Everything is uncertain. As far as cliches go, perhaps none is more popular than this short quip often reiterated in wisdom or psychological traditions worldwide. But if you’re a Windows user you probably already know this.
Computers, particularly the Windows operating system, are prone to all sorts of bugs and errors that can cost you vast amounts of your data. This is why backups have made it big—they keep you safe by restoring your data even when you get hit by data loss out of the blue.
And when it comes to Sticky Notes, things are similar. If you use Sticky Notes in any regular capacity, you must keep regular backups of your data. So, let’s look at how you can do that, too.
How (and why) to back up Sticky Notes?
As we said above, Sticky Notes is a great tool to jot down your thoughts or creative ideas you’d later like to work on. Got stellar ideas, but you can’t overthink about them? No problem; you can quickly pen them down and then take a shot at them later. Amazing, right?
And while it’s true that tech makes things more accessible, it’s not bulletproof. Like the rest of your PC’s data, your short notes are also susceptible to abrupt data loss.
Indeed, if you have been using the Sticky Notes apps for noting down cool passing ideas of yours, it’s high time you started taking a backup for them as well.
So, with the ‘why’ out of the way, let’s now look at how you can go about doing that exactly. While the backup of your Sticky Notes tends to be similar in spirit, the exact workings will differ. In short, you have three different ways to backup your Sticky Notes:
- Sync your notes with Microsoft Account
- Do a manual backup
Let’s look at them both one by one.
1. Backup and restore your Sticky Notes by syncing with Microsoft account
You cannot use the default Sticky Notes app from Microsoft unless you’re logged into your account. So, since you’re already logged in, syncing your with your account is perhaps the best and easiest way to back them up. Here’s how:
- Open the Sticky Notes app.
- Click on the Setting menu (the gear icon from the top-right corner).
- Scroll down and click on Sync now button.
That’s it. As soon you click the sync button, your notes will be uploaded to the cloud and synced across your Windows devices.
2. Backup and restore your Sticky Notes manually
The next best approach after your Microsoft account cloud sync is a manual Windows backup. In short, you have to copy the sticky notes files and paste them into the place you’d like your files to be.
Here’s how you can backup and restore your Sticky Notes manually:
- Launch the Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + R shortcut.
- In the Run dialog box, type in the following command and hit Enter:
%LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState
- From there, copy the plum.sqlite file and paste that into your USB stick.
- Finally, paste the copied files into the new Windows device. Basically, copy and paste the plum.sqlite folder into the same folder of your Sticky Notes app.
As soon as you complete the above step, you’ll get a Replace or Skip Files dialog box for confirmation. Click on Replace the file in the destination folder whenever you’re prompted for the same.
Now close the folder and quickly restart your PC. Your sticky notes should have been successfully copied by now, and be ready to use as other normal notes.
Keeping your Sticky Notes in mind on Windows PC
Backups are good. And, while you might have been taking regular backups for your system files and documents, it’s essential that you also keep a second copy for your Sticky Notes data.
The two methods we’ve laid down above will help you store your Windows files without hiccups. Of course, you can always use third-party apps for this, but we believe they have their own headaches that far outweigh the benefits—as far as sticky notes are concerned.
