Recovery

There are various ways to recover from a bad installation, usually result of bad configuration or misbehaving plugins, which may lead to crashes and even bricks.

Recovery Menu

This option allows you to boot up a Recovery App with settings and plugins completely disabled to prevent issues. You can use this app to change settings, plugins and use a file browser for various recovery operations.

The Recovery App is installed on Memory Stick located at /PSP/SAVEDATA/ARK_01234/RECOVERY.PBP and can be changed to just about any homebrew in PBP format.

To load into the Recovery App you must hold the R trigger while turning on the PSP console or running ARK Loader. You can also do the same when running any of the Bubbles on PS Vita, either Adrenaline or Standalone (except for ARK-X).

Vanilla Mode

If the Recovery App is unavailable (i.e. Full Installations), or for a better/easier diagnostics, you can run ARK in Vanilla Mode, which temporarily disables settings and plugins when running ARK or booting any game.

This will load the XMB as original as possible but you can still use features such as the VSH Menu or XMB Control (which will let you reconfigure all your settings and plugins), it also works for games.

To enable Vanilla Mode simply hold select and/or start during bootup or gameboot to disable settings and plugins respectively.

The effect of Vanilla Mode is temporary and goes away on the next game boot or reboot unless you enable it again.

Official Firmware (for PSP Permanent Installations)

For any PSP user that has a Permanent installation (i.e. Infinity or cIPL), you always have the option to boot the console in Official Firmware mode, which completely disables all Custom Firmware functionality until the next full reboot. Pandora or Baryon Sweeper (for PSP

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If the console is Bricked and none of the above helps recovering the system, the last resort is to use a Pandora Battery or Baryon Sweeper in combination with a Magic Memory Stick.

You can find steps to install Despertar del Cementerio for Pandora models in this document.

For Baryon Sweeper users, you can use this tutorial here