Reading Time: 7 minutesPhysical sticky notes are convenient because they’re so handy for jotting down quick notes. The Sticky Notes App on Windows 10 basically provides sticky notes in digital form. The benefit of this is that they are always accessible on our computers and viewable on your desktop. This is true unless you delete your notes by mistake.
This is more common than you would expect, so be careful when working with your desktop sticky notes. Have your sticky notes disappeared? If you do find yourself in a situation where your sticky notes were deleted, we will walk you through the process of recovering them below.
Sticky Notes Overview
Before we get into the recovery process, it will be helpful to explore some further information on sticky notes on Windows 10.
Sticky Notes Location on Windows 10
First, it’s helpful to know where to find sticky notes on WIndows 10. This information will be useful if you ever need to recover sticky notes. If you’re using Windows 10 Anniversary Update Version 1607 and later, the sticky notes file is stored in
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
The notes are stored in a file named plum.squlite. If you’re running Windows 10 version 1511 and earlier, you will need to go to
C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
and search for StickyNotes.snt. Knowing the location of the sticky notes file is helpful for recovering the notes as we will see later.
Reasons Why Sticky Notes May Be Gone
There are a few reasons why sticky notes may go missing. Here are a few of the most common reasons:
- ⚠️ The notes may have been accidentally deleted.
- 🗒️ A program may have corrupted the notes file.
- 🔌Power loss may have resulted in data deletion.
- 🦠 A virus may have resulted in the deletion of the sticky notes file.
Whatever the reason may be, we will cover how to recover sticky notes on Windows 10 below.
How to Restore Sticky Notes On Windows 10
When you delete sticky notes on Windows 10, they are still on your hard drive. Windows simply earmarks the space that the notes take up as being available for overwriting. This means that you have a chance to recover your notes. However, you need to attempt recovery as soon as possible to ensure that the notes don’t get overwritten.
Here, we will discuss the recovery of sticky notes on Windows 10 using various methods. Depending on your situation, one method may work out better for you.
Method 1: Restore Sticky Notes on Windows 10 With Disk Drill
Disk Drill is a versatile app that can recover over 400 different file types including sticky notes files. This makes it the perfect choice for the recovery of the sqlite file that contains your Windows 10 notes. Here’s how to recover Windows 10 sticky notes with Disk Drill:
Step 1. Download and open Disk and then select All Recovery Methods.
Step 2. With that out of the way, now select Search for lost data.
Step 3. After the scan has been completed, Disk Drill will display a list of results and you will have to browse to see if the plum.sqlite or StickyNotes.snt file which contains Windows 10 sticky notes has been recovered.
Step 4. After reviewing the files, if you have found what you’re looking for, then you can select the file and then hit the Recover button.
Method 2: Recover Sticky Notes on Windows 10 From Outlook
Sticky notes on Windows 10 sync to Outlook. This means that you have a chance to recover accidentally deleted sticky notes from your online account. Here’s how you can recover deleted notes from your Outlook account:
Step 1. First you will need to head to outlook.live.com and sign in to your Microsoft account.
Step 2. On the left-hand side of the user interface, you will see a Deleted Items folder. Click on it, select the notes that you want to recover and then select Restore. You will now be able to view the restored note in the Sticky Notes app.
Method 3: Restore Sticky Notes on Windows 10 With File History Feature
The File History option on Windows 10 is a powerful backup feature that is built into Windows. Even if you accidentally remove a file such as a sticky note from Windows, if you have File History set up, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to recover your file. This feature needs to be enabled or else you will be out of luck. For those of you who are curious about how to enable this feature, here’s how it’s done:
Enabling File History
Step 1. To get started, open the Windows 10 Settings app. Then head to Update & Security.
Step 2. Next, select the Backup option from the left sidebar.
Step 3. You will now need to select an external drive to back up your files to. Select Add a drive in order to achieve this.
Step 4. You will now need to set your files to be backed up automatically. Do this by toggling the Automatically back up my files option on.
Recovering Files With File History
If you have the File History feature enabled, you can recover files by doing the following:
Step 1. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup>More options and then selecting Restore files from a current backup.
Step 2. Now, you can browse to
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
and look for plum.sqlite if you’re running Windows 10 version 1607 or later. If you’re running version 1511 or earlier, you will need to go to
C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
and search for StickyNotes.snt. You will need to have the relevant folders included in your backup to do this. If you do, you can select the plum.sqlite or StickyNotes.snt file and then hit the green restore button at the bottom of the window to carry out the restore.
Method 4: Restore Deleted Sticky Notes on Windows 10 With Previous Versions
If File History is activated, then you will be able to use the Previous Versions feature as well. To restore deleted sticky notes files with the Previous Versions feature, do the following:
Step 1. Browse to
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
and locate the plum.sqlite file if you’re on Windows 10 version 1607 or later. If you’re on version 1511 or earlier, browse to
C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes
and locate the StickyNotes.snt file.
Step 2. Right-click on the file, select Properties and then choose the Previous Versions tab. You will then be able to select any of the previous versions of the file which may contain the deleted notes that you want and then restore it.
FAQ Section
Final Thoughts
The Sticky Notes app on Windows 10 allows you to make notes similar to what you would do with physical sticky notes. This is quite convenient as you can’t lose these sticky notes. However, it is possible to accidentally delete them. With that being said, if you find yourself in this situation, these sticky notes can be recovered by using data recovery software, by restoring a backup, or by using the File History feature on Windows 10.
