File History (Backup) - Not including Documents folder

I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include? I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.

VanguardLH wrote:
I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

'Documents' should not only be a *folder*, but should also be a
*library*. See the 'Libraries' category in the left pane of File
Explorer.

I assume that on your system 'Documents' is not listed under
'Libraries'.

File History automatically backs up all 'Libraries' and there is no
need to (additionally) include the *folder* C:\Users\myprofile\Documents
in your File History configuration.

If 'Documents' is indeed not listed under 'Libraries', you can
recreate the 'Documents' library by:

Libraries - right-click - New - Library

Next rename 'New Library' to 'Documents' and do a 'Properties' on
'Documents' to let the 'Documents' *library* point to your
C:\Users\myprofile\Documents *folder*.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include?

I can't answer that, but as explained above, the Documents *folder*
does not have to be included, because the Documents *library* should
exist.

I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.

VanguardLH wrote:
I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include? I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.

I dropped a test file into Documents and
it shows up on the Backup drive E: as seen here.

https://i.postimg.cc/pLYf4nG8/File-H...Container2.gif

I made a series of incompressible files and tossed
them in various places, and they seem to be copied over
OK so far.

As for a comment about "Mac Files", it would depend on whether
an attempt was made to coerce them into 1252 when they were
UTF-8 or something. I've had some weird stuff happen like that.
It would depend on whether the transfer method was transparent
or not (transparent enough to not try wrong-headed character
set munging). I could only tell what had happened, by pasting
the hex for the damaged stuff into Google, and finding comments
about where that hex string comes from. The hex string wasn't
UTF-8 and was the product of a damaging character conversion,
where the resulting hex is "pure crap". So no, something
damaged in that way, I don't expect anything to handle it.
First you would make sure that the representation is
actually valid, before blaming a system that comes later
for "not dealing with it". Check the details in such a case,
note the hex representation, pop into Google, and see if
someone has seen that damage before.

I have no idea how File History works, but so far, I'm not
really seeing anything missing. My main concern is that,
even with de-duping, how long is my backup storage drive
going to last ? I presume even if it was using shadows somehow
to make the presentation, there's a 64 shadow limit, so at
some point it would run out of ways to represent incremental
changes.

And the user interface during restore is rather fanciful.
If valuable files were involved, that interface would
scare the **** out of me :-/ I mean, right away,
I did something I probably shouldn't have. But, because
the file didn't matter, my blood pressure didn't change.
But I could see if my only copy of my taxes just got
overwritten, I wouldn't be too happy.

I think I need a training course or something for this one.

Maybe this is why I stick with backup methods I understand.
If I'm only going to blow something up, I'll find another
way to do it.

I thought maybe this was the method that made ZIP files,
but it does not appear to be. That's why my test files
were incompressible, to make them easier to spot by size
of ZIPs were involved. But I don't see any ZIPs on this method.

I think the Windows Backup one (the one that doesn't do system
image), that's the one that makes ZIPs. It won't allow me
to burrow in, so dumping an NFI example of an output
file will have to do for now. The ZIPs are not conventional,
in that concatenation across ZIPs doesn't work quite the
way you would think :-/ Still, fun to play with if you like
puzzles.

https://i.postimg.cc/t4TCPsZy/window...kup-to-ZIP.gif

(Files show up in ZIP containers...)

File 120
\DESKTOP-FC3UB1R\Backup Set 2019-05-29 064219\Backup Files 2019-05-29 064219\Backup files 1.zip
$STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident)
$FILE_NAME (resident)
$DATA (nonresident)
logical sectors 305920-322431 (0x4ab00-0x4eb7f)

Paul

On 29 May 2019 10:22:22 GMT, in alt.comp.os.windows-10, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:
I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

'Documents' should not only be a *folder*, but should also be a
*library*. See the 'Libraries' category in the left pane of File
Explorer.

I assume that on your system 'Documents' is not listed under
'Libraries'.

