Transferring Miis in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream lets you bring residents from existing Nintendo Mii rosters onto your island without creating them from scratch, share residents between multiple Switch systems in the same household, and carry forward Mii data from previous Nintendo hardware. This guide covers every transfer method available and the important details about what transfers and what does not when moving Miis between systems and games.
The most straightforward Mii transfer method in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is importing from your Nintendo account’s Mii roster. If you have created Miis in Nintendo Switch Sports, Wii Sports, or any other Nintendo software that uses the Mii system, those Miis are stored on your Nintendo account and can be imported directly into Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream during the resident creation process.
To import from your Nintendo account:
The appearance data transfers completely through account import. Personality, relationship configuration, and all other gameplay-relevant settings must be set manually for each imported Mii, the same as a newly created resident.
Understanding exactly what data moves during Mii transfers in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream prevents confusion when transferred residents behave differently than expected.
| Data Type | Transfers? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance (face, hair, features) | Yes | Full transfer from Nintendo account import |
| Mii name | Yes | Transfers with appearance data |
| Personality settings | No | Must be set manually in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream |
| Gender and pronoun settings | No | Set manually during creation |
| Relationship history from other games | No | All relationships start fresh on the island |
| Food preferences | No | Discovered through in-game testing only |
| Island history (levels, friendships) | No | Each island instance is independent |
Households where multiple people play Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on separate Nintendo Switch systems can share Mii data between islands through local wireless connection. This allows one player to transfer a Mii they have created to another player’s island, enabling coordinated island building where specific residents appear on multiple islands simultaneously.
The sharing process connects two Switch systems in close proximity and allows direct Mii data transfer between them. Appearance data transfers completely. Personality and relationship settings transfer as configured on the originating island — which means the receiving player gets a Mii that behaves according to the sending player’s personality assignment rather than needing to reconfigure from scratch.
This is particularly useful for households building coordinated cast islands where both players want the same Mii roster with consistent personality assignments. Creating the full roster on one Switch with carefully considered personality settings and then transferring to the second Switch ensures consistency across both islands without requiring duplicate creation work.
While Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream does not have a dedicated Mii backup system within the game itself, Nintendo account synchronization provides a practical backup mechanism for appearance data. Miis linked to your Nintendo account can be re-imported if your island data is lost or you start a new island instance.
Personality settings, relationship configurations, and all gameplay-generated data — food preferences, friendship levels, relationship history — are stored in the island save data rather than in the Nintendo account Mii roster. This means appearance data is recoverable through account import, but the island-specific configuration information requires manual reconstruction if save data is lost.
Players who invest significant time in carefully configuring personality settings for a large cast often document their personality assignments externally — noting the four axis settings for each resident — so that reconstruction after data loss is straightforward rather than requiring memory of every individual configuration decision.
If you choose to start a fresh island in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream while maintaining access to your previous island, Mii data from the previous island can be imported to the new one through Nintendo account synchronization for appearance data. Island-generated data — relationship history, food preferences, Mii levels — does not carry over between island instances.
This means starting a fresh island effectively resets all residents to blank slates from a gameplay perspective, regardless of how much island history they accumulated on the previous island. Many players find this reset quality appealing for creating themed restart islands — fresh instances with a new cast and a clean social history that develops in an entirely different direction than the original island did.
Mii data from the original 3DS Tomodachi Life does not transfer directly to Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream due to differences between the 3DS and Nintendo Switch Mii systems. However, if the original Miis were linked to a Nintendo account during the 3DS era, the appearance data may be accessible through account import. Personality settings from the 3DS game do not transfer regardless of account linkage — these need to be reconfigured manually for Living the Dream’s updated personality type system.
Sharing a Mii to another player’s island through local wireless does not remove the Mii from the originating island. Both islands can have the same Mii resident simultaneously — they are independent instances with separate relationship histories and island experiences. The two versions of the same Mii can develop completely different personality expression outcomes on their respective islands depending on the social environments and player management approaches on each island.
Transferred Miis arrive on the receiving island as new residents with no pre-existing relationship history. Any friendships or romantic relationships they had on the originating island do not transfer — they start fresh with every other resident on the new island. If you want a transferred Mii to have a pre-existing relationship with another specific resident on the new island, use the relationship pre-set feature during the transfer configuration to establish that connection before the Mii is placed in a bungalow.