Sticklock help

Sticklock is available only from the App Store. Open the App Store page and choose Get.

• Mac: macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
• iPhone and iPad: iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later.

The download is free and holds 2 notes. See Free and full version for what the one-time purchase adds.

The first time you open Sticklock it asks for a password. Every note is encrypted with this password before it is saved.

• Enter a password of at least 8 characters under New password and type it again under Confirm password.
• Tick the box that starts with I understand. It confirms that your notes cannot be recovered if you forget the password: there is no reset and no back door. Create Password stays unavailable until the box is ticked.
• Choose Create Password. Sticklock opens with one empty note.

If your device has Touch ID or Face ID, Sticklock then asks whether to use it for unlocking.

Write the password down and keep it somewhere safe. Nobody can open your notes without it, and that includes us.

On the Mac, Sticklock lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon. Its note floats above your other windows, on every desktop (Space) and over full-screen apps.

• Click the icon to show the note. While the note is showing, a click locks it and puts it away.
• Right-click or Control-click the icon for the menu: Open / Lock, Change Password, Start at Login, Settings and Quit.

Everything else is in Settings, in the tabs Security, Photos, Sync & Backup, Full Version and Help.

On its first launch Sticklock asks once whether it should start when you log in to your Mac: choose Start at Login or Not Now. It never adds itself without asking.

To change it later, right-click the menu bar icon and choose Start at Login. A check mark shows that it is on.

Enter your password and choose Unlock. If Touch ID or Face ID is turned on, Sticklock asks for it first and your password is the fallback.

Wrong passwords are counted. After 3 wrong passwords in a row the lock screen offers Forgot Password? Erase All Notes (see Forgot your password). The count is kept when you quit the app and goes back to zero after every successful unlock.

• Sticklock offers Touch ID (Enable Touch ID?) after you create your password, and after you unlock with your password while Touch ID is off.
• Turn it on or off at any time in Settings > Security > Unlock with Touch ID. The switch is greyed out on a Mac without Touch ID or without a fingerprint set up.
• When Touch ID is on, the fingerprint prompt appears by itself whenever the locked note opens. If you cancel it, choose Try Touch ID Again or enter your password.

• Sticklock uses whichever your device has. It offers it after you create your password, and after you unlock with your password while it is off.
• Turn it on or off in Settings > Security > Unlock with Face ID (or Unlock with Touch ID).
• Face ID or Touch ID is asked for by itself when Sticklock starts, and when you come back after the notes locked because you left the app.
• After you lock with the lock button, or after the idle lock, Sticklock waits for you: tap Use Face ID (or Use Touch ID), or enter your password.

In Settings > Security > Auto-Lock you choose how long Sticklock waits without input before it locks: After 10 Seconds, After 30 Seconds, After 1 Minute, After 5 Minutes (the default), After 15 Minutes or After 30 Minutes.

• Mac: the last choice is Only on Sleep and Screen Lock. Then there is no idle lock, but the notes still lock on everything listed under What locks the notes on the Mac. Idle means no keyboard or mouse input anywhere on the Mac, not only in Sticklock.
• iPhone and iPad: the last choice is Only When Leaving the App. Idle means no touches and no typing in Sticklock.

• The idle time you chose under Auto-Lock.
• The Mac going to sleep, the display going to sleep, the screen locking, the screen saver starting, and switching to another user.
• Closing or minimizing the note with its own buttons at the top left.
• The lock button, a click on the menu bar icon while the note is showing, or Open / Lock in the icon's menu.
• Quitting Sticklock. Your changes are saved first.

When the notes lock, the note and any detached notes disappear from the screen, and Sticklock forgets the encryption key until the next unlock. Click the menu bar icon to open the note again.

• Leaving the app: Sticklock locks the moment it goes to the background, for example when you go to the Home Screen or switch to another app.
• The idle time you chose under Auto-Lock.
• The lock button in the toolbar.

