again File History backup

Hi,
last month I initiated the thread about my problems with File History backup and got advices and suggestions.
I never succeeded to make it work automatically. And did it by clicking Backup Now every day.

By end of December I had an option to access the machine during few days.

I did everything from scratch.
Created new target directory on backup server. Set it up in file history. Very first backup up was performed automatically and created folder structure on target network drive for the user name I used for File History backup creation.

Then I added SOURCE folder with the data (372 GB), set it to every 10 min and left the computer as it is (didn't logoff).
I checked it in 7 hours and for my surprise everything was perfectly copied.
I started at 11 AM and last folder created in target folder was at 4PM.

I was sure that it will work properly. But after one business day and about 10GB of new data nothing was copied.

So here I came to conclusion that this heck works only for logged in user under which name File History was created.
Does it make sense?

I created initial backup using Domain Admin Backup account and had no doubt that it should not depend on user logged in,
but solely on existence of a new data in the defined source folder.

In my situation, I have multiple users on this workstation that use an application that creates the Data in the same local folder.

Can somebody confirm that File History solution works strictly for profile for which it was created and not works when the user logged out. Pretty funny if it is... But after trying and trying without really knowing the logic behind File history it looks like that.

Thanks and sorry for such a long "roman".

@mla, my experience is different. I just setup file history backup from scratch and waited for it to finish. I noted the time of the backup. I then created a new file on my desktop because file history will not run again unless there are new files or modified files to backup.

I completely logged off the system and waited a while. When I logged back on I checked the time of the last backup and it occurred while I was logged off.

NOTE: One difference in my case is that my backup is being done to a local drive. I'll have to try it to a network destination next to see if the behavior is different.

I appreciate your answer... so I can conclude that login is not required.
And it is logical.
Will be glad to get your confirmation about backup to network drive.
If you will confirm that it is OK and probably it will be because there is a native option for Network Drive destination, I will open a case with Microsoft.
Really need to make it work. If not, the only option is to login to the machine remotely and click Backup Now every morning.

A sad part is that there is no way to troubleshoot this app (check some log) and find why it not initiates automatically.

@mla, I just repeated my test with a network destination. In my case I am on a workgroup, not in a domain. No backup occurred while I was logged off.

I wonder if this is done on purpose for some sort of security reasons.

If I may, could I possibly suggest an alternative solution? There are backup solutions such as Macrium Reflect (used extensively by many members of the forum) which will do what you want, and there is a free version available.

The only other idea that I have, and I should note that I have no clue if this is even possible, is to determine if File History run via a command line and scheduled using task scheduler might work while offline. I may try to test this if I have opportunity sometime later today.

See this link for info about file history with command line:

File History Command Line Tool – Adam's Code Blog

thanks for the info...
I will try Macrium and will check command line stuff.

Update on testing...

I've tried a few more times to see if I could get a backup to a network destination to work while logged off. It did not occur in any of my tests.

However, I had another reason for posting back. I realized only now that the free version of Macrium Reflect that I had suggested will only perform full disk image backups. The file backup feature is only available with paid versions. Apologies for not realizing that earlier.

File History backs up on a per user basis. I do use it on my desktop PC for my main user account - however I tend to recover any files needed from my Reflect backup. Yo can mount any partition in a Reflect image and copy any files / folders you wish. I've found this useful on a few occasions when I've accidentally deleted a file.

First, I appreciate all for your inputs...
From all above tests and different results including myself it shows that File History is a lost blackbox in case of problems.

Sure, it cannot serve my initial purpose to backup flawlessly newly added files to the source folder.
I spent enough time and now can say that I will forget it with great pleasure (no sarcasm :) ).

Today I found an app called Cobian Backup.
It is simply wonderful. The developer sold it to the company that made it commercial, but on his website provides his last version before selling it. It supports Windows 10. (CobianSoft - The home of Cobian Backup)

Made multiple tests...
The prog can run as a service... and it says all. It does the job with no logged in user and backups any new or changed file.
Interface is simple with more than enough options. The scheduler is absolutely flexible. Real time LOG.
And the most important everything works from first clicks.
All I did : set source, destination, for test put it for every 3 min. And added files and folders to the source.
Than made first full backup. And set Backup task to Differential. Works as a charm.
Sure it can use shadow copy (in my scenario I don't need it).

This soft is from type set and forget. What a relief... After playing with Veeam agent and File history it is real miracle.
Sure I will send some donation from my pocket to the developer. And will use it for rare need of particular machine in enterprise environment.

Sorry for such emotions :).