How to Change how Often to Save 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.

The default folders in your "C:\Users\(user name)" profile folder are added by default 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 change how often you want to save copies of your files with 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 Change how Often to Save File History in Settings
  • Option Two: To Change how Often to Save File History in Control Panel






OPTION ONE

To Change how Often to Save File History in Settings


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)

Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10-file_history_settings.png

3 Choose how often you want to save copies of your files in the Back up my files drop menu at the top. (see screenshot below)

Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10-file_history_schedule_settings-1.png

4 When finished, you can close Settings if you like.






OPTION TWO

To Change how Often to Save File History in Control Panel


1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the File History icon.

2 Click/tap on the Advanced settings link on the left side. (see screenshot below)

Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10-file_history_control_panel.png

3 Choose how often you want to save copies of your files in the Save copies of files drop menu. (see screenshot below)

Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10-file_history_schedule_control_panel-1.png

4 Click/tap on Save changes. (see screenshot below)

Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10-file_history_settings-2.png

5 When finished, you can close the File History control panel if you like.


That's it,
Shawn