Topic: StreetPass Relay lowered to 3?

[UncleBob]

Has anyone been making use of the StreetPass Relay system lately?  It seems like I'm only getting three Miis whenever I visit one anymore....

[Shaymin]

I'll check tomorrow, but given who's asking I'm going to assume the other three slots were taken up by three of your systems.

[UncleBob]

That can't be it.  You can hit the same Mii on several different relay points.  So, if two of my 3DS systems hit the relay point first, then, when my third 3DS hits that point, it should pick up my two 3DSs plus four of the other systems from that relay point...

[Shaymin]

Went to two different McDonalds yesterday, got 6 at each. Friend dropped in today to seed for the Bravely Default demo and got 6 too.

[Stratos]

I've always gotten 6. Last time was on Monday. I'll keep a lookout though.

[Mop it up]

Maybe you didn't stay long enough to pick up all six?

[Nemo]

Some relay stations, I tend to get less.

I have a few theories why...

Theory 1: Relay Station holds the last six streetpasses, irregardless of whether they are repeats or not. So, if Robert McBurger works at McDonalds and brings his 3DS during his 9 hour shift, he gets 2 street passes per day. If that McDonalds doesn't have many customers with 3DSs, after 2 days, Robert might fill 4 out of the 6 available slots. Result: you only get 3 streetpasses: one from Robert and 2 from other customers.

Theory 2: The relay station only holds one streetpass from each 3DS, but you can only access streetpasses since your last visit. Theoretically, a new streetpass relay would always give you 6 streetpasses. However, if only 3 more people streetpass that relay station since your last visit, the next time you go there, you only get 3 streetpasses; You don't receive the older streetpass data that you already got on your last visit.

Theory 3: It works in some other way. Nintendo never really explained how exactly their relay stations hold and send their data. I don't really have any reliable way of testing out either of these theories with definitive results.

[RedBlue]

I go to a relay station that does not get a lot of 3DS  traffic because I keep getting the exact same miis in the exact same order.

So here is my theory on how it works.

Each relay station has 6 slots, so first 3DS comes in and gets added to slot one an so on until all of them are filled. If you come in and are number 7 you will push out the oldest (slot one) and will now be number 6. If you go to the same relay station the next day and only get 5 and will continue to get 5 until you are pushed out of the line.

[Nemo]

There are relay stations that I go to, where I often only get 2 or 3 streetpasses (the McDonalds near my gym).

I've also gone to a different McDonalds (that I'd never gone to) a month ago and only got 2 streetpasses.

(There are also other relay stations that I've gone to where I most often get 5 or 6 streetpasses.)

[RedBlue]

I went back to the same relay station and only got 3 instead of the normal 4. That makes me think that the Miis expire after x amount of time

[Khushrenada]

On the whole streetpass mystery and theories, I've got something to share but maybe it is known whether this is fact or fiction already.

So, I've been stopping various McDonald's for a couple months and I've been racking up a lot of streetpasses and many times I was seeing familiar Mii's over and over again. This was great for giving me powered up Mii's for Find Mii and acquiring puzzle pieces. A couple weeks ago, I had one puzzle where I needed 3 pieces for it. I've still got like 10 other puzzles I'm working on but I was hoping to complete it and then have that puzzle out of rotation so that when I used my play coins to buy new pieces, there wouldn't be the chance of getting repeat pieces for that puzzle and wasting the coins. I stopped by various McDonald's like usual but was getting nothing. No streetpasses at all. I was wondering if maybe they'd shut off the service suddenly. I went to the movie theatre Tuesday and for the first time, I didn't get any streetpasses. I have no idea the last time that would have happened. So, this got me wondering what could be causing it.

I looked and saw I had 300 play coins. I spent 30 of them on puzzle pieces (including get more duplicate pieces for the one I'd hoped to finish). I then went to McDonald's the next day and got a couple streetpasses. However, since I only got 2 instead of the usual 5 or 6 and since the people tagged where brand new and not other Mii's I kept getting when visiting that store, I still wasn't sure if that was the problem or if there had been a reset on the streetpass servers.

