Troubleshooting

Something not working right? Here's how to fix common problems and get help.

Common Issues

My notes disappeared

Don't panic. BetterStickies keeps automatic backups. Try closing and reopening the app. If your notes reappear, the backup recovery worked.

If they don't come back, your notes file may be damaged. You can find your notes data here:

Back up the data folder before making any changes.

A note shows in the hub but I can't see it

This usually means the note is parked off-screen. Most often after a monitor change. If you unplug a second monitor, close a laptop lid, or rearrange your displays, a note that was sitting on the now-missing screen can end up drawn outside your visible desktop. It's still there (that's why it's listed in the hub), just nowhere you can reach it.

BetterStickies fixes this for you automatically:

• It checks every note when the app starts.
• It re-checks whenever you add, remove, or switch monitors: any note (and the hub itself) that ended up off-screen, or with only an ungrabbable sliver still showing at a screen edge, is brought back onto a screen you can see, usually within a second of the change.
• If a note is hidden, it's repositioned the moment you bring it back with Locate, search, or a reminder.

So in most cases the note will simply reappear on its own. If it doesn't, try clicking the note in the hub or in search results to locate it, or quit and reopen the app. Both re-run the position check and pull it back into view. Notes that still show a comfortably grabbable portion, or that sit on a monitor that's still connected, are left exactly where you put them.

The hub never appears when I start the app

If you turned on Start with the hub hidden (Settings → Appearance), this is working as intended: the app launches straight to the system tray. Click the tray icon to bring the hub up, or double-click it. Then untick the setting if you'd rather go back to the hub appearing at launch.

If you can't find the tray icon at all, some desktops tuck new icons into an overflow or "show hidden icons" area, and a few need an extension for a tray to exist. BetterStickies normally detects that and shows the hub anyway. If it somehow doesn't, you can turn the setting off by hand: quit the app, open state.json in your configuration folder (see The app won't start for the path per platform) in a text editor, change "start_hub_hidden": true to false, and start the app again.

Starting the app again while it's already running won't bring the hub back. It will tell you it's already running and close. That message is how you can tell the app is alive and hidden rather than failing to launch.

I closed a tab and want it back

Closed pages go to the trash, just like deleted notes. Open Menu > View Trash from the hub, select it, and click Restore. It comes back as its own note rather than as a tab in the note it came from.

One exception: a page that was completely empty and unnamed closes without going to the trash, since there was nothing in it to keep. If you'd given the tab a name, it goes to the trash like any other page.

Global shortcuts not working (Linux)

On Linux, global shortcuts need to be set up in your desktop environment's settings. See Global Shortcuts on Linux for a step-by-step guide, or open BetterStickies and go to Settings > Global Shortcuts for a quick start.

The app won't start

Try resetting your settings by deleting the configuration folder. Back up your data subfolder first if you want to keep your notes.

Reporting a Bug

If you've found a bug, please open an issue at github.com/HimaSphere/BetterStickies/issues.

What to include

1. What happened and what you expected instead
2. The log file (see below). This helps us diagnose the problem quickly
3. Your system: OS name and version (e.g., "Ubuntu 24.04", "Windows 11")
4. Steps to reproduce, what were you doing when it happened?

Finding the log file

BetterStickies automatically saves a log file with diagnostic information. Please attach it when reporting bugs.

The log file stays small (under 1 MB) and rotates automatically. It's safe to attach the whole file.

Getting extra detail

If we ask for more detail on a tricky bug, you can launch BetterStickies in verbose mode:

betterstickies --verbose

This prints additional diagnostic messages to the terminal. Share that terminal output along with the log file.

See Also

• Backing Up Your Notes: where your notes are stored and how to back them up
• Note Tabs: how pages inside a note work
• Search Notes: find and jump to any note
• Reminders: set reminders so you don't forget what's on your notes