Why have Pokemon X/Y copies recently started crashing when trying to render certain models?

Question

Booted up X (North American) the other day to do some chain fishing, was poking around in my boxes when my game crashed as I was moving over an Alakazam. After resetting the game, I went back to the PC and tried to hover on Alakazam again. The game crashed. This really freaked, (and continues to freak), me out. Through Pokemon Bank I released the Alakazam, (who did have a different OT but had no criteria that would fit a presumably hacked Pokemon). I haven't tried looking at it on the Pokedex in fear of crashing again, and I haven't noticed it with other models. I have never used a cheating device and this cartridge is old; it's the first Pokemon game I ever bought, back in 2016.

After searching around on the internet, I found this two-year-old Gamefaqs article about someone whose legit copy is crashing immediately after entering the 4th Gym. More importantly, I found this Reddit post from 2024 where someone has the exact same situation as I do, (and even shares a video). What intrigues me is that his copy of the game is digital, which probably rules out the possibility of it being a cartridge issue. Due to the time frame of all of these situations, it seems to be something that's started happening somewhat recently.

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I am concerned about multiple things. 1: I really don't want to lose this save file; not only is it my first, but it has a 100% complete National Pokedex and Shiny Charm, and I've caught over a dozen shinies on it. I would absolutely hate if it corrupted. 2: Does this have anything to do with the infinite-free-trial of Pokemon Bank? The number on the screen reflecting how many days are left has always been glitched, (for everyone), and I wonder if there are other glitchy aspects of the server/code now that are somehow affecting the games it connects to.

I understand this may be a 3DS hardware issue, but I find this to be extremely relevant to a certain crowd in the Pokemon community, and answers/solutions would be nice. As a side note, are these cartridges meant to last? Like, in all likelihood, will these X/Y/USUM cartridges still work 30 years from now?

Thanks for reading all that!

Comments

I can't answer this because of site rules, but I know about this through personal experience

Download PKSM or something to back up your save file if you're afraid of losing it.

I use PKSM to manage my boxes because it has insane quality of life features, and likewise, once upon a time, one particular Pokemon got corrupted while managing the box in the software. I could not hover over it in the PC without it crashing; just like what you described, except you did it legally. Download something to back up your save (I suggest PKSM since that's what I do, but there's other softwares and even more legit methods I'm not fluent with.) and that way you will always have a copy of the savefile if something were to go wrong.

Anyways, I'm 100% confident your Pokemon got corrupted while moving it around in Pokemon Bank, because the same thing happened to me (but different software). The Pokemon was legal, and I had moved it around before with no issues. Releasing it in my software fixed the problem for me. There shouldn't be any other issues; such is the risk you take with external softwares, legal or not. There's always a chance of corruption.

I hope this puts your mind to ease.

Edit to add: Yes, these cartridges are built to last, unlike the battery = save data in Gens 1 and 2. Everything of course will deteriorate over time, but take good care of it and it should last you a lifetime. Keep the contacts clean, store in safe places away from elements. One day it will perish like everything else, but if you're worried, back up the save file so you can slap it onto another cartridge if it happens.