How to Exclude Folders from File History in Windows 10
File History was first introduced in Windows 8, and has been improved in Windows 10.
You can use File History to automatically back up versions of your files on a schedule to a location you select to save to. You can select to save backups to an internal hard drive, externally connected drive (ex: USB drive), or you can save to a drive on a network. You can add, remove, and exclude folders to be backed up by File History.
Over time, you'll have a complete history of your files. If the originals are lost, damaged, or deleted, you can restore them. You can also browse and restore different versions of your files.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove folders to be excluded from being backed up by File History for your account in Windows 10.
File History adds 26 characters to each file name as it backs up. The maximum total full path length of any file that it backs up is 210 characters, including these 26 characters. Thus any original file with a full path length of 185 or more characters is ignored and will not be included in the back up.
Contents
- Option One: To Add Folders to be Excluded by File History in Settings
- Option Two: To Remove Folders from being Excluded by File History in Settings
- Option Three: To Add Folders to be Excluded by File History in Control Panel
- Option Four: To Remove Folders from being Excluded by File History in Control Panel
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.
2 Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on the More options on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Scroll down to the Exclude these folders section, and click/tap on Add a folder. (see screenshot below)
4 Browse to and select a drive, folder, or library you want to exclude, and click/tap on Choose this folder. (see screenshot below)
5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 above if you want to exclude any other folders.
6 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.(see screenshot below)
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.
2 Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on the More options link on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Scroll down to the Exclude these folders section, and click/tap on an excluded folder you no longer want to be excluded. (see screenshot below)
4 Click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)
5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 above if you want to remove any other folders from being excluded.
6 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the File History icon.
2 Click/tap on the Exclude folders link on the left side. (see screenshot below)
3 Click/tap on the Add button. (see screenshot below)
4 Browse to and select a drive, folder, or library you want to exclude, and click/tap on Select folder. (see screenshot below)
5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 above if you want to exclude any other folders.
6 When finished, click/tap on Save changes to apply. (see screenshot below)
7 You can now close the File History Control Panel if you like.
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the File History icon.
2 Click/tap on the Exclude folders link on the left side. (see screenshot below)
3 Select an excluded folder you no longer want to be excluded, and click/tap on Remove. (see screenshot below)
4 Repeat step 3 above if you want to remove any other folders from being excluded.
5 When finished, click/tap on Save changes to apply. (see screenshot below)
6 You can now close the File History Control Panel if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
Related Tutorials
- How to Reset File History to Default in Windows 10
- How to Turn On or Off File History in Windows 10
- How to Select a File History Drive in Windows 10
- How to Manually Create a File History Backup in Windows 10
- How to Add or Remove Folders to be Backed Up by File History in Windows 10
- How to Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10
- How to Change how Long to Keep File History in Windows 10
- How to Delete Older Versions of File History in Windows 10
- How to Recommend File History Drive to Homegroup in Windows 10
- How to Add History to Context Menu in Windows 10
- How to Create File History shortcut in Windows 10