FileHistory says I've never done a backup..err

Having had a disaster meaning I had to rest my system, and stupidly not having backed up my files for sometime, I am now keeping an external drive connected to record FileHistory. However, on going to Settings>Update & Security>Backup> backup Options it seems I have never done a backup before. I'm confused, especially as Add or Remove Folders for File History in Windows 10 has a warning about FileHistory now being unsupported.
My system details are attached.

Can you explain, please, and give me guidance as to how I should proceed with Backups, and why I am getting the confusing message?

File History is for user files, a sort of Time Machine of changing files. Easily accessible from File Explorer History button.
You cannot use it for system backup.

For System backup you can Image your drives.

I do both the above. File History on a 12 hour schedule, System Image roughly monthly, keeping the last three or so.

MS does not explain it properly, very confusing mess, munged with legacy stuff from Windows 7. Not exactly simple for a consumer user to sort out.
On mine this legacy stuff says no backup (Windows 7 style) which is true. However this has nothing to do with File History which came in Windows 8/10.

I think it's this that has made you think File History is not working.
If you open File Explorer with Home Tab selected and Ribbon showing you should see a History icon. This is normally greyed out, but go to a folder where File History is operating it lights up. Select that and you see the File History.

Helmut said:

File History is for user files, a sort of Time Machine of changing files. Easily accessible from File Explorer History button.
You cannot use it for system backup.

For System backup you can Image your drives.

I do both the above. File History on a 12 hour schedule, System Image roughly monthly, keeping the last three or so..

Exactly. A system image is not an alternative to File History - you can't browse through previous versions of a file using Macrium Reflect - you would have to load each image backup and have a look. This is both impractical and not what the software was designed for.

Neither though is File History an alternative to a system image as you can't rebuild your system from it.

Apparently File History is to be replaced with "Timeline" (which sounds like a copy of MacOS Time Machine which allows restoring both individual files and OS at a certain time) but as there is currently zero information as to when (or even if) this may happen, whether it will support importing File History or not we are stuck in limbo.

I would (and do) use both until it becomes clearer.

f14tomcat said:

Not entirely correct. You don't need to load/restore the image to look, or even copy a file. Simply mount the image thru Macrium. It assigns a drive letter, and you use the Explore function. Looks just like opening in Explorer.

It is entirely correct (if you will forgive me using the word "load" to mean "mount" - I didn't mean "restore").

If I want to see the last few versions of my document though I'd rather use (the built in) File History than mount my last ten macrium backups and then separately browse to

G:\Users\Hali\Documents\Folder\Folder\folder\Document.doc
H:\Users\Hali\Documents\Folder\Folder\folder\Document.doc
I:\Users\Hali\Documents\Folder\Folder\folder\Document.doc
J:\Users\Hali\Documents\Folder\Folder\folder\Document.doc
K:\Users\Hali\Documents\Folder\Folder\folder\Document.doc
etc

to compare them. That is what File History is for and it works very well.

Usually.

f14tomcat said:

Apologies. I took you literally....that you could not browse previous versions of a file.

No worries - I use the wrong word sometimes...

I really hope File History isn't abandoned before there is something to replace it as it is excellent for what it is for.