I turned File History on, but no files are being backed up

I recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, so I'm brand new to Windows 10. Two days ago, I turned on File History. I set "Back up my files" to "Every 30 minutes" and "Keep my backups" to "Forever." I designated a shared folder on a NAS for the backups. After I turned File history on, I checked the shared folder and saw that a directory with my PC name had been created (with Data and Configuration sub-directories), so I assumed File History was up and running.

But I when I checked the shared folder today (two days later), I noticed that no files had been backed up yet. In Settings > Backup > File History > More options, I see the message "Your data is not yet backed up."

Here's my question: Do I need to do a "Back up now" before Windows will start doing incremental backups?

I have just started looking at the File History capability, but have not used it. Most realtime backup systems, either ask you to backup everything that you want the first time, then it maintains the changes, however, some do the initial backup automaticaly (based on available cpu/cycles). Not sure what file history does, but if it asked you to backup, follow the procedure to back up everything the first time. Then see what happens.

storageman said:

I have just started looking at the File History capability, but have not used it. Most realtime backup systems, either ask you to backup everything that you want the first time, then it maintains the changes, however, some do the initial backup automaticaly (based on available cpu/cycles). Not sure what file history does, but if it asked you to backup, follow the procedure to back up everything the first time. Then see what happens.

After I posted, I clicked the "Backup now" button and the backup began, which is sort of what I expected. The settings interface is amateurish. It should say explicitly that next thing you need to do after activating File History is to press the Backup Now button to start the initial backup. Merely placing the button at the top of the page tells me nothing.

perkinw said:

After I posted, I clicked the "Backup now" button and the backup began, which is sort of what I expected. The settings interface is amateurish. It should say explicitly that next thing you need to do after activating File History is to press the Backup Now button to start the initial backup. Merely placing the button at the top of the page tells me nothing.

Great - good to hear. I assume you select the directories that you want included to begin with (Not full drives) ?

I have used File History for around 6 years to a NAS box, initially with Windows 8.1 now 10. The schedule is currently set to 12 hours, forever (default).
The default User folders have to be edited to what you require. i.e. Where your User files are likely to change. Don't put system folders in there that is not what it is for. Also I don't put in large unchanging Files/Folders.
Broadly speaking that will result in it activating about once per day.

Only when files change within those Folders will it do anything. So it may appear at times not to work.

In the advanced settings occasionally I use the Cleanup versions to limit the backup size on the NAS.
No problem with Run Now below the Files last copied date/time.

It is a Time Machine of all your old files. At one time I had thousands of versions of files going back 4-5 years or more, quite a revelation as you could restore any of them back in a couple of key presses in the File Explorer > History.

storageman said:

Great - good to hear. I assume you select the directories that you want included to begin with (Not full drives) ?

I think I took the defaults. I'd check, but I shut down my NAS in the middle of a "Backup Now" and Windows won't open the advanced options (when I click advanced options, it gives me the busy cursor and I have to x out of the settings window). This is a rather odd way of telling me that it doesn't want me to change options during the initial backup.

I mirror the same directories to a portable HDD using SyncBackFree. That way, I have the latest copy of all my files, and I can take the HDD to a different machine, which is convenient. I would only go to File History if I needed previous version of a file, or one that I deleted, which will probably never happen.

I also periodically make images of my C (system) and D (user data) drives using Macrium Reflect.

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storageman said:

Great - good to hear. I assume you select the directories that you want included to begin with (Not full drives) ?

I backed up the folders that are listed by default. I back up full drives using Macrium Reflect.