Windows 10: Add or Remove Folders for File History in Windows 10

How to: Add or Remove Folders for File History in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Folders to be Backed Up by File History in Windows 10


File History was first introduced in Windows 8, and has been improved in Windows 10.

You can use File History to automatically back up versions of your files on a schedule to a location you select to save to. You can select to save backups to an internal hard drive, externally connected drive (ex: USB drive), or you can save to a drive on a network. You can add, remove, and exclude folders to be backed up by File History.

The default folders in your "C:\Users\(user name)" profile folder are added by default to be backed up by File History.

Over time, you'll have a complete history of your files. If the originals are lost, damaged, or deleted, you can restore them. You can also browse and restore different versions of your files.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove folders to be backed up by File History for your account in Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Add Folders to be Backed Up by File History
• Option Two: To Remove Folders from being Backed Up by File History

OPTION ONE [/i] To Add Folders to be Backed Up by File History
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.

2. Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on the More options on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. Scroll down to the Back up these folders section, and click/tap on Add a folder. (see screenshot below)



4. Browse to and select a drive, folder, or library you want to back up, and click/tap on Choose this folder. (see screenshot below)



5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 above if you want to add any other folders to be backed up.

6. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] To Remove Folders from being Backed Up by File History
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.

2. Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on the More options on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. Scroll down to the Back up these folders section, and click/tap on an added folder you want to remove. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)



5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 above if you want to remove any other folders from being backed up.

6. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Reset File History to Default in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off File History in Windows 10
• How to Select a File History Drive in Windows 10
• How to Exclude Folders from File History in Windows 10
• How to Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10
• How to Change how Long to Keep File History in Windows 10
• How to Restore Files or Folders using File History in Windows 10
• How to Delete Older Versions of File History in Windows 10
• How to Manually Create a File History Backup in Windows 10
• How to Recommend File History Drive to Homegroup in Windows 10
• How to Add History to Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Create File History shortcut in Windows 10

:)

 

Which directories does File History backup?

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

File History backup.

Please be informed file History will be set to back up back up important folders in your user account’s home folder. This includes the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos folders. It also includes the Roaming folder where many programs
store application data, your OneDrive folder, and other folders.

You can check the full list of folders in this window, and add more folders. Select “Add a folder” and you’ll be able to choose any folder on your computer to back up. You can also select a folder here and use the “Remove” button to prevent Windows from
backing it up.

By default, Windows 10's File History will back up all the folders in your User folder. To add other folders to File History, or to remove some, click on
More options under the on/off slider and scroll down to "Back up these folders."





File History via the Settings app makes it easy to add/remove folders from your back-up list.

Refer the link for more information.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/getstarted-back-up-your-files

Hope this helps, let us know the if you need further assistance.

 

Unable to remove folders from File History backups

As I understand it, all folders within libraries must be present in File History backups, the same was true in Windows 8.1. Windows 10 does however allow you to include additional folders within File History backups without having to add them to libraries,
which is an improvement over Windows 8.1.

I'm sure that some people will want to be able to exclude folders within libraries from File History backups, but it was not designed that way. I'm just glad that MS seems to have fixed it now so that I can now remove all non-library folders from C:\Users\Donny
from File History backups.

 

File History will eventually be replaced by the new "Timeline" feature in Windows 10.

Microsoft disabled File History in build 16215 to get ready to add "Timeline" in the next build, but "Timeline" wasn't ready, so Microsoft enabled File History again in build 16226.

 

File History CAN be made to WORK PROPERLY, but with some difficulty, at least with W-10 v-1709 Build 16299.248.

Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided to NOT bother telling any users with the new creator's version, *Mad but instead just quietly changed two things (at least) in file history:

• DISABLED the task scheduler for file history, which ensures it won't save ANY MORE data whatsoever (see work-around below).
• REMOVED the ability to ADD folders to file history (through their UI).

To FIX this : *Thumbs

• MANUALLY invoke "Run Now" from the File History UI WHILE connected to your backup
• RE-enable (or recreate) task manager to invoke "Run Now"
  • *Warning Make sure you have some type of ERROR DETECTION so when Microsoft decides to quietly just break it again, you will know about it.
• ADD folders, by merely Creating a NEW LIBRARY for that folder, using right click in Explorer. Make sure you check "show libraries" in folders view, and then look to see if Windows did add it.
  • *Warning Make sure you look to see exactly what is included: For instance, if you include: C:\Users\CURRENT-USER\ it will work, until it fills that new 10 TB drive you thought would never run out of space.

RANT: *Banghead (Since many folks were RELYING on File History to protect their files, Microsoft is now among those that seemingly don't care to protect my stuff, when they easily could have, or at least warned anyone that (obviously to my Windows installation) was DEPENDING on and STILL USING it. As an absurd example, reminds me of someone calling "their fire dept.", only to learn that the number is now DISCONNECTED, since the county just turned over fire control to the city!)

Forcing changes in backups might be fine, especially if made better. But not migrating backups for current users AUTOMATICALLY is unacceptable, when it is technically possible. Certainly not informing users how to migrate easily and quickly, and that they MUST CHANGE NOW or they lose data is the minimum they must do.