File History automatically backs up all 'Libraries' and there is no
need to (additionally) include the *folder* C:\Users\myprofile\Documents
in your File History configuration.

If 'Documents' is indeed not listed under 'Libraries', you can
recreate the 'Documents' library by:

Libraries - right-click - New - Library

Next rename 'New Library' to 'Documents' and do a 'Properties' on
'Documents' to let the 'Documents' *library* point to your
C:\Users\myprofile\Documents *folder*.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include?

I can't answer that, but as explained above, the Documents *folder*
does not have to be included, because the Documents *library* should
exist.

I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.

In addition, if you want the "Public" folder's documents to be backed up,
you need to manually add that to the Documents library. It isn't there by
default in Win 10 like it was with Win 8.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Frank Slootweg wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

'Documents' should not only be a *folder*, but should also be a
*library*. See the 'Libraries' category in the left pane of File
Explorer.

Microsoft is trying to give up on Libraries. It no longer shows in
Windows/File Explorer by default. From what I've read, like from Woody
Leonhard (aka askwoody.com), Microsoft seems to be going away from
libraries.

Since they are just pointers in Libraries, not being listed doesn't mean
the file or folder does not exist.

Maybe you're thinking of the Quick Access group in File Explorer. Yep,
that's just pointers, too. I found it of no value, so I configured File
Explorer NOT to waste space in the tree view with pointers that I don't
need nor use. Besides, Documents already has a pointer in the Start
Menu in its left column.

I assume that on your system 'Documents' is not listed under
'Libraries'.

I don't backup based on pointers. I select the actual folders to
include which, in this case, included %userprofile%\Documents.

File History automatically backs up all 'Libraries' and there is no
need to (additionally) include the *folder* C:\Users\myprofile\Documents
in your File History configuration.

*IF* you use libraries. I and most users do not as the redirection can
be confusing. It's there. No, not really. Libraries was introduced in
Windows 7 but which users never embraced. Of all the users that I've
seen or helped and even developers, none use Libraries to go to their
Documents folder. They either went direct to the folder. They weren't
ignorant of where were their documents. Those that understood and use
libraries then to love them (because they found a use to group together
pointers to disjoint folders). The rest ignore yet another means of
getting at the same folders. Also, not all users are slobs regarding
folders as they actually employ the folder hierarchy to organize their
files. I've seen some slob users that could really make use of
libraries, but they'd eventually make a mess of them, too.

https://msegceporticoprodassets.blob...obs/15414_en_1
That is what File Explorer will look like, by default. No libraries.

By default (since I never changed this setting), you have to right-click
in a blank area in the tree pane in File Explorer and enable "Show
libraries" in the context menu. Apparently you're stuck with Libraries
showing in the tree pane even after disabling "Show libraries" (might
require signing off and back on to effect the option change, but I'll
have to test that after finishing this reply - since I have no use or
even desire to use for Libraries).

After selecting to show libraries, yep, the Documents folder is listed
there. Yet it was not included in the File History backups.

It is pretty easy to see what File History is copying into its
destination drive. The files are not stored in a compressed image or
database file. In fact, you can go to the backup location and open the
files right there. All File History does is copy the source file the
backup location and append "(yyyy_dd_mm_hh_mm_ss tz)" to the filename.
Adding the timestamp is how File History retains and tracks file
versions. Because there is no compression, the backup files are as
large as the source files and, of course, there will be multiple copies
for "versioning", so the backup store will be equal to or larger than
the sum of the source files.

If 'Documents' is indeed not listed under 'Libraries', you can
recreate the 'Documents' library by:

Libraries - right-click - New - Library

Redirection is not required to access the actual Documents folder. The
%userprofile%\Documents folder itself was actually listed in File
History to include in its backups.

Next rename 'New Library' to 'Documents' and do a 'Properties' on
'Documents' to let the 'Documents' *library* point to your
C:\Users\myprofile\Documents *folder*.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include?