This morning, I met up with someone at a McDonalds for breakfast and had my 3DS with me. After eating, I checked it and saw that there was no green light for streetpass occurances. I opened the 3DS and saw I was back at 300 play coins. I quickly spent 4, and the put the 3DS in sleep mode. I checked it after a minute and boom, the green light was on! But again, only had a couple streetpasses and from new people.

Anyone else know if the 300 play coins prevents streetpassing or not? Anyone else notice a change suddenly in relay stations?

[UncleBob]

Anyone else know if the 300 play coins prevents streetpassing or not? Anyone else notice a change suddenly in relay stations?

I can say the 300 coins thing does not.  My main 3DS has had 300 coins on it for awhile and I still get Streetpasses.

[xcwarrior]

Maybe you didn't stay long enough to pick up all six?

It's always instant. Whatever you get when the light goes green is all of them.


I got 6 like a week ago, so I think you are just having bad luck. I've gotten as low as 3 before.

[Stratos]

The relays do rely on people passing by to be able to relay data. I'm sure low traffic areas and times of day could just lead to less passes in the queue. And employees may turn equipment off at night that power the relay and cause it to do a reset on the data it was holding, leading to fewer passes for the first few hours of the day.

[RedBlue]

for the past 3 days I've not gotten any street passes on my regular stops, i.e McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. Are you guys getting street passes?

[Khushrenada]

Actually, yes. I finally decided to try and see if I could get streetpasses again at McDonald's so I went yesterday to one that had worked before and went to an area of the restaurant that I had worked in the pass. I checked the 3DS and it said the Nintendo Zone service was available and I launched it to make sure. For once, it actually connected something it wasn't able to do when I was getting no streetpasses at the time I made my previous post in this thread. I then put my 3DS into sleep mode and after a minute, the green light flashed and I had 4 streetpasses including one from Saint Kitts and Nevis which was very random. Today, I went to another McDonald's that had worked for me and after about a minute wait there, I had another 4 streetpasses made there also. It seems McDonald's has booted up the Nintendo Zone service in my area again.

[jvgsjeff]

for the past 3 days I've not gotten any street passes on my regular stops, i.e McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. Are you guys getting street passes?

I didn't get any hits from two of my three usual locations the past few days. I don't know if it's coincidence or if something has changed, but it was quite unusual for me.

[Shaymin]

I saw some weird behavior today - went to a Streetpass meet near a McDonalds that I've gotten a full six from in the past. It didn't light up for two hours, but then I got two hits of six in five minutes.

[pokepal148]

People on NW have had similar issues

[roykoopa64]

Are the StreetPass relays working again? I haven't had a chance to hit a Nintendo Zone lately. Last week, no matter where I went (McDonalds, Home Depot, Burger King, and so on), I wasn't getting any StreetPasses even though the Nintendo Zone was working just fine (& these are places I regularly get at least several StreetPasses whenever I visit).

[RedBlue]

It's seems to be working again. I was able to get some on Friday. I didn't try over the weekend so after work I'll try again.

[roykoopa64]

I guess today's not my day: I just stopped by Burger King where I always pick up StreetPasses at the N. Zone and didn't get any. I wonder if the relay stations reset recently and I'm the first one to pass StreetPass data? I don't know.

[roykoopa64]

Yay! I stopped by Starbucks today and got my StreetPasses, so at least now I know it's definitely up and running again.

I only got 3, but luckily they all gave me new puzzle pieces, and I was able to get the last piece to complete both the NSMBU and M&L: Dream Team panels.

[majere1222]

i have a similar problem with my streetpass when going to a relay point, i only pick up three at a time, but if i wait a couple more minutes the light will flash again and pick up three more, sometimes i pick up the same person more than once in the same location, especially if after the first time i pick up i go and take care of my stuff and put it back to sleep and wait for the light to go off.  Sometimes the people can be in there for quite some time with no new changes to anything.  But it will always only pick up 3 at a time i have to wait a couple minutes to get the next 3.  And this happens at every hotspot that i have visited in the past month. I have visited 8 different hotspots, some in big cities, others in small towns but it still does the same thing with only 3 at a time.  Usually i get repeats from the same person and have even picked up the same person twice in one go at the same hotspot so after waiting for the 2 different pick ups, it shows i got only 5 and tagged somone twice.