Windows 10: it is 2024 .. and file history cleanup bug is not yet resolved

File history cleanup is not yet solved... and i doubt i will be solved.Whenever i ttry to do it, i receive an error saying unable to clean up file history, unable to find the element.already sent feedback.already voted other feedbackdo you know if there is any way to ask MS to solve it ?Fabrizio

:)

 

File History Cleanup

The first step only deletes unnecessary files, and the second step only deletes the file history database. So it only deletes old versions while keeping the latest version.

It's recommended to back up important files before performing any disk cleanup or system changes, especially when dealing with large amounts of data.

 

File History Drive Full - Now What

Hi Don,

File History drive usually contains older versions of Windows on your PC. To clean your File History drive, we suggest that you follow these steps:

• Open the Control Panel (small icon view), and then click on the
  File History.
• On the left pane, click on Advanced settings.
• Click on the Clean up versions link in the Versions
  section. Note: The Clean up versions link will not be available if you don't have any File History versions available on currently selected drive.
  • 
    
    
• Select the time period of versions you want to delete, and then click on
  Clean up.
• File History Cleanup will now start discovering items for the specified time period, and delete them if available.
• If it didn't find any versions of your files that were that old, click on Close, and repeat step 4 above using a shorter time period if you like.
  If the cleanup completed successfully, click on OK.
• You can now close If the cleanup completed successfully, click/tap on OK.
• You can now close the windows.

Let us know if the steps above helped you to resolve your concern.

 

File History Physical Connected But Not Electronic

Hello Candun,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 Family.

From the description provided, I understand that File History is not recognizing the external USB expansion drive, even though the drive had worked initially and it was behaving normally in File Explorer.

This issue may occur if any of the backup in the drive you are backing up is corrupted or the library is corrupted.

Please follow the below suggested methods and check if it helps to resolve the issue.

Method 1

1. Open File History and click Select Drive. Select a different drive other than the one that is failing to be recognized. you can consider adding an extra internal HDD to your PC in this situation.

2. Go to the external USB drive that wasn't being recognised, find the File History folder and rename it to "File History.old" or delete it.

3. Go to your C:\Users\your user folder\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows, find the File History folder and rename it "File History.old" or delete it.

4. Re-open File History, click Select drive and select the original USB drive that was not being recognised. The drive should now set up normally and start operating.

5. Delete the File History folder on the drive used in step 1

Method 2

This issue may happen due to system file corruption. I suggest you to run System file checker. System File checker (SFC) scan is done to check if there are any corrupted system files that could be causing this issue. Kindly follow
the below given steps:

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
  
• 
  In Command prompt type
  sfc/scannow and press enter.
  

• Restart the computer.

If no corrupted system files were found in the previous state, then I suggest you to try the following steps to employ the DISM command lines:

• 
  Open command prompt by pressing Windows key + X and selecting “Command prompt admin”.
  
• 
  In command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
  

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

• 
  Close the command prompt and restart the PC and check if it works.
  

Also refer: What if something goes wrong in File History?

Windows help and learning

(Note: Applies to windows 10)

Hope the above information was helpful. If you need further information, feel free to write to us and we would be happy to help you.

Thank you.