Windows 10: Unable to Backup / update File History

For a couple of months Backup and File History have not been working, even after a successful update to October which cured some problems. I think I have checked out most possibilities, including accessing and starting Backup both from Settings and via Control Panel.

I usually get the report that data is being backed up and the drives I use have the activity light flicking. But nothing is saved. At one point I thought it might be a problem with the drives themselves, until I found the same result with different drives. My usual procedure is to (1) backup first with a USB flash drive, and if successful I (2) backup again with a higher compacity external USB HDD. Now I don't get as far as stage (1).

In Settings / Backup the drive is often shown as 'Disconnected' even though all other evidence shows otherwise, eg. the drive is listed in My PC and other locations and can be explored etc; in the Control Panel the drive when clicked is shown as running.

I don't use File History much, but would like to have it working as it is supposed to.

:)

 

File History restart

Hi Jim,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community forums.



To change the backup drive for File History, the current process should be stopped. I suggest you to try the steps listed below to stop file history on an older drive and restart it on a new drive:



Change File History backup drive:

• Open Settings and navigate to Update & Security > Backup.
  
• Click on More Options, scroll down to locate
  Backup to a different drive section, and choose Stop Using Drive.
  
• Plug in the new storage drive, navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Backup,
  and choose Add a Drive.
  
• Restart File History and configure it by referring to the article
  
  File History in Windows.
  

Hope it helps.

Regards,

 

File History backups

Hi William,

To help you with your File History backups issue, we suggest running the
System File Checker with the steps found on this
thread.

Update us on the results.

Regards.

 

File History does not backup automatically

Hi,

Thank you for writing us back.

I would suggest you to go through the below steps:

• 
  Press Windows key+I.
  
• 
  Click on Update and security.
  
• 
  On the left pane, click on backup and select on under automatically back up my files.
  
• 
  Click on more option under on button.
  
• 
  Select every hour (default) under back up my files.
  
• 
  Select forever (default) under keep my files.
  

Also refer the link below link and check if it helps:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/set-drive-file-history

Also work in Windows 10

I hope this helps. Please post back with the status of the issue and we will be glad to assist you further.