FAQ / Support
Before contacting Hatena Customer Support, please check the Flipnote Hatena Help section and Frequently Asked Questions list on this page. If the Help section or FAQ do not solve your problems, please contact Hatena by using the support contact form.
When you contact Hatena, please be sure to include your Hatena ID and the email address that you used to register with so we can confirm your identity.
FAQ
Registration/account trouble
- The confirmation email to complete my Hatena registration has not arrived. How can I receive the email to complete my registration?
If you have not received your confirmation email from Hatena, we
recommend that you try the following:
1) Check your email client's junk mail folder and see if the Hatena confirmation email was mistaken for SPAM. (Please look for an email
with the first part of the subject titled [Hatena])
2) Visit
https://www.hatena.com/register.resend and enter the email
address you registered with to resend the confirmation email.
3) If you are still not receiving the registration email, change your
email client's SPAM filter settings to allow mailings from
register@hatena.ne.jp and register@hatena.com and repeat step #2
again.
- I made a mistake entering my date of birth when I first opened Flipnote Studio. How can I change it?
If you made a mistake entering your date of birth when you first opened Flipnote Studio on your Nintendo DSi please follow the steps below to fix your problem:
1) Delete the Flipnote Studio application from your Nintendo DSi and then reinstall it, and enter your correct date of birth at that time. (Please make sure to save any Flipnotes you have created to an SD card or they will be deleted)
a. To backup your Flipnotes, first tap on the wrench icon from the top page of Flipnote Studio, then tap on the right arrow three times, and finally tap on "Back Up Data".
b. To delete Flipnote Studio, first access "System Settings" from the DSi Menu, then tap on "Data Management", next tap on "Flipnote Studio", and tap "Delete" to erase the application.
After you have done this, go to the Nintendo DSi Shop and download Flipnote Studio again.
- How do I change my username on Flipnote Hatena?
On Flipnote Hatena, you have two types of identification: Your Hatena ID and your Creator name.
Hatena ID: Displayed next to Creator name in smaller normal text.
Changing your Hatena ID is not recommended
Creator name: Displayed in large bold text in your Creator's Room
You can change your creator name at any time from the DSi Menu by accessing "System Settings" -> "Profile" (Page 2) -> "User Name"
If you change your Hatena ID, you will lose all of your formerly earned stars and comments as well as your Flipnote Citizen status (if you have earned it). For this reason, we strongly recommend you do not change your Hatena ID unless it is absolutely necessary.
- Can two different Hatena users share one Nintendo DSi?
Flipnote Hatena was not designed to be shared by multiple users on one Nintendo DSi. If you link a different Hatena ID with your Nintendo DSi, all of the Flipnotes you previously posted will no longer be associated with your former Hatena ID.
- I have two children that each want their own Hatena account, but I only have one email address. How do I register my second child?
If you want to create more than one Hatena ID you'll need to use a different email address.
We recommend you create a free email account for this purpose if you don't have another one.
- What happens if I delete Flipnote Studio from my Nintendo DSi?
If you delete and reinstall Flipnote Studio, this will also cause some important information to be deleted which links your Nintendo DSi to your Hatena account. Unfortunately, we are not able to relink your old Flipnotes to your new account, as it is part of the way Flipnote Studio was designed.
The result of this is that you will have multiple Creator's Rooms, though you can only post to and control one of them.
If you want your older Flipnotes to appear in your current Creator's Room, you can try download the Flipnotes and post them again if you did not lock them, and they will appear in your Creator's Room as spin-offs of the originals.
We strongly recommend you do not uninstall Flipnote Studio or change your Hatena ID unless it is absolutely necessary.
In addition, if you send your Nintendo DSi to Nintendo for service or repairs please make sure that your Flipnote Studio information is copied from your old Nintendo DSi to your replacement Nintendo DSi, or you will lose access to your Creator’s Room.
- I purchased a new Nintendo DSi and would like to copy my Flipnote Hatena account information from my old Nintendo DSi to my new one. Is this possible?
You can link more than one Nintendo DSi to your Hatena account, however, you will now have two Creator's Rooms on the Flipnote Hatena website. It is not possible to merge the information posted from two different Nintendo DSi's into a single Creator's Room.
When you link multiple Nintendo DSi's to your Hatena account you can choose which one is your primary one on the settings page of your Creator's room on our website. Flipnotes posted from your primary Nintendo DSi will appear when people type your URL in their web browser (example: http://flipnote.hatena.com/your_user_name/)
You can also download your previously posted Flipnotes to your new Nintendo DSi and repost them from your new one, however they will appear as spin-offs of the original Flipnotes.
- What should I do if I have lost my parental control code?
If you have lost your Parental Control Code please contact us by using the form below to have it reissued.
Please be sure to include your child's Hatena ID and the email address that you used to register your child's account so we can verify your identity.
- I would like to cancel my account. How can I do this?
To delete your Hatena account you will first need to unlink your Nintendo DSi and Hatena account by doing the following:1) Login to Flipnote Hatena (http://flipnote.hatena.com) and access your "Creator's Room".
(If you have forgotten your password please access https://www.hatena.com/reminder to have a password reminder sent to you by email.)
2) Click on "Settings"
3) Click on the

icon in the box labeled "Linked Nintendo DSi accounts".
