Recover Sticky Notes in Windows 10/8/7

If you've accidentally deleted Sticky Notes, don't worry - there are four ways to recover them and regain the contents. You can search for the .snt files directly, check the Outlook folder, show hidden Sticky Notes, or use professional data recovery software to leave the mess to the experts.

Overview of Accidentally Deleted Sticky Notes Issue

You can try using the Windows built-in feature, "Previous Versions" or a third-party data recovery software to recover your deleted Sticky Notes contents. The "Previous Versions" feature might be able to retrieve the deleted notes if you had previously synced your computer or if the notes were saved to the cloud. If not, you can try using a data recovery software to scan your computer for any recoverable data, including Sticky Notes. Be sure to act quickly, as the longer you wait, the lower the chances of successful recovery.  

Sticky Notes doesn't have the archive feature, which means clicking on the delete button will directly delete it. Fortunately, there are four practical ways to recover Sticky Notes.

Method 1. How to Recover Sticky Notes with Data Recovery Software

When using Sticky Notes to create desktop notes, you can't save them locally, and deleting them means losing all data. However, you can recover Sticky Notes by following the steps mentioned earlier.

Qiling Sticky Notes Recovery Software Free Download

If you accidentally delete or lose the .snt file, you don't have to give up. You can use hard drive recovery software like Qiling to recover the file and restore Sticky Notes in Windows.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Qiling data recovery software can restore Sticky Notes .snt files, as well as recover many other types of files, including Word, Excel, PPT documents, photos, audios, and videos. It offers a solution to recover deleted files, including those from emptied recycle bins, providing an easy way to recover accidentally deleted Sticky Notes on Windows.

Step 1. Select file types and click "Next" to start

Launch Deep Data Recovery, select file types, and click "Next" to initiate the recovery process.

Step 2. Select a location and start scanning

To recover deleted files, hover over the partition/drive where the files were stored, and click "Scan" to initiate the recovery process and locate the lost files.

Step 3. Select the files you want to recover

After the scanning process is complete, select the deleted files you want to recover. You can filter the results by file type or search for a specific file name in the "Search files or folders" box, which is the fastest way to find the target file.

Step 4. Preview and recover deleted files

Preview the recoverable files, select the desired files, and click "Recover" to move them to a new storage location, bypassing the original disk where the data was lost.

After the .snt file has been recovered, you can manually filter the data you need as explained in Method 2.

Method 2. How to Recover Sticky Notes from .snt Files

If you close the Sticky Notes application by right-clicking it on the taskbar, your data will return the next time you open Sticky Notes. Similarly, if you leave the Sticky Notes up when rebooting your computer, your data will also be preserved. However, if you accidentally delete a Sticky Note by hitting "Delete Note", your best chance to recover it is to follow the steps shown below.

Step 1. Navigate to where the Sticky Notes are stored: C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes director.

Step 2.To open a .snt file, right-click on it and select the option to open it with a text editor such as Notepad, WordPad, or MS Word. This allows you to view the file's contents, which may not be possible with the usual file opening methods.

When you try to open the file in the editor (such as MS Word), it will prompt you to decode the file. Simply follow the default actions and proceed. Once you're in the editor, use the search feature (usually Ctrl+F) to locate the content of your deleted notes. This should help you recover the lost information.

Method 3. How to Recover Sticky Notes from Outlook Deleted Folder

To delete a note in Outlook, you can follow these steps:

Method 4. Recover Deleted Sticky Notes from Previous Versions

To restore deleted Sticky Notes, you can enable file backup on your Windows 10 and then use the Restore Previous Versions feature to retrieve the lost data. This will allow you to recover your deleted Sticky Notes.

Step 1. The Sticky Notes .snt file can be found, right-clicked on, and its properties selected.

Step 2. To restore a previous version of Sticky Notes, go to the "Previous Versions" tab and select the desired version. Click "Restore" and then "Apply" and "OK" to apply the changes.

Extra Tips - Enable Delete Confirmation for Sticky Notes

To avoid deleting Sticky Notes by mistake, go to Settings, enable "Confirm before deleting", and a pop-up will ask for confirmation when you try to delete a note. Don't choose "Don't ask me again" to keep the confirmation prompt.

How to Create a Backup of Sticky Notes to Avoid Data Loss

To recover deleted Sticky Notes, you can only do so if you have enabled File History or system backup on your Windows computer. This is the only way to restore deleted Sticky Notes, as they are not automatically backed up. However, you can also manually back up your Sticky Notes by following the steps for backing them up on Windows 10.

Step 1. Navigate to the path:

C:\Users\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState

Step 2. Right-click the plum.sqlite file, copy it, and store your Sticky Notes anywhere you like, allowing for easy restoration in case of loss.

To restore your Sticky Notes, place the plum.sqlite file in the same location where Sticky Notes saves backups, then open Sticky Notes and your notes should reappear in their original location.

Important: You can replace an existing plum.sqlite file, but this will delete any previous notes stored on the device if you do so.

Conclusion

In addition to recovering deleted sticky notes, Qiling data recovery software can also restore deleted Word documents, videos, photos, and repair corrupted MP4 or MOV files, making it a useful tool for retrieving lost data.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

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