I can't answer that, but as explained above, the Documents *folder*
does not have to be included, because the Documents *library* should
exist.

Yep, AFTER enabling the option to show Libraries in File Explorer, the
redirection to %userprofile%\Documents was listed as Documents under
Libraries. Yet the Documents folder is still missing from the backup
location for File History.

As a test, just in case File History doesn't create its backup location
for Documents until a document has actually been changed, I edited a
..docx file and saved the change. I then went into File History and
instigated a manual backup (rather than wait until when File History did
its next check). Nope, no backup of the changed or original file. When
I right-click on the .docx file, there is a "Previous Version" tab but
it lists no versions. So, File History is not working on Documents.

Since File History refuses to include the %userprofile%\Documents folder
-- whether by using the redirection to it in Libraries or by using
direct access to the folder itself -- I'll have to come up with some
other solution (that I'll fabricate or a 3rd party tool) to give me
quick and easy file versioning. The lack of including Documents makes
File History worthless, to me.

On Wed, 29 May 2019 12:09:59 -0500, in alt.comp.os.windows-10, VanguardLH
wrote:

After selecting to show libraries, yep, the Documents folder is listed
there. Yet it was not included in the File History backups.

By default, File History backs up libraries, but it also backs up every
folder in your [User] (home) folder.

Yes. MS is ditching libraries, same as they eventually did with
Homegroups, but libraries were the basis of File History in Windows 8, so
there is still some legacy there. It automatically adds folders in the
four default libraries, too. There were always difficulties with custom
libraries that the user added.

I expect libraries to go away, and for it to just backup the home folder
directories (excepting AppData) in the future.

Note that it does *not* backup any files that are actually *in* the home
folder. I have to occasionally stick those files on a drive somewhere
manually. If you tell it to back up the [user] folder itself, you'll have
to exclude AppData manually, I believe.

Is your Documents folder on a different drive/in a different directory?
Did you change the defaults for it?

If not, the place to go for backup is Settings-Update &
Security-Backup. The folders included and excluded should be under the
"More options" link that appears under the on/off toggle.

Check to see that "Documents" isn't one of the excluded folders in that
list (in SETTINGS, not in Control Panel). It should be included, along
with all the folders in your home folder (again, excluding AppData).

So check in Settings for the include/exclude lists, and make sure they're
right. Judging by what you posted, you probably already had a look at
that page.

Beyond that, your account may be corrupted. You can create a new account
and transfer everything from the old account to the new account and see
if that works. This tactic fixes a lot of bizzaro Windows problem. I've
been through a few fresh accounts on various machines.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

Paul wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:
I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include? I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.

I dropped a test file into Documents and
it shows up on the Backup drive E: as seen here.

https://i.postimg.cc/pLYf4nG8/File-H...Container2.gif

I made a series of incompressible files and tossed
them in various places, and they seem to be copied over
OK so far.

I did a similar test. The %userprofile%\Documents folder was listed as
included for File History to backup. I edited a document in the
Documents folder (two subfolders deep since I use folders to organize my
documents which was the point of using folders instead of mashing
everything together in the root folder, along with the old limitation of
how many files could be in a folder). I saved the changes to the source
file. I went into File History and forced an immediate backup. Nope,
there was no Documents folder nor any copy of the changed file. File
History is broke for me.

I've removed and re-added the %userprofile%\Documents folder but File
History refuses to create backups of the source files. When added,
there should, at a minimum, be a copy of every source file in the
included folder (and all its subfolders) since that would be the base
version when File History got enabled.

As for a comment about "Mac Files", it would depend on whether
an attempt was made to coerce them into 1252 when they were
UTF-8 or something.