• Mac: click the lock at the right end of the tab row, or click the menu bar icon. A detached note has its own lock button, and its minus button locks and minimizes it. Every lock button locks all notes.
• iPhone: tap the lock in the toolbar of the notes or of an open note.
• iPad: tap the lock in the toolbar of the open note.

On the Mac your notes sit side by side as tabs at the top of the note.

• Click + after the last tab for a new note.
• Up to 10 tabs fit in a row. Notes 11 to 20 open a second row underneath. The window grows to fit the tabs.
• The bar at the bottom shows how many notes you have, for example 3 of 20 notes, and how many characters the open note has.
• The three-dot button next to the lock (Note options) holds Rename Note, Detach Note, Close Note and the backup commands. Right-click a tab for the same note commands.

The free version holds 2 notes and the full version 20. At the limit, + opens the offer for the full version, or tells you that 20 notes is the most the app holds.

• Mac: double-click the tab, type the new name and press Return. Or choose Rename Note from the three-dot button or from the tab's right-click menu.
• iPhone and iPad: tap the three-dot button on the note card, in the list or on the open note, and choose Rename Note.

If you leave the name empty, the note is named after its position, such as Note 3 for the third note.

Deleting a note removes its contents for good, so Sticklock always asks first.

• Mac: click the × on the tab, or choose Close Note from the three-dot button or the tab's right-click menu, then confirm with Delete. Closing a tab deletes the note. To keep a note out of the way instead, detach it (full version).
• iPhone and iPad: tap the three-dot button, choose Delete Note, then Delete.

Sticklock always keeps at least one note. On the Mac at least one tab stays in the window.

With the full version, a tab can become its own small floating note.

• Drag a tab out of the tab rows, or choose Detach Note from the three-dot button or the tab's right-click menu.
• A detached note has its own format bar and its own buttons: × hides it until the next unlock, the minus button locks and minimizes it, Attach puts it back as a tab, and the lock locks all notes.
• To put it back by dragging, drag the note by its top bar onto the tab rows of the main note. The tab rows are outlined when it will land there.
• Detached notes float above the main note, disappear when the notes lock and come back where you left them when you unlock.
• At least one note always stays in the main window.

In the free version, detaching opens the offer for the full version.

• Your notes are colored cards with their name and first lines. Tap a card to open the note.
• The toolbar has Settings (the gear) on the left, and the lock and + (New Note) on the right. The band at the bottom shows the count, for example 2 of 2 notes.
• The three-dot button on each card holds Rename Note and Delete Note.
• In an open note the format bar sits at the bottom, just above the keyboard.

On iPad the list of notes stays beside the note you have open. Tap a name in the list to switch notes.

• Settings (the gear) and + are at the top of the list. The three-dot button and the lock are at the top of the open note.
• Settings opens as a sheet. Close it with Done.
• In a narrow window, Sticklock shows the notes as cards, like on iPhone.

The format bar of a note (at the bottom of the note on the Mac, above the keyboard on iPhone and iPad) changes the selected text, or the whole note when nothing is selected.

• Font: System, Helvetica Neue, Georgia, Menlo, Noteworthy, Marker Felt, American Typewriter or Courier New.
• Bold: on and off.
• Smaller text and Bigger text: one point per click or tap, from 9 to 48 points. iPhone and iPad show the size between the two buttons.
• Text color: Black, Gray, Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple or Brown.

Spelling correction, smart quotes and smart dashes are off in notes, so codes and passwords stay exactly as you type them. Formatting looks the same on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Each note has its own paper color. Open Note color, the last button in the format bar, and choose Yellow, Pink, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple or Gray. New notes are yellow, and the lock screen is always yellow.

There is no save button. Every 3 seconds Sticklock encrypts and writes the notes that changed, and it saves at once when the notes lock or the app quits.

Sticklock can take a photo with the camera each time a wrong password is entered on the lock screen. The option is off until you turn it on, and it is part of the free version.

• Mac: Settings > Photos > Take a Photo After a Wrong Password.
• iPhone and iPad: Settings > Photo After Wrong Password > Take a Photo.

