Stickies Database file location on Catalina 10.15

I found a solution to this. If you have the old stickies database file,

• delete the new database folders
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Stickies
  • ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Stickies.migrated
• once these are deleted, ensure stickies application is quit,
• copy stickiesdatabase to ~/Library
• open stickies application. The database will be converted on opening.

My StickiesDatabase file resides on its own, outside of any folder, in ~/Library. This is for Mojave 10.14.6. On Mojave, this file is removed, and then recreated any time you add, change, or remove a sticky note. Restoring this file may not reveal all the stickies that you thought might be in it.

Here is a Catalina Stickies User Guide.

On the road right now, so no access to Catalina to further investigate how it handles Stickies.

They don't appear to be part of a database anymore. They are just Rich Text documents stored individually.

They are stored in the Stickies Container in the user Library, com.apple.stickies/Data/Library/Stickies

I don't know how you would extract the stickies from the database. You might try creating ~/Library/Stickies/ and put the database in that folder.

From what I understand, it converted the Dashboard Stickies into Stickies.

I don't know why it can't handle the old database unless they updated the format in Mojave. Is the database file from a Mojave Mac?

I am a long time user of Stickies and have been testing Catalina on an external drive. I discovered that I can copy the Stickies app from a drive running Mojave. It reads my old StickiesDatabase file. What's a bit strange is that both stickies apps are version 10.2 even though they have different creation dates etc. It would be nice if someone at Apple created a migration tool or script to import the old StickiesDatabase file into the new Stickies app for people like me who have more than a hundred sticky notes.

I was able to copy the Stickies app from Mojave. It's the previous version but it can still run in Catalina. The 2 apps can even run at the same time! You'll have all of your old stickies from the StickiesDatabase file.

Janjop, I copied an old copy of the Stickies app from an old Time Machine backup (probably from Mojave). It is version 10.2 as well. Creation date Feb 22, 2019, 21.3 mb. When I try to open it, it hangs (not responding). Is this the same creation date and version as yours?

I am running Catalina 10.15.1 The native Stickies version is also 10.2, creation date Aug 24, 2019, 1.9 mb. It opens the 2 sample files but not my Stickies database file.

Howard

The Stickies application that ships with Catalina does not use, or read the previous generation StickiesDatabase digest file. Instead, the Catalina Stickies application automatically saves individual stickies notes in their own serialized *.rtfd package folder with an accompanying TxT.rtf (rich text document) and possibly a tiff image. These are in stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Stickies folder hierarchy.

For those that want to live in the past and for a Mojave Stickies application onto Catalina, I suspect that the next Catalina update will detect that transplanted Mojave Stickies application, and replace it with the proper Catalina version.

Unfortunately, this import option doesn't work. It imports the entire old Stickies database file into a single note that is full of gobblydigook.

streamtypedÅËÑ@ÑÑÑNSMutableArray

NSMutableData∑∑

{\fonttbl\f0\froman\fcharset0 Times-Roman;\f1\froman\fcharset0 TimesNewRomanPSMT;\f2\fnil\fcharset0 LucidaGrande;

\f3\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;\f4\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial-BoldMT;

Bmohnsen, you solved it.

I expanded and looked at the imported data more closely. My data is all there. It will just take me some time to clean it up.

I will copy any important information to the Notes app.

Thank you very, very much.

\f0\fs24 \ul Computer-related

\f1 \

\fs8 \ulnone \

\f0\fs24 Apple Canada 800 263-3394

\f1 \

\f0 Apple Store (Consumer) (800) MY-APPLE / 692-7753

\f1 \

\f0 Apple U.S. 800 275-2273

\f1 \

\f0 apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

\f1\fs8 \

I upgraded my dad's MacBook to macOS Catalina, and it broke Stickies because "Catalina" Stickies apparently stores notes in a newer format from the old "StickiesDatabase" as outlined in this discussion.

Upgrading macOS Mojave to Catalina did not migrate or import the old StickiesDatabase file data into the newer version of Stickies. It just shows a single, blank notes.

Temporary Workaround: I opened "Time Machine" backup from an external drive and restored the old Mojave Stickies app naming it "Stickies (OLD)" which is still able to open and read the pre-Catalina StickiesDatabase file.

I attempted to use the "Export to Notes" function in the old Stickies app, which prompts you: "Your Stickies will appear in an “Imported Notes” folder in the Notes application. Text formatting, links and pictures will be preserved. Notes will be organized into separate folders based on color."

However none of the data is actually exported. Instead a new note appears in "Notes" which says "Stickies.app" with the Stickies icon.

So I haven't figured out a way to actually migrate data from the old Mojave Stickies app other than exporting and/or copy pasting each sticky note manually… but at least for my dad any anyone else who relied on Stickies pre-Catalina can still access all that data by restoring the old Stickies.app which will open the existing StickiesDatabase file which is preserved in its original location.

You have the correct answer!

We all opened Stickies initially, only to remember the file wasn't there. But in opening it, it created the new storage structure and that prevented it from running the import process again. Deleting those folders allowed it to import from the old file. Thank you!!

Jayson, I love you, Bro. You saved me a lot of time. I had already started manually separating my stickies database which was imported into a single stickie note into separate notes. You saved me a great deal of time. I have about 90 stickies notes.

Howard