File History not working for me: config1.xml & config2.xml missing

Hi, I can't seem to get File History to work on my Windows 10 Home PC. I've researched it and applied the various fixes but nothing seems to work. I think the issue is that the C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FileHistory\Configuration folder is missing the config1.xml & config2.xml files. When I try to turn File History on it gives me the classic "Could not enable File History The parameter is incorrect." error message.

The only files in this folder are:

Catalog1.edb
Catalog1.jfm
Catalog2.edb

There is no Catalog2.jfm, nor the 2 config files.

In case it matters I've changed the PC name, via the PC renaming functionality, and log in locally, i.e. not via my Microsoft account, using my administrator account. The only other thing I can think of is that when I created my local account it was all in lowercase, and I wasn't able to capitalize it using the account name renaming function, so I manually capitalized it under Users. Could that be it?

Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2
OS Build 19045.2486
Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

No, I'm referring to the path on the system drive under my account in C:\Users. Every instance of FH has one, in addition to the path on the backup drive.

In any case in the meantime I created another user account on my PC, and when I logged into it I was able to turn on FH. So the issue is with my account, and I suspect it's because I manually changed the account name so I could capitalize it.

I.e. when I first installed Windows and created my account, as a local account, I used my name, but Windows removed its capitalization. When I tried to restore the capitalization, nothing changed, so I manually capitalized the name under C:\Users.

E.g. if my name was John, and I entered "John" when I created my account, it created it as "john", and trying to change it to "John" in Control Panel didn't work, so I went to C:\Users, looked for "john", then changed it to "John". It worked, but I suspect that this messed some things up, like FH.

I tried changing my account name to something else, but FH still won't work, plus it still appears under the original, capitalized name under C:\Users. So I'm thinking that my best resort is to save my data and settings, delete this account, recreate it, then copy everything back.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok I manually renamed my user folder to its original uncapitalized version. I had to log in under a different admin account to do this (not sure how I was able to do this the first time). Now FH works. That is, I was able to turn it on without this error, and the 2 config files now appear. I selected the folders to back up and the drive to back them up to, and now it's performing the backup. So I guess I solved my problem. Just not sure how my account name was uncapitalized when I first created it. A very minor complaint but I do prefer for it to be capitalized.

As for using FH, I'd like it to only back up the initial version of every file I tell it to back up, and then only each new version of these files. I.e. an incremental backup, without copying the same files each designated period even if they haven't changed, to not waste space on the backup drive. Is that how FH works?

dalchina said:

Thank you for your reply.

Oh.. you just can't do change that randomly. Renaming that folder is a bit of a technical challenge (there's a tutorial).

Yeah, I'm now understanding that. Setting it back to what it originally was fixed this issue for me. I have to admit though that FH is kind of weird and I'm now sure that I'll use it. Since turning it on it made one full backup and what appear to be several incremental backups of new or modified files, but when I open up restore it only shows the original versions of each file and not newer versions, in case I ever wanted to restore an interim version and not the original one. Maybe I'm not understanding how it works but like so many apps that are included in Windows, it's confusing and clunky and not very easy to use.

As for that tutorial on how to change a user's folder name, is it here or elsewhere?

dalchina said:

In the huge searchable Tutorial section.. as are some in F History...

Thanks, I'll look for them.

I have been using File History for around 8 years back to Windows 8.1 using spare space on a NAS drive.
Schedule is set to 12 hours, Forever(default) occasionally cleaned up via advanced settings to 2 years, which limits the size, versions roughly daily, if any. Only files that have changed will have other versions in the File History timeline which is fair enough.

If you have only been using it for a short time not much of a Timeline to look at. Definitely takes time to choose a suitable schedule and User folders to include and exclude.

One exclusion to note is the FeedbackHub folder.

My Timeline is consequently 2 years, Documents folder as a whole 589 versions.

If you mess around with the path you will get errors as you have found out.

I always capitalise the first letter of an Account name, however in Windows 10 settings it can appear in all capitals, in Windows 11 you can see the account name correctly and in all capitals even on one page.

dalchina said:

Whilst specific file backup is a very useful complement to disk imaging, for both I choose to use 3rd party programs. For disk imaging that's what MS recommends too.

For file backup after a few tries I settled on Genie Timeline (versioned backup) - integrated with File Explorer.
There are various ways of using it- I simply plug in the backup disk and it does a backup run. Lifetime licenses are frequently given away. Pretty user friendly, good at managing backup disk space.

Just a matter of what you find easy and appropriate to use and suits you. There are many backup programs of various kinds around, and plenty of threads on those.

Thanks, I'll look into this solution. It's just a shame that after so many versions MS still doesn't bundle a robust backup and recovery solution with Windows, or sell a standalone one that regular uses can afford. I used to use Windows Backup nightly but for the past few years I've mainly relied on mirroring my data on my laptop and an encrypted thumb drive, and using SyncToy of all things to keep everything in sync.

But I usually only run it when I'm taking my laptop somewhere to do some work, which is less often these days, so there can be days without any "backup", which worries me. And even if I resumed running Windows Backup (which still exists but is essentially deprecated so I hesitate to use it), there's still the risk of losing all the work I do in-between nightly backups and manual syncs.

Which is why I'm looking into more automated backup solutions, with a core requirement for me being continuous backups of new and changed files so my data is always backed up and I don't have to worry about losing data in-between regular backups or manual syncs. File History does essentially offer that, but it's clunky, and very wasteful of disk space I've finding out, doing full or near-full backups regularly instead of incremental backups of only new or changed files. So I guess I'll have to find a decent 3rd party solution. Thanks again for the tip.