Hacking your Wii hasn’t been difficult, but it has required a somewhat detailed process. Now we have LetterBomb, which is an incredibly simple way to hack your Wii. It only takes about five minutes to accomplish. Here’s how to do it.
Music by Comptroller
First things first, you’re going to need the following:
- A Nintendo Wii, obviously, but make sure it’s running System Menu 4.3
- An SD or SDHC card with some free space — it can have other stuff on it.
Step One: Get Your Wii’s MAC Address
Before we can do anything, we need to go find your Wii’s MAC Address. Go to your Wii’s home screen and click the Wii Options button. Once it loads, choose Wii Settings. From there, navigate to the second page and click the Internet button. Finally, click the Console Information button and you’ll have your Wii’s MAC address. Either write this down or just leave it up on your screen.
Step Two: Generate the LetterBomb.zip File
Now get on your computer and go to please.hackmii.com and enter your Wii’s MAC address. You’ll also need to type in what you see in the captcha image. Once you’ve filled those things out, cut the red or the blue wire. It doesn’t really matter. This will generate a LetterBomb.zip file that will start downloading.
Step Three: Prepare the SD Card
Now insert your SD or SDHC card into your computer, because we’re going to need to copy some files onto it. First, unzip the LetterBomb.zip file on your computer. Next, drag the contents of the zip to your SD or SDHC card. When it’s done copying, eject it, and put it in your Wii.
Step Four: Open the LetterBomb
Back on the Wii, head on over to the Wii Message center. There’s going to be a new message for you with a bomb in it, but where that message is going to be will depend on your time zone and when you generated the file. In most cases, it will be in yesterday’s mail, but it could be today or a couple of days ago. You’ll know when you see it. When you’re ready to pull the trigger, just click on the LetterBomb message icon. The process will take about a minute, so be patient. You’ll have a hacked Wii when it’s done.
If you run into any issues along the way it’s probably because you don’t have the right version of the Wii System Menu. If you try to use LetterBomb with the wrong version, it’ll freeze your Wii. Not to worry — just force-reboot your Wii, make sure you update properly, and try again. Obviously you want to do the update beforehand, but in the event you forget it’s not really a big deal.
Step Five: Install BootMii and the Homebrew Channel
Once LetterBomb has done its thing, it’ll tell you to press 1 to continue. Do that and you’ll be able to use your WiiMote to start installing things. What you’re really interested in is the Homebrew Channel, but BootMii will provide you with some extra features (like backup). Once everything is installed, you’ll be all set.
LetterBomb [Hack Mii]
GamerKitsune
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 7:20 AMi did all the stuff you said to do until opening the letter with the bomb on my wii, the thing is, I can’t find it! I looked in the today,yesterday,a couple days ago, and tomorrow slots and nothing is there. Did you mean check tomorrow as in 24 hours, or the slot? please help!
Murray
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 12:06 AMWhen I click on Bootmii from the homebrew channel my wii remote turns off and and won’t turn back on so I can’t do anything from that point. Someone please tell me what to do or if I am doing something wrong. Thanks. And once I do that how do I get games on it?
Bry
Friday, August 26, 2011 at 5:54 AMSame problem here… remote turns off and/or wii is frozen?!?!
jobay
Monday, August 29, 2011 at 5:29 PMYes bootmii mode kills the remote as mentioned in here below the heading “Running Bootmii Through HBC” & under sub header “Extra Note”; http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_setup
Essentially you have to use the power & reset buttons to control it’s menu.
RLPreston
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 10:40 AMI use the plug in gamecube controller once my wiimote stops working because there is no support for wireless wiimotes.
Bobo
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 12:38 PMI wish you guys released this tutorial like a week ago :( I had to do the smash stack exploit which was quite a bit more effort than the letterbomb, but at least I know how to do it for later usage if need be :) Lifehacker you da bomb
Phil Inglis
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 1:18 PMYep. Same here. Message didn’t come through. Tested Internet connection and it said I should update system. I did and now I doubt it will work.
Dr_Stef
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 1:52 PMThe ‘somewhat detailed process’ link had been broken a long time ago. I tried googling the more basic stuff on how to get backing-up and running from a hardrive to work with 4.3e.
From what I can see there you can, but it requires you to install all sorts of files, and there is a huge risk you will brick your Wii if you do it wrong.
Is there any chance you guys can create a new one that is fairly easy to understand?
