How to troubleshoot the new Sticky Notes app on Windows 11

On Windows 11, if you have the new Sticky Notes app but your notes are missing, you can still perform some troubleshooting steps to get them back, and in this guide, I’ll explain the steps to complete the process.

Microsoft is gradually rolling out a new version of Sticky Notes integrated into the OneNote app. The new experience is similar to the legacy version, but now includes an option to take screenshots, dock the app to the side of the screen, and requires OneNote to be installed.

While the app is meant to modernize the experience with new visuals and capabilities, the launch isn’t going as well as the company had hoped. A small group of users reported a few issues, including lag during scrolling due to a lack of smooth scrolling support and syncing issues, with some users noticing that their notes were no longer available.

If you can’t find your notes after the new version of the app installs on your computer, you may be able to recover them from the app’s database by reinstalling the app, uninstalling the updated version of OneNote, forcing a resync, or using the legacy version of Sticky Notes.

In this guide, I’ll explain a few troubleshooting suggestions you can try to recover your notes because the new version of the application has been installed on your computer.

How to fix sticky notes on Windows 11

If you’re having issues with Sticky Notes, try the following troubleshooting steps.

Force sync sticky notes

If you notice that your notes are gone in the new app, it’s important to note that the legacy version of the app is still available. Therefore, the first step is to open the old Sticky Notes app (the without THE “Preview” label) from the Start menu.

Legacy sticky notes

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

If you can’t find your notes, you can sign out of both apps and sign back in with the same Microsoft account to trigger the sync process again.

Log out of your Sticky Notes legacy

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

The login option for the new app is available through the OneNote settings.

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

If the notes are available on the old version but don’t sync with the new version, you may need to transfer them manually by copying and pasting each note.

Retrieve sticky notes from database

If your notes are missing from the new Sticky Notes app built into OneNote and you can’t open the legacy app, you may be able to retrieve your notes from the database the app uses locally on your device.

To recover your Sticky Notes from your local database, follow these steps:

Open File Explorer.
Navigate to the following path: %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
Select plum.sqlite file and click on Copy button on the command bar.

Sticky Notes database file

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Open another folder location such as “Downloads” folding.
Click on Paste button on the command bar.
Open Start.
Search for Notebook and click on the top result to open the text editor (leave the application open).
Open Start again.
Search for Order promptright click on the top result and choose Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to install the SQLite Studio application to open the database and press Come in: winget install –id sqlitestudio.pl.SQLiteStudio

winget installs SQLite Studio

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Quick note: You can use any application designed to open and browse a database. In this guide, I choose to install the SQLite Studio application. In the Microsoft Store, the app is listed for $1.29, but apparently you can also install it directly from the Store with “wing” command. After recovering your notes, you can uninstall it.

Right click on the copy of the file plum.sqlite file and choose Open option to mount it on the database viewer.

Sticky notes plum db

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Navigate to the following path: plum > meals.
Double click on Note mass.
Click on data tab.
Confirm the content of each note in “Text” column.

Sticky Notes Table

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Right click on the cell and choose Copy option.

Copy the contents of the table to the clipboard

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Switch to Notebook the application.
Open Edit menu and choose Paste option.

Notepad paste sticky notes

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Repeat the steps 15, 16, and 17 to retrieve your other notes.

Quick tip: Remember to delete “\id=” and the number to clear the note.

After completing the steps, you will have your grades again. Now you can recreate the notes in the new app.

If the database is empty, you may be able to recover the notes using an older version of the file. That is, of course, if you have a system backup.

Reinstall old sticky notes

If you don’t want to search the database, you may be able to recover your notes by reinstalling the app.

If the old Sticky Notes app is missing, you may be able to install it again from the Microsoft Store by following these steps:

Open Sticky notes download page.
Click on “Show in store” button.

Microsoft Store download Sticky Notes

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Click on Obtain (or Installbutton).

Install the old sticky notes

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Once you’ve completed the steps, launch the old Sticky Notes from the Start menu and you should now have access to your notes.

Uninstall OneNote (temporarily)

If you can’t open the old version of the app, sometimes removing the newer app will make the old app available again.

To temporarily uninstall the OneNote app, follow these steps:

Open settings.
Click on Applications.
Click on Installed applications page.
Click the three-dot button for Microsoft 365 and click UNINSTALLING button.

Uninstall the OneNote app

(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Quick note: This process will also uninstall Word, Excel, and other Office applications if they are installed on your computer. If your computer includes only the OneNote app, removing the Microsoft 365 app will only remove the OneNote app.

Click on UNINSTALLING button again.

Once you’ve completed the steps, the old Sticky Notes app should open with all your notes.

If you’re not interested in syncing your notes across devices and new features, you can still download and install the classic version of Sticky Notes that was introduced on Windows 10.

The classic version has been repackaged as an “.exe” that can run alongside old and new versions of Sticky Notes.

More resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to frequently asked questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:

How to troubleshoot the new Sticky Notes app on Windows 11

By Matthew. Jr

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