Why can't I migrate Pokemon from gen 3 Sapphire to gen 4 Platinum?

Question

I was looking at all of the other similar questions, but none of the other users had exactly the same issue as I am, so any help would be appreciated.

I recently bought a copy of Pokemon sapphire from a local store, and I'm positive that it's not a bootleg (I did a lot of research to be sure of this). I was planning on transferring some of the starter pokémon to my Pokemon platinum before I started playing sapphire for real, but whenever I go to the menu on Platinum, no "migrate Pokemon" button comes up.

On platinum, I've beaten the elite 4 and obtained the national dex. I've been to the pal park and had a tour by the warden. Everything on that end seems like it's correct. On sapphire, I have eight Pokemon, six in my PC (none of which know HM's) and two in my party. I'm only in the first town with a Pokemon center, but from what I understand that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm also sure that my copy of Platinum is legitimate. I'm playing the two games both on the DS Lite, and when I attempt to migrate both games are inserted and clean. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be the issue?

(Additionally, I've also tried to migrate onto my Soul Silver and White games, but neither of those work. I have the national dex on Soul Silver, but not on White. I purchased Soul Silver from a reputable seller here and I bought White brand-new when the game was issued.)

Thanks guys!

Comments

Did you open up your Sapphire cartridge, look at the circuitry inside, and make sure it looked identical to that of a real Sapphire cartridge? If you already did, then I don't know how else to help with this.

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Thanks for the tip; I couldn't quite open it up but I help it up to the light and the back didn't match. The label and casing were all, somehow, identical to the original, and it said "2002 nintendo" on the right place on the circuitry inside (in the correct font as well, on top of the key-like things inside the mouth of the cartridge) but the back just looked wrong. Scary how good these fakes are getting... I'll return this copy tomorrow and go look at another store. Thank you!

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Tbh I'd say your Sapphire cartridge probably is legitimate. Idk fakes aren't usually that good lol. But regardless of the legitimacy of the cartridge, it's difficult to guide you in this problem since there's probably something specifically wrong in the hardware of the cartridge. Instead of fixing the problem, you might as well just return it if you can. It saves you a lot of effort.

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My fake copy of Emerald looked identical to the real one except for the circuitry inside. Don't underestimate fake cartridges.

Answer 1

This question has been answered through the comments to the question, so I'm just putting this here so any future people with the same problem can see. The copy of Sapphire turned out to be fake, which caused the issues with migrating. The cartridge looked almost identical to that of an original copy, but the circuitry inside looked nothing like it was supposed to. I have since purchased an actual copy, and the problem has been fixed; I've had no problem migrating since. Be careful when buying GBA games, guys!