to 2TBs, which is plenty of space for us to work with. Note that only file managers like Managunz support this format, so if you are attempting to install homebrews and such on your PS3 later on, you have to format the drive to FAT32 again before doing so. That is to say, for game dumping use NTFS MBR, and for homebrew installation or anything else, use FAT32.

To format your USB drive to NTFS with MBR partition scheme, download Rufus and format your USB drive the way it's shown in this screenshot. Once formatted, your USB drive is now ready to be used to transfer games from your PS3.

(Optional) Using FTP instead of a USB drive

If you are interested in using FTP for transferring your files instead of a USB drive, you can definitely do that. This is the fastest way of transferring files from your PS3, but if you do this be sure to use an Ethernet connection. You can even connect your Ethernet cable directly to your PC from your PS3, it doesn't have to connect to your router (one end on your PS3's Ethernet port, other end on your PC's Ethernet port). The dumping guides below are written with the USB method in mind, but feel free to swap out the steps that mention USB drive with FTP if that's what you'd prefer using. Here's how to setup an FTP connection to your PS3:

  1. Locate and note down your PS3's local/private IP address in network settings on your PS3 (refer to this screenshot).
  2. Install webMAN MOD on your PS3, this homebrew will autostart an FTP server every time you boot up your PS3.
  3. Open Windows File Explorer on your PC and type ftp://Your-PS3-IP-Address-here into the address bar of File Explorer and hit Enter. Alternatively, you could use Filezilla Client. If using Filezilla, simply enter your PS3's IP in the host box and click Quickconnect (screenshot).
  4. You now have access to your PS3's filesystem over FTP!

Note: If you opt to use Filezilla Client, be sure to set the transfer type to Binary, otherwise your dumps may get corrupted.

How to dump Digital games & DLCs on a jailbroken PS3

Assuming you have finished jailbreaking your PS3, there's 2 ways of dumping Digital games and DLCs from a PS3 console:

  • PKG Format: Start the download of the Digital game/DLC from the PS store and select Download in Background, let it finish downloading. When it is done, you will see its installer is listed in your games list on the XMB (PS3's home screen). DO NOT INSTALL IT YET! Open Managunz and navigate straight to /dev_hdd0/vsh/task/XXXXXXXX and the PKG files will be waiting for you there.
  • Folder Format: If you already have the digital game(s) or DLC(s) installed on your console then navigate to /dev_hdd0/game/ and look for the folder(s) named after the game's serial (such as NPUBXXXXX or NPEBXXXXX etc). You will simply need to copy these folder(s).

Note: In regards to folder formatted DLC(s), if your base game for the DLC is a disc copy then the DLC's folder may be named after your game disc's serial instead, like BLUSXXXXX/BLESXXXXX etc.

Transferring these to your USB drive: Insert your NTFS MBR formatted USB drive into your PS3, it'll now show up in Managunz as an ntfs:0 entry on the list (Refer to this screenshot). Copy your Digital game or DLC in whichever format you're interested in from their directories shown above, and paste them into this USB drive. Wait for them to finish copying (here's what the transfer progress will look like), and once that's done you can move the files to your PC.

Installing these Digital game and DLC dumps on RPCS3: After moving them to your PC, if you dumped your game in PKG format, simply drag and drop the .PKG file into RPCS3's window to install them. If you dumped your game in Folder Format, simply drop the folders you copied in /dev_hdd0/game/ directory in your RPCS3 folder.

How to backup the license (.RAP) files for Digital games & DLCs from a jailbroken PS3

We have covered how to copy the Digital games and DLCs from your PS3, but for them to work on RPCS3, we must also make a backup of their respective license files. These license files are known as .RAP files. The manual way of backing up .RAP files is quite a lengthy process. Instead, here is a fast and easy way to backup your .RAP files for all your Digital games and DLCs using Apollo Save Tool on your PS3:

  1. Open Apollo -> Select User Backup -> Export Licenses -> Export all licenses as .RAPs (refer to this screenshot).
  2. Apollo will save your .RAP files in \dev_hdd0\home\0000000x\exdata (folder 0000000x can be 00000001 or 00000002 etc if you have multiple user profiles on your PS3).
  3. Copy these .RAP files to your USB drive using Managunz and transfer them to your PC.

