Retrieving stickies from Time Machine backup files (NOT the Time Machine software)

The stickies database is stored in ~/Library/StickiesDatabase

It's a single file, so if you can snag that, you're good to go.

Note ~/Library is hidden by default, but if you're rooting through the Time Machine backups I'd figure you'd be able to find it.

If you put that file in the specific location, then opening the Stickies application should show the old stickes. Don't try and double-click the file itself.

Note you should back up your existing StickiesDatabase file if you have any stickies you want to save. ALL stickies are saved in the same file so there's no easy way in the Stickies app itself to merge old and new.

Each Sticky is just a RTF so you could always copy and paste the data to TextEdit and then paste it back.

If you replace ~/Library/StickiesDatabase (the file) with the one you retrieved from Time Machine, then you'll have your old stickes on the new machine. And the new stickies (and any modifications) will be gone. You are replacing the database of all stickies.

You can delete the .DS_Store file if you want. You will lose any adjustments you've made to your desktop icons and preferences. And a new one will be created; it may or may not be hidden. Showing hidden files wasn't the right approach to take to see that file; you probably could have just shown the Library directory rather than all files. I don't know what command you used and the easy way to reverse it (probably replace TRUE with FALSE in the command you use, or vice versa).

It looks like there's an easy way to migrate the stickies. For EACH sticky you want to save, select it and then choose File->Export Text. For format, choose "RTFD" (as this is the only one that will preserve any images or attachments you have in stickies). Give it a name.

Then once you've changed over to the new StickiesDatabase file, just go to File->Import Text. Import each sticky note one by one. They'll come in as they were, but will all be yellow. Change the colors as you see fit.

gunmetalgray wrote:

I backed up to my Time Machine and then got a new computer because the old one died. I didn't want to do a complete restore; I just wanted to get some of the files off of the drive (photos and music) without bringing system prefs.

The Time Machine browser (the "Star Wars" display) normally only shows the backups for the Mac it's running on. But you can see and restore from the backups of a different Mac, via the Browse Other Backup Disks option, per the green box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17.