Sticky Notes - Backup and Restore

How to Backup and Restore Sticky Notes in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   Information

Sticky Notes allows you to type and leave a Post-it type note on your desktop until deleted.

Sticky Notes is not available in the Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic editions.

This tutorial will show you how to backup and restore your Sticky Notes in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 version 1511 and earlier.

EXAMPLE: Sticky Notes

OPTION ONE

To Back Up Sticky Notes

1. Open Windows Explorer (Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8), and copy and paste the location below into the address bar, and press Enter.
%AppData%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
2. Save a copy of the StickyNotes.snt file to where you like as a backup of it. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This file is your backup of the current Sticky Notes on your desktop.

OPTION TWO

To Restore Sticky Notes

1. Delete all Sticky Notes you currently have on the Desktop if any.
NOTE: If you do not, then the backed up StickyNotes.snt file from Option One will not be able to replace the other one in step 4 below.

2. In Windows Explorer (Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8), navigate to where you saved the backed up StickyNotes.snt file at, right click or press and hold on the StickyNotes.snt file and click/tap on Copy.

3. In Windows Explorer (Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8), and copy and paste the location below into the address bar, and press Enter.
%AppData%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
4. Right click or press and hold on an empty area in the "Sticky Notes" folder, and click/tap on Paste. (see screenshot below)

5. Click/tap on Copy and Replace. (see screenshot below)

6. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type stikynot, and press Enter.

7. Your Sticky Notes included in the backup from OPTION ONE have now been restored.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Backup and Restore Sticky Notes in Windows 10
• How to Create and Delete Sticky Notes in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change the Color of a Sticky Note in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Format Text in a Sticky Note in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Change the Default Font in Sticky Notes in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Enable or Disable Sticky Notes Delete Confirmation in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[carlos28355]

I am dealing with a headache of a problem with file history back up...anyways i manually put my StickyNotes.snt file from my back up to appdata>roaming>microsoft>stickynotes (which i believe ive done in the past no problem. But now when i try to open sticky notes after that i get this message "Not able to launch Sticky Notes. Issue with accessing the file.(Quit)" If i open my back up in notepad I can see notes so I know its there. I believe its 3 sticky notes worth of data. Ive already tried sfc /scannow but no luck. Any ideas? Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

Hello Carlos,

Sounds like a permissions issue.

Double check the StickyNotes.snt file in the %AppData%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
location to make sure that you have ownership of it, and that permissions are set to allow you "Full control".

Take Ownership of file

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/122666-permissions-allow-deny-users-groups.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[carlos28355]

Hey Shawn thanks for responding again to all my nightmares...I have permission even added permission for "everyone" with full control and it does the same thing still

 

[Brink]

Odd, it's currently working just fine for me in Windows 8.1.

Is the file named exactly StickyNotes.snt?

You might check to see if the .snt file may be blocked. If so, unblock it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/124367-open-file-security-warning-unblock-file.html

 

[carlos28355]

I dont see the option to unblock it in properties. Im just going to call this one a corrupted file even though i can still access the data if i open the file in notepad. sticky notes work fine until i try to replace the file with my back up...ill just recreate them all and copy and paste my data.

 

[Brink]

It sure seems that way.

 

[plumpf]

hi
i have problem in recovering snt.

in the location there was snt file i renamed it to some other name. i copied another snt file and launched sticky notes. but sticky notes will only display the notes in my file which was renamed.

there are notes in the file that i want to recover (i can see its contents if i open it with notepad) but i am unable to open it with stickynotes.

should i delete sticky notes as shown in step 1 ? is it the reason ?

 

[Brink]

Hello Plumpf,

Yep, that would be the reason. Just be sure to back them up first if you like.

 

[shtupel]

Thank you. AWESOME gude

 

[ElizabethBCN]

Deleted sticky notes return with PC startup

How can I permanently delete my sticky notes? Every time I re-start my Windows 7 Pro PC, all deleted sticky notes reappear...even from several weeks ago!

 

[Tookeri]

Do you have any program installed to prevent system changes? That could restore the stickies during restart.

 

[ElizabethBCN]

Not that I am aware of. However, I get requests from sticky notes to synch with evernote or googledrive etc.. however, I do not have any sunchronization set up. I actually do not want to synch outside of my PC. I just use sticky notes on this PC for local (office) reminders.
When I start up my PC, in addition to my current 3-4 sticky notes, I get about 50 old ones!
Thanks for helping.. Elizabeth

 

[Tookeri]

ok, but are you using Evernote or Google Drive?

What security related programs do you have installed?

 

[Brink]

Hello Elizabeth, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are these notes from Evernote?

If so, then this tutorial will not help with that. The tutorial is only for the Sticky Note feature included in Windows.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/6275-sticky-notes-create-delete.html

 

[cowpoke]

Hello, just want to confirm a few things.

I had 6 sticky notes.... came to the PC today and see only 3....
I assume someone else deleted the others.

Read online that by going to the ...... StickyNotes.snt file and right clicking I can restore.

This seems different than the instructions here ?? although they may be dated....
Indeed if I do that I see a restore option, (haven't done that yet) wanted to confirm what way would work best.

Also; I opened the .snt file with word pad, and can see what appears to be "all" of the sticky's, even the ones that don't show ?

So is there something internal to the .snt file that keep those SN's but doesn't SHOW them ?

 

[Brink]

Hello cowpoke,

The .snt file is basically the database file for Sticky Notes.

I find the method to manually backup and restore your .snt file like in the tutorial on the first page here is the safest way.

The "Restore previous versions" item you see in the context menu of the .snt file is to be able to restore a previous version (if available) of the .snt file instead like in the tutorial below.

:ar: Previous Versions - Restore Files and Folders - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[cowpoke]

Thanks
I understand that part.

So how come I can see the missing notes in the .snt file, but they don't show when SN is opened ??

 

[Brink]

The .snt file will still retain the contents of any deleted Sticky Note until a new one is created.

 

[cowpoke]

Thanks brink.

So it being a database, something pulls from it ? so there must be key that say's don't pull these notes (even though they are in the .snt file) is that correct ?

p.s. when you say
"The .snt file will still retain the contents of any deleted Sticky Note until a new one is created. "

the "new one created" refers to, a new sticky or a new .snt file ?

Sorry for the q/a

 

[Brink]

Sorry, when a new sticky note is created, the contents of a deleted sticky note will be cleared from the .snt file.

Think of it like the clipboard when copying and pasting.