Migrating Sticky Notes in EWS to the Microsoft Graph

How do they work in Exchange

In your Mailbox folder tree you have a Notes folder which is part of the WellKnownfolder enums and has a folder class of IPF.StickyNote .However, Exchange is flexible in that you can create custom StickyNote folders (or an entire hierarchy of folders) using that same IPF.StickyNote class to organize your notes beyond the default view.

Sticky Note Items

For Outlook Classic, Sticky Notes are Exchange items with an ItemClass of IPM.StickyNote. The actual data is held in Extended MAPI properties, which are all defined in the MS-OXONOTE Exchange protocol document.

For Notes from modern apps (New Outlook, OWA), they are still the same Exchange items, but the Substrate handles synchronizing and setting the legacy MAPI properties alongside newer extension properties. Note that there are some alignment differences between note colors and feature sets between the two versions. The most noticeable thing a user may complain about is setting the Note colour in a modern app doesn’t get reflected in Outlook Classic.

Migrating EWS Code

The first thing to determine is whether you are dealing with Outlook Classic notes or something that is modifying the modern properties. Generally, any EWS Sticky Note code will be the Outlook classic variety, targeting the properties defined in the Exchange protocol document.

When migrating Sticky Notes functionality to Microsoft Graph, it’s important to understand the current API limitations.

Microsoft Graph provides full access to Sticky Note items, but not full folder metadata access in the same way as Exchange Web Services (EWS).

Sticky Notes are stored in the mailbox as an exchange item within a folder of type (Folder Class) IPF.StickyNote. Because of this

You cannot directly retrieve folder properties using the mailfolders navigation :

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/mailfolders/notes

However, you can enumerate all Sticky Note items within the default Notes folder:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/mailfolders/notes/messages

This allows you to:

• List all Sticky Notes (in the default notes folder)

• Read and update note properties

• Create new Sticky Notes

• Delete Sticky Notes

If you’ve created custom Sticky Note folders (outside the default Notes folder), you can enumerate them using the new import/export MailFolders endpoint.

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes “MailboxFolder.Read, MailboxSettings.Read”
# Get Primary Mailbox ID (required for Exchange Admin endpoint)
$MailboxId = (Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method Get `
    -Uri “https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/user@domain77.onmicrosoft.com/settings/exchange”
).primaryMailboxId
# Query Sticky Note folders
$uri = “https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/admin/exchange/mailboxes/$MailboxId/folders?`$filter=type eq ‘IPF.StickyNote’”
Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method Get -Uri $uri

• Top-level Sticky Note folders under the mailbox IPM folder root

• Folder IDs required to enumerate messages inside those folders

The query above returns only top-level folders.

If your Sticky Notes are organized into subfolders, you must:

• Recursively enumerate child folders

• Or expand folder hierarchies using additional calls

You can do this by querying:

/mailFolders/{id}/childFolders

While exploring the undocumented corners of the Microsoft Graph, you might stumble upon a “ghost” endpoint: https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me/notes. Despite appearing in various permission lists for years, it remains a phantom—functional, yet completely absent from official documentation or metadata comments.

The most compelling reason to use this endpoint is the ShortNotes.Read (and ShortNotes.ReadWrite) permission.

In a world where security teams are increasingly hesitant to grant broad Mail.Read access, ShortNotes.Read offers a path toward the Principle of Least Privilege. It allows an application to access a user’s Sticky Notes without being able to read their private emails or calendar invites.

If you call this endpoint today, you’ll notice something familiar: the response structure is similar to the Messages endpoint but returns the microsoft.graph.note datatype which has a lot fewer properties but does expand the extendedproperites navigation.

The Catch:

• Documentation: There is none. You are essentially “flying blind” on a Beta endpoint that Microsoft could change or deprecate without notice.

• Extended Properties: Just like the standard Messages endpoint, the /me/notes endpoint requires MAPI Extended Properties to retrieve specific metadata (like note color or custom formatting) that isn’t part of the basic JSON response.
  

Conclusion
For those migrating, it is generally best to stick with the Messages endpoint in Microsoft Graph. Unless you are managing custom notes folders, the migration should be relatively straightforward. However, maintaining a broader understanding of how Sticky Notes function across cloud platforms and multiple applications is crucial. As the Outlook classic install base continues to decline, discrepancies in metadata properties—such as note colors—may transition from minor nuances into technical liabilities in the code you migrate.