The complaints that I saw said the files were accessible by programs and
even by File Explorer. The users could manipulate (open, move, rename,
delete) the Mac-named files, but File History refused to back them up.
Those complaints were 1 to 2 years ago, so I don't know if Microsoft
fixed that problem since then. The solution was to rename the file to
remove any characters File History didn't like, and then the files would
get backed up. I didn't bother hunting around for more related
complaints since that was a side issue discovered when hunting for File
History problems and my focus for this thread is why File History won't
include the Documents folder. I really only mentioned that bug to show
that File History has other problems. In fact, when researching File
History, it doesn't seem reliable to trust as a backup solution.

I have no idea how File History works, but so far, I'm not
really seeing anything missing. My main concern is that,
even with de-duping, how long is my backup storage drive
going to last ? I presume even if it was using shadows somehow
to make the presentation, there's a 64 shadow limit, so at
some point it would run out of ways to represent incremental
changes.

And the user interface during restore is rather fanciful.
If valuable files were involved, that interface would
scare the **** out of me :-/ I mean, right away,
I did something I probably shouldn't have. But, because
the file didn't matter, my blood pressure didn't change.
But I could see if my only copy of my taxes just got
overwritten, I wouldn't be too happy.

I'm still trying to figure out how File History can show you prior
versions after deleting a file. After all, normally you right-click on
an *existing* file to use Properties - Prior Versions to get at the
prior versions. So, how can you right-click on a non-existing file, one
that existed but got deleted? Create a dummy file named the same (if
you remember the old filename)? Restore the deleted file from the
Recycle Bin *IF* the deleted copy is still there? File History appears
to require a file object to know its filename to then check if it has
backups by the same filename (but with "(yyyy_dd_mm_hh_mm_ss tz)"
appended to the filename). Well, a deleted file doesn't have a name
because, well, it doesn't exist. You can't right-click on a deleted
file in File Explorer. Restore the whole damn folder (if it still
exists) by right-clicking on the folder and restore that? That would
step on every other file in that folder to restore the entire folder
back to some backup date.

I thought maybe this was the method that made ZIP files,
but it does not appear to be. That's why my test files
were incompressible, to make them easier to spot by size
of ZIPs were involved. But I don't see any ZIPs on this method.

No compression. You can go to File History's backup location and
directly open the backup copies from there. The file is not compressed.
It is not encrypted. The files there are no different than if you
simply copied them from the source location to a destination except File
History renames the destination files as noted above. That means the
backup store is equal to (for source files that were backed up but not
yet updated) or larger in size (due to datestamped prior versions of the
same file) than the source files getting copied. File History is just
one-way file mirroring (one-way file synchronization) performed at timed
intervals (not an on-demand versioning tool to immediately capture
changes after a file gets changed) but also adds datestamping to the
filename for its versioning.

From what I've found out about File History, I could do the very same
timed file versioning using my backup program and running incremental
backups in a logical (file) backup (versus an image backup). The only
advantage that I've seen with File History is right-clicking on a file
(obviously it has to exist to right-click on it) in File Explorer and
going to the Properties - Prior Version tab to grab a prior saved copy
of the file. The incremental file backup for a backup program would
step on the prior saved copy, so I'd only have 1 prior version up until
the next incremental backup. I use Macrium Reflect and it isn't
designed as a file versioning tool. I don't know if I can massage it
into doing file versioning but the interface to see older versions of a
file is clumsy.

I noticed today that my entire C:\Downloads folder got wiped (all
subfolders and files were gone). I do daily backups using Macrium
Reflect, so I was able to recover the Downloads folder. I only use the
default %userprofile%\Downloads folder for temporary storage of
downloads. Once I decide to keep a download, it gets moved to a
subfolder under C:\Downloads. If I didn't have Reflect's backups, I
would've lost all my downloads, along with the license keys, purchasing
order, and other data stored in the subfolder for each download. My
C:\Batch folder lost half of its files. I noticed when I double-clicked
a shortcut and it failed to run, and then I noticed its .bat file (and
many others) were missing from that folder.