Sticklock explains the option, then asks for permission to use the camera. From then on, every wrong password on the lock screen takes one photo: with the front camera on iPhone and iPad, and with the Mac's camera on the Mac, where the camera light comes on briefly. This also happens when you mistype your own password.

No photo is taken when Touch ID or Face ID fails, when the current password is wrong in Change Password, or when a backup password is wrong.

Under Where the photos go (Mac) or in the same section of Settings (iPhone and iPad) you choose any combination of:

• Keep in the App, which is on by default.
• Save to Photos, which adds each photo to your Photos library and asks for permission first.
• Copy to a Folder, a folder you pick. On iPhone and iPad this can be a folder in iCloud Drive, such as your Mac's Desktop: tap Browse in the folder picker, then iCloud Drive.

Photos kept in the app stay on that device and in its backups, such as iCloud Backup on iPhone and iPad or Time Machine on the Mac. They are not synced, they are not part of your encrypted notes, and erasing all notes does not delete them. Each file is named with the date and time, for example "Wrong password 2026-10-11 at 09.15.02.jpg".

• Mac: click Show Saved Photos (the number shows how many there are). The folder opens in the Finder, where you can look at the photos and delete them.
• iPhone and iPad: tap Saved Photos. Tap a photo to see it full size and use Delete Photo there, or touch and hold a photo. Delete All removes every photo kept in the app. Copies in Photos or in a folder are not affected.

In Settings > Security > Erase After Wrong Passwords choose Off (the default), After 5, After 10 or After 20. Sticklock asks you to confirm before it turns the option on. It is part of the free version.

• Only wrong passwords in a row on the lock screen count. The count survives quitting and restarting, and goes back to zero after every successful unlock.
• While the option is on, the lock screen shows how many attempts are left, for example "3 attempts left before all notes are erased."
• When the limit is reached, Sticklock deletes the notes it is using, the password data and the Touch ID or Face ID key. With sync on, that is the copy in iCloud; with sync off, the copy on this device. Sticklock then starts over with Create a Password.
• This also happens if you mistype your own password that often, and it cannot be undone.
• Encrypted copies that Sticklock set aside earlier are not deleted, for example the copy that stays on this device when you turn sync on. They stay encrypted with the password that was in use when they were made.

Your password cannot be recovered or reset, by you or by us. The only way forward is to erase everything and start again:

• After 3 wrong passwords in a row, the lock screen shows Forgot Password? Erase All Notes.
• Confirm twice: Erase, then Erase All Notes.
• Sticklock deletes the notes it is using and your password data: with sync on, the copy in iCloud; with sync off, the copy on this device. Encrypted copies set aside earlier stay, still locked with the password of that time. Sticklock starts over and you create a new password.

If Touch ID or Face ID still opens Sticklock, unlock that way first and save your notes with Export as Text. That file is not encrypted: delete it once your notes are back in Sticklock.

An encrypted backup can be imported after you set up again, as long as you know the password that was in use when the backup was made.

Settings > Security > Hide from Screen Sharing is on by default. Sticklock then asks macOS to leave its notes, including detached notes, out of screen sharing, screenshots and screen recordings. Turn it off if you want to show a note in a call or a recording.

• The app switcher never shows your notes. Whenever Sticklock is not in front, it shows a yellow cover with a lock.
• With Settings > Security > Hide from Screen Sharing on (the default), your notes are covered while the screen is being recorded, mirrored or shared, with the message "Hidden while the screen is being shared or recorded."

With the full version, your notes can sync between your Macs, iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud Drive.

• You need the full version, and iCloud Drive turned on with the same Apple Account on every device.
• Turn on Sync with iCloud: on the Mac in Settings > Sync & Backup, on iPhone and iPad in Settings > Sync. On a new installation sync is off until you turn it on. If iCloud Drive already holds Sticklock notes when the app first starts (for example after the update from 1.x), sync is on from the start.
• Sticklock copies your notes to iCloud Drive and locks. Unlock again with your password.
• While a device is unlocked, changes from your other devices appear on it by themselves.

Notes are encrypted on your device before they are uploaded. iCloud stores only the encrypted files and the data needed to check the password, never the password itself. Every device opens the notes with the same password.

