Windows 10 Sticky Notes Error

"When I try to launch the Sticky Notes app, it says 'check your account, Sticky Notes is currently not available to you.' When I go to the Store, yes, there is an update available. However, if I try to update the app, I get an error code 0x803F8001. Sticky Notes worked fine for me on Windows 10, I have no idea where this problem started. Any solutions?"

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Back Up Sticky Notes Files Find the Sticky Notes files in %appdata%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes\StickyNotes.snt...Full steps
Fix 2. Reset Sticky Notes Navigate to Windows 10 PC "Settings" -> "System" -> on the left panel "Apps & features"...Full steps
Fix 3. Uninstall/Reinstall Sticky Notes Type "PowerShell" in the search box and run "Windows PowerShell" as Administrator...Full steps
Fix 4. Recover Sticky Notes Download and open the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. When you open it, you can...Full steps

Is Sticky Notes not working in Windows 10 as usual? Many users are reporting that they got the following error when launching the Sticky Notes application. And they receive another error (error code 0x803F8001) after they download and install the update from Windows Store. If you are bothered by this issue, read on and check the detailed solution to cope with it. Besides, since many users have reported that they were unable to open Sticky Notes in Windows 10, the fixes for this situation are also provided.

sticky notes is currently not available to you

How to Fix Sticky Notes Not Available with Error Code 0x803F8001 in Windows 10

To fix the matter without any data loss, follow every procedure provided below.

Procedure 1. Back-Up Sticky Notes Files

The solutions coming up would erase all the notes you've kept on Sticky Notes, so don't jump the backup step. To copy your old notes to a safe place (Text, Word or Excel...) you can go to find the Sticky Notes files in %appdata%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes\StickyNotes.snt (on windows 7/8/10 & a priori to Windows 10 1607 update) or C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\plum.sqlite (on Windows 10 version 1607 & a newer version). And then copy the files to another folder.

Third-party free backup software is also available for Sticky Notes backup, which is in an automatic way. You can go further reading about how to backup Sticky Notes in Windows.

Procedure 2. Now fix the Sticky Notes error by yourself

There are several ways available for you to fix the Sticky Notes not available issue.

Method 1. Reset Sticky Notes

  • Navigate to Windows 10 PC "Settings" -> "System" -> on the left panel "Apps & features"
  • Find your "Sticky Notes" app, and click on the "Advanced options"
  • On the popup window, click on "Reset"

Method 2. Uninstall and Reinstall Sticky Notes

If an app isn't working right, the general troubleshooting is to reset it. But some people may find this method won't fix their problem. In this case, you need to use PowerShell to uninstall and then reinstall the application.

  • Type "PowerShell" in the search box and run "Windows PowerShell" as Administrator.
  • Execute the following command to uninstall Sticky Notes

"Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes | Remove-AppxPackage"(without quotes)

You should've now completely removed Sticky Notes application off from your computer. Now, you can reinstall the app by using the command below.

Get-AppxPackage –allusers Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Or just directly download again the app from Windows Store.

Procedure 3. Recover Old & Deleted Sticky Notes

After resolving the 'Sticky Notes not available' issue, you can now recover deleted sticky notes after reset and reinstall. You can either copy and paste the Sticky Notes backup file to the original location or use third-party Sticky Notes EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard software (if you didn't create backups).

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard that can deep scan lost, deleted and formatted files on a computer drive, external HDD, USB flash drive and memory card. To recover lost Sticky Notes contents, go through the 3 steps. To recover your deleted Sticky Notes:

 Download for Win Recovery Rate 99.7%
 Download for Mac Trustpilot Rating 4.7

Step 1. Select a location and start scanning

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, hover on the partition/drive where the deleted files were stored. Click "Scan" to find lost files.

select a location where you deleted files

Step 2. Select the files you want to recover

When the scanning has finished, select the deleted files you want to recover. You can click on the filter to display only the file types you want. If you remember the file name, you can also search in the "Search files or folders" box, which is the fastest way to find the target file. 

Choose recoverable files

Step 3. Preview and recover deleted files

Preview the recoverable files. Then, select files you want to restore and click "Recover" to store the files at a new storage locations instead of the disk where the data was previously lost.

Recover deleted files

Bonus Tip: How to Fix "Unable to Open Sticky Notes in Windows 10"

"Sticky Notes won't open in Windows 10" seems to be one of the commonest issues related to Windows Sticky Notes. When this problem occurs, you cannot open and access Sticky Notes. It just doesn't respond or hangs as it has opened. To deal with it, there are more than one tips that are worth trying, including:

  • Trying a different way to start Sticky Notes (from the Start menu, by searching, via Run, from Windows PowerShell, or via CMD)
  • Updating Sticky Notes from Microsoft Store
  • Creating a new account and check whether Sticky Notes works
  • Resetting Sticky Notes
  • Reinstalling Sticky Notes

The Bottom Line

Both "Sticky Notes not available" and "Sticky Notes won't open in Windows" happen frequently on Windows 10 computers. When you are faced with such annoying issues, don't get upset. Try the tips presented to fix the errors without losing any data. Sticky Notes is a useful app for all Windows users and it records some notes that you don't want to lose. Thus, it's necessary to back up Sticky Notes with free backup software and get a data recovery software tool to provide double-guarantee.

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Updated by Daisy

Daisy is the Senior editor of the writing team for EaseUS. She has been working at EaseUS for over ten years, starting as a technical writer and moving on to being a team leader of the content group. As a professional author for over ten years, she writes a lot to help people overcome their tech troubles.

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Approved by Evan Galasso

Evan Galasso is a digital forensics and data recovery engineer with over 10 years of experience in the field. He presents opinions on the current state of storage media, reverse engineering of storage systems and firmware, and electro-mechanical systems of SSDs and HDDs.

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