Dr_Stef
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 1:54 PMI got as far as installing a usb loader,
but I have no clue about things like IOS222 to 2XX, wadmanager. Wad files.
And above all, if it is actually worth doing
all this if your Wii has the 4.3e update.
Dr_Stef
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 1:58 PMThis link to be precise. not working. sorry
http://www.mikeandheth.com/games/97-connect-wii-usb-hard-drive.html
furgurgenurg
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 3:49 PMAnyone successfully do this hack???, as last week I tried to do my neighbours 4.3 but i need a game disk that I dont have the original of
Dr_Stef
Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 9:05 AMThe hack is no problem, it was only 3 days down the email list for me. I got bootmii to make a backup of my Wii. Installed homebrew, works like a charm. However am stuck on making stuff load from usb. it says I need ios 224 or higher.
furgurgenurg
Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 2:49 PMThis link should help..
http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/47766-install-ios202-222-223-a.html
Carol
Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 8:56 AMHow do you update your Wii if you are not at system menu 4.3.
Mine is on a lower version and was soft modded years ago. It’s just been collecting dust in the closet.
furgy
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 2:02 PMcheck out wiihacks.com (forum), I dont know if it would be better to upgrade to 4.3 and then run this hack or just do the 4.1 or 4.2 hack on the website, Gotta say after doing a hack on the 4.1 , this one looks heaps easier
Da
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:15 PMDo I really need an SD thing or can I use a USB
josh
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:16 PMyeah da, you need to use an SD card.
i wouldve thought that there wouldve been some other way to do it, but aparently SD cards are the only way…im stuck because of this myself, all my SD cards are lost/broken.
jatily
Monday, August 29, 2011 at 3:20 PMevery thing installed and verified on screen homebrew comes on with music,waves and all every thing, but when i click on start it go’S TO HOMEBREW BUBBLES.THIS IS WHERE I AM.ICANT UNDERSTAND DONE EVERY RIGHT ALL HELP NEEDED,THANKS HOW ABOUT IT Adam Dachis we need more help with your post thanks again.
christian Martinez
Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 1:40 PMcan you do this with a usb plz help
Dotty
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 9:35 PMI also didn’t find the letter but then i noticed there is a 15 minutes difference from the PC and the wii. I fixed time on wii and the letter appeared in yesterday. Hope this helps.
RLPreston
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 10:42 AMMaking sure the time and date was correct on my Wii was key for met to get letterbomb to work.
Shaggy
Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 1:56 PMOk so i did exactly as many toturials said i even used different size SD cards (2 and 4) and neither worked never found that bomb. Ive never tried the time to see if its set right but ill try that. Just cant seem to figure it out :/
atman
Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 3:38 AMHi i having trouble istalling the bootmii.i was abble to istall homebrew’s channel,but as soon as i try istall bootmii,its startes but never finishes..What did i do wrong?
scoobs
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 12:50 AMHey.. when I click on the letterbomb.. my Wii freezes. Any help on that? I am using 4.3E
Kevin Tang
Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 2:57 PMGreat video its helped so much and literally only took minutes and with out this video i have been tryin to install homebrew channel for days haha but thank you so much!!!!
rs
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 5:40 AMWorked just fine!
Frank
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 8:17 AMInstalled just fine! Only problem is when I run the homebrew channel and launch bootmii, the screen goes black. Any solutions?
Frank
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 11:35 AMhow do i get the homebrowser or hack games like black ops?
Rotub*
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 5:12 PMWorked for me. Thanks!
DigitKid14
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:03 AMOkay, slight problem.
Every time I plug my SD Card in with the correct files on it, I never can find it in the message board. I have changed times to normal, Formatted my SD Card time and time again, and essentially no matter WHAT I do, I cannot get the letter to appear. Yes, I am on 4.3u, I inserted the MAC Address correctly, made sure it was bundled and everything. WHY does my Wii not like me?!
Oh, and don’t tell me to do a game exploit (i.e. SmashStack) because the disk drive on my Wii is busted.
Any help at ALL is appreciated.
s
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 3:56 AMmy letterbomb file doesnt seem to be zipped when i download it, therefore i cant unzip it and it doesnt work. what do i do
s
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 3:58 AMp.s. i have a mac
elaine
Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 6:00 PMi had no problems whatsoever, thanks so much for the hack. to everyone who is having trouble with their wii freezing, read the instructions properly before starting – it says right up the top you need to be running 4.3 MINIMUM.