Sync Stickies between Macs via Dropbox

[izzy0242mr]

There's a guide I found that suggests using Symbolic Links to sync the Stickies Database between Macs (I have 3) but so far I haven't been able to get it to work. The SymLinks file in the Library folder do change, but the Dropbox StickiesDatabase file never updates. Any thoughts?

(Guide referenced is here: https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/become-a-stickies-ninja-tips-tricks-secrets--mac-18493 )

 

[leman]

If you want to have shared notes, you should really use the Notes app. It replaces Stickies for all intends and purposes.

 

[izzy0242mr]

If you want to have shared notes, you should really use the Notes app. It replaces Stickies for all intends and purposes.

I don't really want to. I like the Stickies GUI.

 

[cruisin]

Since the Library file changes but not the Dropbox file, that means that you do not have a working symlink to the file in Dropbox. Have you tried to make it again? Are you using the terminal command:

ln -s <location of file> <location of symlink>

The Library file should have a little arrow on the icon of StickiesDatabase if it is a link, and the Dropbox StickiesDatabase won't have the arrow. In terminal, you can also check if it shows the link by running:

ls -la ~/Library/StickiesDatabase

The Notes app is the way to go forward, especially as it moves all your notes across all your Macs and iOS devices, and they show up on iCloud.com. While its great that your workflow works for you, you need to remember that Apple can kill useful features like Stickies at any time so you might be surprised one day once you update to a newer OSX. They did nix the popular headphone jack on the newest iPhones, and they turned the MacBook Pro into a cavalcade of dongles while removing magsafe.

 

[izzy0242mr]

Since the Library file changes but not the Dropbox file, that means that you do not have a working symlink to the file in Dropbox. Have you tried to make it again? Are you using the terminal command:

ln -s <location of file> <location of symlink>

View attachment 676477
The Library file should have a little arrow on the icon of StickiesDatabase if it is a link, and the Dropbox StickiesDatabase won't have the arrow. In terminal, you can also check if it shows the link by running:

ls -la ~/Library/StickiesDatabase

The Notes app is the way to go forward, especially as it moves all your notes across all your Macs and iOS devices, and they show up on iCloud.com. While its great that your workflow works for you, you need to remember that Apple can kill useful features like Stickies at any time so you might be surprised one day once you update to a newer OSX. They did nix the popular headphone jack on the newest iPhones, and they turned the MacBook Pro into a cavalcade of dongles while removing magsafe.

It doesn't work that way, unfortunately - if you put the symlink in the Library folder, it creates a non-symlink version and thus prevents itself from syncing.

 

[cruisin]

Then there is nothing you can do as this is the way symlink works.

Doing some research reveals that Stickies doesn't work with symlinks as it loads the database when you start it and then erases everything and creates a new database on closing. Not much of a database.

http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-stickies-save-saving-file-sticky-notes-sync

because this Stickies file is deleted and then recreated, there's no way to sync it through Dropbox. I tried creating both "soft" and "hard" symbolic links to the Stickies database file from the Mac Unix command line, and neither approach works.

You would probably need to write a script that handles syncing the Stickies file to Dropbox occasionally and then you would occasionally need to restart the Stickies to use the new database.

 

[Pen&Ink]

Since the Library file changes but not the Dropbox file, that means that you do not have a working symlink to the file in Dropbox. Have you tried to make it again? Are you using the terminal command:

ln -s <location of file> <location of symlink>

View attachment 676477
The Library file should have a little arrow on the icon of StickiesDatabase if it is a link, and the Dropbox StickiesDatabase won't have the arrow. In terminal, you can also check if it shows the link by running:

ls -la ~/Library/StickiesDatabase

The Notes app is the way to go forward, especially as it moves all your notes across all your Macs and iOS devices, and they show up on iCloud.com. While its great that your workflow works for you, you need to remember that Apple can kill useful features like Stickies at any time so you might be surprised one day once you update to a newer OSX. They did nix the popular headphone jack on the newest iPhones, and they turned the MacBook Pro into a cavalcade of dongles while removing magsafe.

[doublepost=1524754571][/doublepost]Is there a handy way to import one's Stickies file data into Notes? I don't look forward to copying and pasting my many stickums into Notes.