Slow download speeds

DISCLAIMER: The developers of custom-install are not affiliated with hShop.

The download speed is too slow. Is there any way to make it faster?

Well, yes and no, depending on the situation.

Usually, the cause for slow download speeds is an unstable network connection or being too far away from your Wi-Fi router.

You can try:

• Getting closer to your Wi-Fi router. The 3DS's Wi-Fi signal strength isn't the best, so even small obstructions may severely disturb its signal.

• Temporarily disconnect unused devices from your network to free up bandwidth for downloads.

• Install the content manually by downloading the CIA directly onto your computer or another device using the provided direct download link, then copy the CIA onto your 3DS's SD card and manually install the content using FBI or use custom-install.
  Do keep in mind that you need roughly twice the amount of space the game takes up worth of free space available on your SD Card to be able to install CIAs using FBI.

However, there is only so much you can do to improve the speed.

Even though hShop has its download servers set up to have the fastest possible speeds (using HTTP), you might still experience slowdowns and request timeouts. To avoid these issues (especially for larger titles, like Pokémon X/Y, etc.), it is recommended that you manually download CIAs from hShop and install them using FBI or custom-install.

Another cause for slowness can be an abnormally large amount of contents in some CIAs (for example the Puyo Puyo Tetris DLC). The same solutions apply in this case.