• Install Sticklock on the new device and create a password there to get past the first screen.
• Make sure the full version is active on it. The purchase counts on all your devices with the same Apple Account. If it does not show, use Restore Purchase.
• Turn on Sync with iCloud. Sticklock sees that iCloud already holds notes from another device, switches to them and locks.
• Unlock with the password you use on your other devices.

If Sticklock opens on the lock screen instead of asking you to create a password, sync is already on: unlock with the password you use on your other devices.

Synced: your notes with their names, text, formatting and paper colors, their order and deletions, and the password data (a random salt and a check value, never the password).

Kept on each device: the Touch ID or Face ID key, all settings (Auto-Lock, Erase After Wrong Passwords, Hide from Screen Sharing and the photo options), the count of wrong passwords, the photos kept in the app and, on the Mac, Start at Login and the positions of detached notes.

Turn off Sync with iCloud and confirm with Turn Off. A copy of your notes is kept on this device only, and Sticklock locks. The notes already in iCloud stay there for your other devices.

If the same note was changed on two devices before they could sync, Sticklock keeps both: one version stays in the note, the other is added as a separate note with "(other version)" after its name. Compare the two, keep what you need and delete the extra note.

Choose Export Backup: on the Mac in Settings > Sync & Backup or from the three-dot button of the note, on iPhone and iPad in Settings > Backup. Sticklock saves a file named "Sticklock Backup.ssnbackup" wherever you choose.

The backup holds all your notes with their formatting and stays encrypted with the password in use at the time of the export. You need that password to import it, even after you change your password. The same file works on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

• Choose Import Backup in the same place and pick the .ssnbackup file.
• Enter the password that was in use when the backup was exported.
• The notes are added as new notes next to the ones you have. Nothing is replaced.
• Only as many notes are imported as fit under your limit: 2 in the free version, 20 in the full version. Sticklock tells you how many it imported.

Export as Text, next to Export Backup, writes all notes into one readable text file, each note's name above its text. Formatting is not included.

The file is not encrypted: anyone who can open it can read your notes. Sticklock warns you before it saves. Delete the file when you no longer need it.

Sticklock is free with 2 notes. The protection is the same in the free version: password, Touch ID and Face ID, auto-lock, the photo after a wrong password, erasing after wrong passwords, hiding from screen sharing, backup and export.

One purchase of the full version unlocks:

• up to 20 notes,
• notes in their own windows on the Mac (detached notes),
• sync through iCloud between Mac, iPhone and iPad.

You pay once and there is no subscription. The purchase counts on Mac, iPhone and iPad. The price for your country is shown in the app before you buy.

Open Settings > Full Version and choose Unlock Full Version. This works the same on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

The offer also opens by itself in the free version when you add a third note, detach a note on the Mac or turn on sync. The purchase goes through the App Store with your Apple Account.

Open Settings > Full Version and choose Restore Purchase, or use the same button in the offer. Use the Apple Account you bought with.

If you bought the earlier paid Mac version (1.x), the full version is already unlocked on your Mac and you do not need to buy it again. If it does not show as unlocked, choose Restore Purchase.

• Every note is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and stored as its own file, next to an encrypted index that holds the order.
• The key is derived from your password with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, 600,000 rounds and a random 32-byte salt.
• Your password is never stored. Sticklock keeps only a check value made from the key, to tell whether a password is right.
• The key exists in memory only while your notes are unlocked. Locking removes it.

Because only your password unlocks the notes, there is no recovery, no reset and no back door. If you forget the password, nobody can open your notes, and that includes us. What you can still do is under Forgot your password.

• Mac: right-click the menu bar icon and choose Change Password, or use Settings > Security > Change Password. Your notes have to be unlocked.
• iPhone and iPad: Settings > Security > Change Password.

Enter the current password, then the new one twice (at least 8 characters), and choose Update Password. Sticklock encrypts every note again with the new password and a new salt. The new files are written next to the old ones before they replace them, so an interruption does not leave your notes half converted. If Touch ID or Face ID is on, it keeps working on this device.