I hadn't done anything complicated on my computer since 5 AM when the
Reflect backups were ran other than use the Mail app for e-mail and post
here. Oh, I did look at but did not change the File History settings
(the original topic of this discussion). I have both OneDrive (there by
default with the Win10 install although I used it back on Win7 but it
didn't sync on anything but its own local folder) and Google Drive
running on my computer. OneDrive used to only sync files in its local
folder to my OneDrive account, but now Microsoft changed that to include
folders they think are important (versus letting me decide which are
important). Its "Chose folders" doesn't let you choose other than the
important folders that Microsoft chose to list. Google Drive lets me
actually choose which folders to sync.

Looks like there is a conflict between concurrent synchronization when
both OneDrive and Google Drive (and perhaps other sync clients) are
running that might've been the cause of wiping my Downloads folder.
See:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-e5cf45bef425

which notes:

Situation: Both OneDrive and Google Backup/Sync are running at the
same time, and both are working in my Documents folder.

Still a OneDrive issue! Here's why:

1. OneDrive LOCKS this .tmp.drivedownload folder and its contents for
uploading, and thus prevents Google Sync from working in it
properly. Race condition!
2. OneDrive syncs this folder and its temporary contents to Microsoft,
thus even after Google Sync is done with it and tries to
delete it, OneDrive RESTORES the deleted folder and contents
occasionally. (Happens if I don't let Google Sync finish -
especially during Sleep/Hibernation/Power loss conditions.)
3. Google Sync MOVES my actual files files into and out of this temp
folder, so OneDrive THINKS the user DELETED the current file being
synced. And promptly deletes it from OneDrive. (They also get
renamed by Google Sync to *.tmp which further confuses OneDrive.)
4. Then Google Sync moves the file back a few seconds later, and
OneDrive reuploads the temporarily moved file again. Wasting double
my bandwidth and creating useless file modifications history and
filling my trash with duplicates.
5. Google Sync cannot work if there already is a temp folder. (Wrong
attributes too; Not system and Not hidden) OneDrive interrupts
Google Sync by keeping the tmp folder around. I have to manually
delete it, frequently. With files inside! Who knows if some of my
data is LOST then, or not?
6. Google Sync is guilty too, of not using TMP anymore (It used to, in
the past...) At least when both TMP and GD are on C:\, it SHOULD!
7. OneDrive spams randomly named GUID files in the root folder, such
as ".2339C9593-DI756-4EC6-8DE-4241E2A707B" and even after I delete
them it recreates them. Keep it elsewhere, damn it! Google Sync
uploads and tracks changes to this stupid OneDrive-exclusive
settings file. And then OneDrive gets confused when Google Sync
changes the GUID back during an "out of sync" Sync.
8. There are inadequate settings in OneDrive. We can't blacklist the
folder, to prevent it from being OneDrive'd.
9. Google Sync can blacklist file extensions, but not file names, and
since the GUID spam has random file extensions and HAS NO NAME, I
cannot prevent Google Sync from uploading OneDrive's junk file
either.
10. This is insufficient. One is similar to the other in ineptitude.
Like how I can't blacklist Google Sync folders in OneDrive. Both
have insufficient settings.

Race conditions and interference all around. Both are at fault for not
ignoring each other and for working / being designed in various stupid
ways that aren't compatible with one another.

Workaround is terrible: Run OneDrive first, wait for it to sync, then
KILL OneDrive. Only THEN may one run Google Sync, also wait for it to
finish, and KILL that too. The two cannot run at the same time.

Antivirus companies fixed this years ago. Cloud apps should, too.

So, looks like I'll have to decide between OneDrive or Google Drive.
With free accounts, OneDrive only gives me 5 GB of storage quota. At
this point, it's backup up only about 1 GB of data. In contrast, Google
Drive starts at 15 GB for a free account - five times that of OneDrive.
Also, over the years I've used Google Drive, and without paying
anything, my storage quota has gone up to 115 GB. With Google Drive, I
can pick which folders to sync. With OneDrive, I'm limiting to
/choosing/ from Microsoft's fixed list of "important" folders.