After you have unlinked your Nintendo DSi from your Hatena ID, you can delete your Hatena account by accessing the URL below and following the displayed instructions:
http://www.hatena.com/leave
Usage related issues
- How can I delete a Flipnote that I posted?
You cannot delete your Flipnotes via the website, and can only do so from Flipnote Hatena on the Nintendo DSi. If you wish to delete one of your Flipnotes you can do so on your Nintendo DSi by following the steps below:
1) Tap on "Creator's Room"
2) Tap on "Posted Flipnotes"
3) Tap on the Flipnote you wish to delete
4) Tap on "Details"
5) Tap on "Erase"
- How can I watch Flipnotes from other regions on my Nintendo DSi?
The content on Flipnote Hatena for Nintendo DSi is divided into three regions: “Americas”, “Europe & Oceania” and “Japan”. You can only watch Flipnotes from your own region on your Nintendo DSi system.
If you want to watch Flipnotes from other regions, you can view them by accessing Flipnote Hatena from a computer or with the Nintendo DSi Browser.
- I posted my Flipnote to a channel, but for some reason it is not appearing on the Nintendo DSi.
Flipnotes that you post will not be visible on your Nintendo DSi until 30 minutes have passed.
In addition, channel administrators can set their channels to display only Flipnotes that have earned a certain amount of stars.
Please try posting to a different channel and see if your Flipnotes are displayed properly there.
- Can I use the Mail function to send messages to other users?
You cannot use the "Mail" function of Flipnote Hatena to send mail to other users. The function to send mail to other users is only available in Japan, and cannot be used for the Americas region and Europe & Oceania versions of Flipnote Hatena.
Other Problems
- Someone copied my Flipnote without giving me credit. What can I do?
The spin-off function was designed to be fun and allow creators to work together and create new works based on other people's Flipnotes.
If you do not want other users to copy your work, we recommend that you upload your Flipnotes as
locked.
Every spin-off posted to Flipnote Hatena does have some portion of it that has been modified from the original Flipnote. There might be some spin-offs that look completely the same as the original with only very minor changes, but these are allowed on Flipnote Hatena as long as the original creator approves.
If you believe that your Flipnote has been copied with no
significant changes, please file a standard
inappropriate content
report with Hatena.
We will review the content and remove Flipnotes which we determine to be abusing the spin-off function. We will only accept these kinds of reports from the original creator of the Flipnote.
Please
do not use the Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement (DMCA complaint) form to report abuse of the spin-off function. The DMCA complaint form should only be used by the owner of a copyrighted work that has allegedly been infringed.
- My comments are not appearing for some reason.
During peak times, comments may take some time to appear on our website, and on the Nintendo DSi.
- I found a Flipnote that contains inappropriate content.
- Someone has been reporting my Flipnotes to harass me. What can I do?
Anyone can report content to us at Flipnote Hatena, and everything that is reported to us at Hatena is reviewed by our content moderators. If we discover someone is falsely flagging Flipnotes or comments, we may take away their ability to report content and/or suspend them from our service.
- Someone is writing mean or inappropriate comments on my Flipnotes. What can I do about this?
If you see any inappropriate content on Flipnote Hatena, you can report it to us through
the inappropriate content reporting process.
You can also block comments by a specific user if you are having problems with them by doing to the following:
1) Login to the Flipnote Hatena website
2) Access your Creator's Room
3) Click on the "Settings" tab
4) Adding the Hatena ID of the user you wish to block to to your Blocked Users list.
- I cannot report inappropriate content for some reason. What's wrong?
If your account has been used for suspected abuse of the report inappropriate content tool, or you have previously flagged items which are not inappropriate, Hatena may disable your ability to report Flipnotes at any time.
If this is an urgent matter, you can contact us using the support contact form below.
- My Flipnote did not violate any of the Community Guidelines, but it is no longer viewable or has been removed from the service. What should I do about this?
Hatena reserves the absolute right to remove a Flipnote or other content for any reason whatsoever.
Flipnote Citizen issues
- I just became a Flipnote Citizen, but I cannot create channels.
You cannot create channels until you actually receive an email from Hatena or a message on your Nintendo DSi telling you that you have reached Citizen status, even though the medal will appear in your creator's room before that mail arrives.
It should usually arrive within one or two days of the badge appearing at the latest.
- How can you lose your Flipnote Citizen status?
If you post any Flipnotes that are removed for violations of the Hatena Terms of Use you may lose your Flipnote Citizen status. Also, if you don't post any Flipnotes for 30 days you will lose your citizenship. However, if you post another Flipnote your citizenship will return within 24-48 hours.
Before contacting us
In addition to our FAQ, you can also find answers to your questions in the Flipnote Hatena help section or the Flipnote Hatena News Blog, where we regularly post information in regards to latest features of the service.
For technical questions about your Nintendo DSi and connecting to Flipnote Hatena or about using Flipnote Studio, please visit Nintendo's Tech Support Forums by accessing the link below.
Flipnote Hatena Support Center
If your support matter is urgent, or if you have encountered a serious bug, please contact us directly. Please include your name, email address and a description of the problem and send it us via our contact form. Our support staff will investigate your problem and reply to you by email.