How to import dashboard stickies from an old hard disk without using migration assistant?

Question

I recently installed a new hard drive in my Macbook Pro for a fresh installation of OSX Lion.

How can I get my dashboard stickies from the old hard disk without using migration assistant?

Pro Backup · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-03 19:04:48Z

up vote 3 down vote accepted

You'll need to copy two files from the old installation of OSX:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist
~/Library/Preferences/widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist

The first tells Dashboard which Widgets to show, the second contains your notes.

Copy these to your new ~/Library/Preferences and you should be good.

You'll need to restart, logout and login, or kill the Dock, for example by opening Terminal and running killall Dock.

It worked for me - but I should warn that my home path was the same on the old install and new install.

edited Jul 3 '12 at 19:04

Pro Backup
1,8841727

answered Jul 3 '12 at 11:50

Chris
1508

	While we're on the subject, have you found a way to get stickies to retain type and size information? There is a "use as default" menu item but it has no effect (for me anyway). – Richard Jul 4 '12 at 12:25
	I don't know if I've ever been able to resize the stickies on the dashboard, sorry I'm of no help. – Chris Jul 4 '12 at 16:02
	Chris: resizing is not the problem (it's easy), remembering a default typeface and size is my question. I find the default 10 pt Helvetica (or whatever it is) tough to read and prefer a larger typeface. I'd like all new stickies to assume that size and typeface. I thought if I just changed one to what I wanted, then chose "use as default" it would work. It has never worked for me. I'm wondering if you or anyone else has ever had this work. I should probably post this as a new question... – Richard Jul 4 '12 at 20:15

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