With iCloud sync on, the new password applies on all your devices. On each of the others, unlock with the new password, then turn Unlock with Touch ID or Unlock with Face ID off and on again.

When you turn on Touch ID or Face ID, Sticklock keeps the encryption key in the keychain of this device, released only by your fingerprint or face. It never leaves the device and does not sync to iCloud or to your other devices. When fingerprints or faces are added or removed in the system settings, the key stops working and Sticklock asks for your password.

• No account and no sign-up.
• No tracking, no analytics, and no data is collected.
• Sticklock talks to no server of ours. It uses the network only for your own iCloud Drive when sync is on, and for the App Store, which handles the purchase.
• Report an Issue prepares an email in your own mail app. Nothing is sent until you send it.

Details: privacy policy.

Secure Sticky Notes 1.x updates to Sticklock 2.0 through the App Store. Your notes and your password stay the same.

• The first unlock after the update needs your password: the Touch ID key of version 1 was synced through iCloud Keychain and is removed. If Touch ID was on, Sticklock sets it up again during that unlock, with a key that stays on this Mac. Otherwise turn it on in Settings > Security.
• On that first unlock, Sticklock turns the single notes file of version 1 into one encrypted file per note. The old file is kept next to them as a backup.
• In the same step the key moves from 310,000 to 600,000 PBKDF2 rounds, with a new salt. There is nothing for you to do.
• If your notes were already kept in iCloud, sync stays on.
• As a buyer of the paid version, you have the full version.

• The device needs Touch ID or Face ID set up with at least one fingerprint or face. Otherwise the switch in Settings > Security is greyed out.
• The settings can be changed only while your notes are unlocked.
• On iPhone and iPad, if Sticklock says Face ID is not available, allow Face ID for Sticklock in the Settings app.
• Right after the update from version 1, unlock once with your password. Touch ID works again after that, or can be turned on in Settings > Security.
• On iPhone and iPad, Face ID is not asked for by itself after you locked with the lock button or after the idle lock. Tap Use Face ID.

The stored key no longer fits, for example after fingerprints or faces were changed, or after the password was changed on another device. Unlock with your password, then turn Unlock with Touch ID (or Unlock with Face ID) off and on again in Settings > Security.

• Check that the full version is active on every device, in Settings > Full Version.
• Check that iCloud Drive is on and that every device uses the same Apple Account. When iCloud Drive is off, the Mac says "iCloud Drive is not available.", and on iPhone and iPad the sync switch is greyed out with a note below it.
• Check that Sync with iCloud is on on each device.
• All devices use the same password, the one of the notes in iCloud.
• iCloud Drive can take a little while to deliver changes.

If camera access was declined, Sticklock says "Camera access is off for Sticklock." Allow the camera for Sticklock, then turn the option on again:

• Mac: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera.
• iPhone and iPad: the Settings app, under Apps > Sticklock.

Save to Photos needs access to Photos in the same way (on the Mac under Privacy & Security > Photos). If camera access is turned off later, no photos are taken.

When the notes lock, the note leaves the screen. Click the Sticklock icon in the menu bar to bring it back and unlock. If Sticklock is not running, open it from the Applications folder.

You have reached the note limit. In the free version (2 notes) the + button opens the offer for the full version. With the full version, 20 notes is the most Sticklock holds: delete a note to make room.

Open Settings > Help > Report an Issue on the Mac, iPhone or iPad. Describe what happened, add your email address if we may reply, and choose whether to include system information such as the app and system version. On the Mac you can also attach a file. Sticklock then prepares an email to info@toz.red in your mail app, and you send it.

Your notes are never sent. If no mail account is set up, or at any other time, write to info@toz.red. Get Help Online in the same place opens this page.

Sticklock is available in English, German and Spanish on Mac, iPhone and iPad, and follows the language of your device.

To use a different language for Sticklock only, choose it on the Mac in System Settings > General > Language & Region, and on iPhone and iPad in Settings > Apps > Sticklock > Language.