Windows 10: File History to be removed?

I've done a quick search on the forum and can't find any reference to this topic.

I used File History today and discovered that there were no entries beyond 5 November, which happens to be the day that I was upgraded to the Fall Creators update. A bit of googling revealed a couple of sites saying that MS intended to kill File History after the above update, which fits with my experience.

The sites also said that files before this update could still be recovered. This again fits with my experience as I was looking for some files created in October and since deleted which I found and restored.

I have EaseUS Todo backup which will fill the gap, although if it's now going to be my method for recovering accidentally deleted files I'm going to have to ease up on merging files, which I do to save disk space. However, File History is used by Windows Explorer to retrieve previous versions of files. Presumably, as time passes, you won't be able to retrieve more recent previous versions?

Can anyone clarify the situation because I only came upon it pure chance and am still rather confused.

:)

 

Does file history need to be set to automatic?

I suppose this question should now be marked as Answered as it is working absolutely fine for me as I can successfully do my ad hoc back-ups, which i generally do every week. The process is very simple.

I'm still slightly confused why I need to label the process as Automatic Daily when what I do is clearly not automatic, but i think we can just put that down to an idiosyncrasy in the process. It is not a big deal

Can someone please mark the question as answered as i can't mark my own reply as the answer

 

Does file history need to be set to automatic?

Hi Wallace,

File History keeps most backups on a separate hard drive, removable drive (external hard drive or USB stick) or network drive. File History runs automatic backups. It can become extremely useful in cases your computer has been hit with ransomware that encrypts
all detected documents, photos, and e-mails. After cleaning your computer from the malware itself, you can restore a previous version to get your valuable data back.

Refer to the this Microsoft article on how to
Back up and restore your files

Learn more about
Ransomware

Hope this information is helpful.

 

Hi Agrippa.

Here is the tutorial. In particular I think you are looking at Option Three although it has lots of information worth reading.

Select Drive for File History in Windows 10

At the bottom of the tutorial are links to other File History tutorials.


Ken

 

It is not clear but previous Insider info suggested FHB was going to be dropped and become a deprecated feature. However, it was not declared as a deprecated feature in recent declarations unlike the System Image Backup mechanism which is a deprecated feature, and could be dropped in RS4 next Spring.

MS will not stop supporting a feature without giving at least one years notice, so it will be good at least until 09/18.

 

File History is still working and part of the 1709 FCU. I'm on OS Build 16299.19
I use it, for almost 4 years, and the last backup was just 1 hour before this posting, it's on a 12 hour schedule.
Have also checked on folders/files I was working on a few hours before that today and all seems OK.

I think it is morphing in to something fancier at some point, which I guess will be Timeline or whatever they will call it.
So, just chill out.

 

Yes, MS have said File History is to be replaced (a feature called Timeline seems to be in the pipeline) but it hasn't happened yet in Fall Creators Update. I have (had) File History turned on with a daily backup, pointing to a folder on a network drive. It's very much my third line of defence, my main backups are regular system images of the whole system, and my own backup regime for my user data of monthly full backups and weekly incrementals - all done by a batch file I wrote to use RoboCopy. File History is there as a 'plan B' in case my main backups have problems, so I don't look at it very often.

I can confirm that the upgrade to Fall Creators Update has stopped my File History too. My last backup was 13th October, the week before Fall Creators Update was released and I upgraded my machine.

@ Option Three from that tutorial to select the same network folder to use again. It said 'this folder has already been used, do you want to add to it?'. Having set up the history folder again File History promptly started copying files to it.


So, no - the upgrade to Fall Creators Update has not removed File History, but it appears that it did upset its settings and stopped it working. It seems that it just needs to be set up again for it to start working again. I'll know if it's fully back to normal and backing up automatically after a day has passed.

 

That is not true. If the folders used in File History have not changed then whatever schedule you have set it to won't update the File History.
This may give the appearance that it is not working, maybe for days even on my 12 hour schedule, but it is.

The fact is, on some occasions, nothing has changed in those Folders.

Changing drives for the File History is another scenario.

"File History is there as a 'plan B' in case my main backups have problems, so I don't look at it very often."
Exactly, that says it all.

 

You cannot say it is not true!

It is not that clear cut. People have reported on hub it is broken with FCU for them. You are making an assumption they have not changed files. Obvious test is add one new file and see what happens.

 

I have my File History set to back up a small number of my most important folders so, yes, they contain files that change frequently, often daily. Looking back through the File History made before 1703 was upgraded to 1709 I see the available history dates are on average every 2-3 days. I upgraded to FCU on 17th October. From the 13th October until I reset it on 13th November no File History backups took place.

On checking this morning, I now see an automatic File History backup took place overnight. Seems that it is now in full working order after reconnecting it to the original History folder. Watching for a few more days should confirm that.

 

Since we are talking File History capabilities I'd like to be able to plug in a device, have it execute a "Backup" and then unplug the device and store it. Then at some set time interval, reconnect, update and remove.

Has anyone experimented with this approach.

I'm looking to do this to provide seniors with an easy way to make a make a backup and then update it. I don't want it connected 7/24 due to virus / malware risks. I know there is the Controlled Folder Access but that is to much for people that have issues logging in.

This type of functionality is available on a Mac with their "Time Machine". It even pops up a message that says how long it's been since the last backup.

Was hoping the new version of File Explore MS was to deliver had same capabilities.

Thanks.

 

In theory you could do that with File History. Turn it on, connect to a History folder, back up now, disconnect from the History folder then turn it off again. Next time you'd connect to the same History folder and back up to it again, with all previous History available for a restore if needed. You'd be using File History in a way it wasn't designed for though, so not an easy process to explain to a 'senior'.

The end of File History would seem to be down to the proposed Timeline feature (looks like MS's answer to 'Time Machine'). Like much of MS's philosophy, this appears to be an 'always on, working in mysterious ways in the background' feature - probably even less easy to bend to your purpose. More here...

Microsoft is introducing a new feature called Timeline
Timeline feature will not make Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

 

Many thanks for the replies. However, the problem now seems to have sorted itself out.

Following on from discovering the problem on 12 November I changed the time between saving copies and a check today shows that File History had started working again from that date. To confirm it I carried out a little experiment by changing the time between copies to 10 minutes and resaving a test file every 15 minutes or so. "Recover previous versions" now showed all of the versions.

So, I believe that whilst the problem started with the Win 10 Fall Creators Update - the date and time seem too close to be a coincidence, I am now reassured that the problem was peculiar to my PC and that any suggestion of MS shutting File History down with the update was a complete red herring.

Anyway, thanks again for replying.

 

Thanks Bree.

This should be much easier than it is. Time Machine has had this functionality for years. Apple just seems to strive more on the usability aspects in their products. Lets see what MS delivers.

 

Yes, File History wasn't removed - but like yours mine stopped making backups with the upgrade to Fall Creators Update, and again like you - changing a few of its settings started it working again. Mine has made backups automatically twice now. So this wasn't 'peculiar to my PC' - it happened to at least one other PC.

Seems like the update to 1709 didn't correctly carry over the settings, but re-making them was all that was required to get it working again.