Windows 10: File History Cleanup Fails & Backup Skips Long Paths – Windows 10 & 11 Bug?

Hi everyone,I’m encountering two major issues with File History in Windows 11 and Windows 10, affecting both cleanup functionality and backup reliability. The cleanup feature worked about a year ago, but after recent Windows updates, it appears to be completely broken. Microsoft Support has confirmed that there is no fix.Issue 1: File History Cleanup Fails with "Element Not Found"Running fhmanagew.exe -cleanup X results in "Element Not Found", even though backup files exist.Cleanup fails regardless of file path length, metadata presence $OF folder, or backup completeness.The feature worked a

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File History and Long Path Names

Hi, there are no real answers here from MS, except it does seem to be a problem:
Windows 10 File History, Long File Names, and Indexing - Microsoft Community

File history doesnt let you backup long path file names - Microsoft Community

https://superuser.com/questions/125... doesnt backup (folder is empty) - Super User


I think it would require experimentation by an experienced user to determine this. I don't use File History myself. The last two links give details of how to enable long paths, but whether that is respected by any given feature may depend on its particular coding.

 

Files skipped in Backup using File History

Hi Sumangal,





Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



Which device are you backing up the files to?





Normally, on the successful completion of back up, you will get the pop up saying that the backup operation completed successfully and if any file is skipped, you will be notified about it, however some files due to their length appear to be hidden. If
you try to restore the file using File History it is actually there.



I would suggest to check if the files/folders are in the Excluded folder list. You may also want to check the file history logs to view the recent events errors, the option is available under
Advanced settings of File History.





Finally, I would suggest to restore your personal files and see if the missing files are restored from the file history. Please refer to the following article. The article is for Windows 8, but holds good for Windows 10 as well.



Restoring files from File History



Hope the information is helpful.



Regards,

Peer Samie

Microsoft Community-Moderator

 

File History - Files with long path names.

In August 2016, @gacpac posted that "File history doesn't let you back up long path file names".

Does this problem still exist in Windows 11?