Installing these .RAP files on RPCS3: To install your backed up .RAP files on RPCS3, simply drag and drop them into RPCS3's window, or manually place them in /dev_hdd0/home/0000001/exdata in your RPCS3 folder.

Note: If you notice that your .RAP file is missing/not being backed up for a certain Game or DLC there's an easy fix for this. Start a download for the game on your PS3. You can now pause and cancel the download immediately after the download begins to prevent all the game files from being re-downloaded to your PS3 again unnecessarily. The point of doing this is because the license files are always the first to be downloaded and will remain in the PS3's file system even after the download is cancelled. Now repeat the steps above on Apollo again and the .RAP file should successfully be backed up this time.

How to dump Disc games on a jailbroken PS3

Assuming you have finished jailbreaking your PS3, here is how you dump Disc games from a PS3 console:

  1. Insert your Disc into your PS3 and open Managunz File Manager.
  2. Insert your NTFS MBR formatted USB drive into your PS3, it'll now show up in Managunz as an ntfs:0 entry on the list (Refer to this screenshot).
  3. Go inside the USB drive and make a folder named after the game you're about to copy from its disc. The reason to do this is so that it is easier to keep track of what's being transferred, especially if you are about to transfer multiple games from several discs.
  4. Now go back and go to dev_bdvd on the list (this is your disc's directory). Copy everything in this folder, go back and paste them in the game folder you created in your NTFS MBR formatted USB drive earlier.
  5. Now you can see the game files being copied to your USB drive (refer to this screenshot for an example).
  6. Let it finish transferring and you're ready to finish the rest of the steps on your PC!

Installing these copied Disc dumps on RPCS3: Simply place your copied game folders in /games inside RPCS3's folder. Alternatively, you could place the game folder anywhere you want on your PC and drag and drop it into RPCS3's window (doing so will add the game folder's path to RPCS3's games configuration file automatically). Now restart RPCS3 and the game(s) should show up on the Games List in RPCS3's GUI.

Note: These disc dumps will be copied in JB Folder (basically Folder format) format. RPCS3 does not support ISOs, so make sure you're not selecting any option that says "copy as ISO". Follow the steps above as they're written and you will be fine.

How to dump Disc games using a compatible Blu-ray drive on a PC

This is the second method to dump disc games and will prove useful for those who do not have a CFW PS3 available. However, please note that this method has the following requirements to work:

  1. A compatible Blu-ray drive is mandatory. This means that not every Blu-ray drive can be used but only those that are specifically found capable of reading PS3 discs. A list of compatible drives are available on our Quickstart guide. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list but rather a list of discovered drives that are known to work. Drives not present in this list might work if they have a Mediatek chipset and a +6 read offset.
  2. This method requires an external key for the decryption of the disc. This is only possible if your game has:
    • an .ird file available in this IRD Database that matches your game's title ID.
    • a decryption key obtained from Redump. These keys are currently not public but can still be used with our One-click disc dumper method as mentioned below.

If you know and have confirmed that you do have a compatible Blu-ray drive, then you have 2 recommended tools available to dump your disc:

  1. The first and recommended method is to use 13xforever's One-click PS3 Disc Dumper. As the name suggests, it's the easiest tool to use and is currently the only tool that can take advantage of the decryption keys from Redump. Click here for instructions on its use.
  2. The second tool is a command-line tool for Linux users called LibRay. It cannot take advantage of Redump's decryption keys, but for any disc that has an .ird file available, it should work without any issues. Click here for instructions on its use.

Creating .ird files

If you lack an .ird file or a decryption key for a game and you have a CFW PS3 you can create your own .ird file using the instructions below:

  1. Install the full version of Managunz on your PS3.
  2. Launch it and insert your game disc into the PS3.
  3. Highlight the game disc and press Triangle then select Dump decrypted Blu-Ray disc.
  4. After it is finished the .ird file can be found here.

Note: You can set your uploader username in ManaGunZ settings under Blu-Ray dumper section.

What's next?

If you've done everything correctly, you will have a successful dump of your game or content.

To check if your Blu-ray disc or PSN package was dumped correctly, click here.

If you are stuck somewhere, or if something in this guide is confusing for you and you have questions, or if you need help regarding anything in this article, please join our Discord server and ask for support from our community members.

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