Windows 10: Should File History Schedule show up in Task Scheduler?

This is my results for file history set for 10 minutes with the drive disconnected so it can't write anything at all to my backup drive:

I changed the file File History Test.docx and saved it every 10 minutes and also made and deleted a file with the time in the file name...

















So file history seems to work fine (at least for me) irrespective of writing to the drive (with the exception of it being a bit vague about what 10 minutes means - it looks more like 11 minutes, but never mind - the test was too short).

EDIT: When I connected the drive it correctly copied all versions to G:\FileHistory\Hali\MacBook\Data\C\Users\Hali\Documents

 

Well, I'm glad it works for you - but as I expected - my external drive does NOT have a copy of the test file I added at 2:27 and it is now 3:50 my time. The File History shows files last copied at 1:17 when I did it manually.

The FileHistory log has this Warning entry at 2:56:

Unusual condition was encountered during scanning user libraries for changes and performing backup of modified files for configuration C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Config

 

And I just did another Manual Run of File History and the test file is now on the external drive.

 

Hi, it's usually worth searching for the error message- useful you've posted that.
I searched for
Unusual condition was encountered during scanning user libraries for changes and performing backup of modified file
- plenty of results.

It's late- I'll just copy some links: (this is not an unknown situation)
Receiving error message Unusual condition was encountered during - Microsoft Community
Previous Versions / File History
File History no longer working | Windows Secrets Lounge

 

But did you check in the Restore your files with file history screen (like in my screenshots above)? What time do you see your file appear?

From what I can see File History writes to it's cache at the frequency you define and to the disk when it can/wants to based on the conditions in the linked TechNet article above. If you aren't seeing your changed files at the correct time in the Restore your files screen then there is a problem. If the only issue is it not writing to disk on schedule then this appears to be by design.

Yes - it flushes the cache to disk when you run it manually - I found that also.

 

I didn't realize what your screenshot was from, as I've never restored anything - only copy/pasted to a new computer, deleting the characters File HIstory added. I'll do the test again tomorrow now that I understand what to do to answer your questions.

 

OK - Thank you for your patience as I now see that the computer IS saving the history in cache every hour, but for whatever reason is NOT saving it to the external drive. I'm going to get off the computer but leave it running, so I can see if it will eventually save to the external automatically. Files were last copied to the disk at 1:19 PM my time today, 9/16/16.

 

It finally saved it on the external drive all by itself at 6:22PM. Thank you for helping me understand how it works.

 

Great- people have reported issues with external drives with Win 10, but I have no idea if those are related, mostly being about loss of data/partitions/unable to access them.

 

I DID have the issue of not recognizing an external drive that was connected at the time of the anniversary upgrade. This "issue" showed up using a different external drive. Although, thanks to you, I am satisfied that files are being saved - the frequency of saving to the external drive now in use is NOT the same the same as it was prior to the upgrade.