The odd part is that neither OneDrive or Google Drive are supposed to
sync on the C:\Downloads folder. It's just too big. So, there
shouldn't be a race condition between which will sync that folder. Yet
I did find a .tmp.drivedownload file used by Google Drive under the
C:\Downloads folder.

Using both OneDrive (as it worked then on sync'ing ONLY on files in its
own local folder) and Google Drive worked for years back on Windows 7.
Only when I moved to Windows 10 did the new OneDrive version and Google
Drive appear to conflict with each other. If I have to make a choice,
OneDrive loses, unless I can neuter OneDrive to only sync those files in
its local OneDrive folder and not access any other folders. Google
Drive doesn't accessthe local OneDrive folder (it wasn't added) since I
don't need one online storage service backing up the files for another
online storage service. If I can get the OneDrive client to sync ONLY
on files in the local OneDrive folder then I'll keep using it. For
other folders, the 5 GB quota is too small and I'll use Google Drive for
those with its 115 GB, and rising, quota for my Google account.

Now I have to visit every folder in my local drives to see what else
besides C:\Downloads and C:\Batch got wholly or partially wiped. Geez,
I just noticed my Documents folder got completely wiped. I'm starting
to blame OneDrive from what I've read that it wants to upload (move)
documents to its cloud storage and then delete them locally; i.e., your
docs go into their cloud. Yet, the setting "Save space and download
files as you use them" for OneDrive client's Files On-Demand feature is
disabled. I went to onedrive.com and there were my documents. I
disabled the OneDrive client from synchronizing on other folders, so
hopefully it only syncs what I put into %userprofile%\OneDrive and
doesn't again touch any other folder; however, the "Sync all files and
folders in OneDrive", when enabled (and seems to indicate sync on the
OneDrive folder) forcibly enables the "Files not in a folder" selection.
I do NOT want the OneDrive client to move docs in the local OneDrive
folder to my OneDrive account's storage. I want their client to *sync*
my local files in the OneDrive folder to those in my online folder, just
like it used to.

VanguardLH wrote:
Paul wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:
I enabled File History. Several folders were added, like Pictures,
Videos, Contacts, Favorites, etc. Those all appear in the backup
location under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\C\Use rs\myprofile

Z: is the drive letter for the backup drive.

I added other folders, like C:\Batch, C:\References, C:\Downloads,
D:\Backups\AppConfig, etc. Those all appear on File History's backup
drive under:

Z:\FileHistory\myprofile\myhostname\Data\driv e\path

Looks good, so far, except I cannot find my Documents folder anywhere on
the File History backup drive. C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was added
and it is listed to get backed up by File History, but that folder and
its files are missing from the backup drive.

Without the Documents folder, there is absolutely no use for Microsoft's
Backup program via File History. That is the most important folder to
include in the File History backup.

I can continue using my daily scheduled Macrium Reflect backups.
Reflect works for all folders. I could even scheduled the incremental
backup to run at the same interval as File History backup. However,
File History is easier to find an old version across all backups versus
having to mount a backup image from Reflect, look for the file to see if
it was included, unmount, and repeat until I find the file and at a
version that I want to recover.

Why is Windows 10's File History omitting the Documents folder that it
is told to include? I've seen someone reporting one year ago that File
History would not handle characters in filenames that Mac's would use in
a filename despite File Explorer and other programs handled the
filenames just fine. I've also seen some reputable folks claim File
History was going to get axed, but they were saying this almost 2 years
ago and File History is still in Windows 10 (1809 for my build). From
reading online posts, seems a lot about File History and the Backup
programs are dysfunctional.
I dropped a test file into Documents and
it shows up on the Backup drive E: as seen here.

https://i.postimg.cc/pLYf4nG8/File-H...Container2.gif

I made a series of incompressible files and tossed
them in various places, and they seem to be copied over
OK so far.

