3M is retiring the Post-it app. It has already been removed from the app stores, and 3M says copies that are still installed stop working after Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. If you have boards in it, export them this week.
The replacement depends on what you used it for. If you photographed paper notes after a workshop and arranged them on boards across your iPhone, iPad and Mac, Apple Freeform is the closest match. If you kept digital Post-it notes on your Mac as reminders next to your work, a sticky notes app built for that fits better. We make one, TackNote, and we will be clear below about where it does not fit.
What is happening to the Post-it app
According to 3M's Post-it App FAQ:
- The app has been removed from the app stores, so it cannot be downloaded or reinstalled.
- If it is already installed, you can keep using it until Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. After that it is no longer available.
- You should export or download any boards or notes you want to keep before that deadline.
Export your Post-it boards before September 29
3M lists four export formats and suggests picking by what you want to do with the board next:
- PDF for archiving and sharing.
- PowerPoint if you want to keep editing or presenting the ideas.
- Excel if you want to sort, filter or analyze the notes.
- Image if you only need a visual copy of the board.
3M also recommends avoiding the .postit format, since it only opens in the Post-it app, which is being retired. If a board will not export, 3M points to its support address, [email protected]. Do this first, whichever app you move to next. The rest of this post can wait until your boards are safe.
Post-it software for Mac: the options compared
| Apple Freeform | Apple Stickies | TackNote (ours) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Boards of notes, like a workshop wall | A quick note you need for a few minutes | Notes that belong to a specific window, tab, document or folder |
| Where notes appear | On a board, inside the app | On the desktop, or floating on top | Next to the work they are attached to, and hidden when that work is not in front |
| iPhone and iPad | Yes, synced with iCloud | No | No, Mac only |
| Bringing an exported board in | Add the PDF to a board as a file | Paste text in by hand | Drop the exported image on a note and it reads the text |
| Price | Apple app, macOS 13 or later | Comes with macOS | $24.99 once, 7-day free trial |
If you used Post-it boards for planning: Apple Freeform
A lot of Post-it app users worked in boards: a wall of notes from a brainstorm, grouped and rearranged afterwards. Apple Freeform works the same way. You can add sticky notes to a Freeform board and change their color and text formatting, and boards sync through iCloud across iPhone, iPad and Mac (iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13 or later, signed in to the same Apple Account).
It also gives your exported board somewhere to live. Freeform lets you add other files to a board, including multipage PDFs, by dragging them in from the Finder. Put the PDF export of your old Post-it board on a new Freeform board and rebuild the notes you still need around it.
What Freeform does not do is follow you into your other apps. A board is a place you go to, like the Post-it app was. That is the right shape for planning. It is the wrong shape for a reminder that should be in front of you while you work.
If you want digital Post-it notes on your Mac desktop
The other way people used the Post-it app on a Mac was as a stand-in for the paper note stuck to the edge of the monitor: a reminder about one project, one client, one document. For that job, the question is not how the note looks. It is whether the note shows up when you are working on the thing it is about. Our guide to picking the best sticky notes app for Mac goes through that test in detail.
That job is what TackNote is built for. Here is what it does, specifically:
- Notes attach to your work. You can tack a note to an app, a window, a browser tab, a document or a Finder folder. A note on a browser tab only shows while that browser is in front, and it hides when you switch away.
- Plain desktop notes too. If you want the classic sticky, a desktop note can sit on the desktop like a paper note on a wall, or float on top of every window. For why always on top gets noisy, see how to keep notes on screen without the clutter.
- Photos and images become text. Drag an image onto a note, or paste a screenshot, and TackNote recognizes the text in it on your Mac. That includes the image export of a Post-it board, or a photo of a paper note, so you do not have to retype it.
- More than text. Notes can hold a checklist, images, sketches and voice memos, and search in the notebook covers note text, checklist items and voice transcripts.
- Private by default. Notes are encrypted on your Mac with AES-256-GCM, and the key is kept in your Keychain. No account is needed to use the app.
- A one-time price. $24.99 once, no subscription, after a 7-day free trial. If the trial ends and you do not buy, your existing notes stay put; a license is needed to create new ones.
Where TackNote falls short for Post-it app users
Some Post-it app users will not be happy with TackNote, and it is better to know that before you download it:
- It is Mac only. There is no iPhone or iPad app, so there is no phone camera capture of a wall of paper notes. You can drop a photo onto a note on your Mac, but the capture happens elsewhere.
- It is not a board. Notes live next to your work and in a notebook organized by project, not on a canvas you arrange freely. For workshop walls, Freeform is the better tool.
- It does not open Post-it exports directly. TackNote imports Apple Stickies, Apple Notes, Evernote exports, and Markdown, text, RTF and HTML files. It does not read
.postit, PDF, PowerPoint or Excel files. The image export, dropped onto a note, is the practical route.
What about Apple Stickies?
Stickies already comes with macOS and costs nothing, which makes it the obvious stopgap. It has colors and fonts, can collapse a note, and can float a note on top of other windows. For a phone number you need for ten minutes, it is fine. What it does not do is tie a note to a document or a tab. We wrote more about where it fits and where it does not in the problem with Apple Stickies. If you want to compare the free options side by side, see our free sticky notes app for Mac guide.
Post-it app for Mac: quick answers
Is the Post-it app still available for Mac?
No. 3M has removed it from the app stores, so it cannot be downloaded or reinstalled. An installed copy keeps working until Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.
How do you keep your Post-it app boards?
Export them before the shutdown, as PDF, PowerPoint, Excel or an image. 3M recommends a format other than .postit, since that format only opens in the retired app.
What is the best Post-it app replacement on a Mac?
For boards you want on your iPhone and iPad too, Apple Freeform. For reminders that appear next to the window, tab or document they are about, TackNote, keeping in mind that it is Mac only.
Post-it is a registered trademark of 3M. TackNote is not affiliated with 3M.
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