I did a similar test. The %userprofile%\Documents folder was listed as
included for File History to backup. I edited a document in the
Documents folder (two subfolders deep since I use folders to organize my
documents which was the point of using folders instead of mashing
everything together in the root folder, along with the old limitation of
how many files could be in a folder). I saved the changes to the source
file. I went into File History and forced an immediate backup. Nope,
there was no Documents folder nor any copy of the changed file. File
History is broke for me.

I've removed and re-added the %userprofile%\Documents folder but File
History refuses to create backups of the source files. When added,
there should, at a minimum, be a copy of every source file in the
included folder (and all its subfolders) since that would be the base
version when File History got enabled.

As for a comment about "Mac Files", it would depend on whether
an attempt was made to coerce them into 1252 when they were
UTF-8 or something.

The complaints that I saw said the files were accessible by programs and
even by File Explorer. The users could manipulate (open, move, rename,
delete) the Mac-named files, but File History refused to back them up.
Those complaints were 1 to 2 years ago, so I don't know if Microsoft
fixed that problem since then. The solution was to rename the file to
remove any characters File History didn't like, and then the files would
get backed up. I didn't bother hunting around for more related
complaints since that was a side issue discovered when hunting for File
History problems and my focus for this thread is why File History won't
include the Documents folder. I really only mentioned that bug to show
that File History has other problems. In fact, when researching File
History, it doesn't seem reliable to trust as a backup solution.

I have no idea how File History works, but so far, I'm not
really seeing anything missing. My main concern is that,
even with de-duping, how long is my backup storage drive
going to last ? I presume even if it was using shadows somehow
to make the presentation, there's a 64 shadow limit, so at
some point it would run out of ways to represent incremental
changes.

And the user interface during restore is rather fanciful.
If valuable files were involved, that interface would
scare the **** out of me :-/ I mean, right away,
I did something I probably shouldn't have. But, because
the file didn't matter, my blood pressure didn't change.
But I could see if my only copy of my taxes just got
overwritten, I wouldn't be too happy.

I'm still trying to figure out how File History can show you prior
versions after deleting a file. After all, normally you right-click on
an *existing* file to use Properties - Prior Versions to get at the
prior versions. So, how can you right-click on a non-existing file, one
that existed but got deleted? Create a dummy file named the same (if
you remember the old filename)? Restore the deleted file from the
Recycle Bin *IF* the deleted copy is still there? File History appears
to require a file object to know its filename to then check if it has
backups by the same filename (but with "(yyyy_dd_mm_hh_mm_ss tz)"
appended to the filename). Well, a deleted file doesn't have a name
because, well, it doesn't exist. You can't right-click on a deleted
file in File Explorer. Restore the whole damn folder (if it still
exists) by right-clicking on the folder and restore that? That would
step on every other file in that folder to restore the entire folder
back to some backup date.

I thought maybe this was the method that made ZIP files,
but it does not appear to be. That's why my test files
were incompressible, to make them easier to spot by size
of ZIPs were involved. But I don't see any ZIPs on this method.

No compression. You can go to File History's backup location and
directly open the backup copies from there. The file is not compressed.
It is not encrypted. The files there are no different than if you
simply copied them from the source location to a destination except File
History renames the destination files as noted above. That means the
backup store is equal to (for source files that were backed up but not
yet updated) or larger in size (due to datestamped prior versions of the
same file) than the source files getting copied. File History is just
one-way file mirroring (one-way file synchronization) performed at timed
intervals (not an on-demand versioning tool to immediately capture
changes after a file gets changed) but also adds datestamping to the
filename for its versioning.

From what I've found out about File History, I could do the very same
timed file versioning using my backup program and running incremental
backups in a logical (file) backup (versus an image backup). The only
advantage that I've seen with File History is right-clicking on a file
(obviously it has to exist to right-click on it) in File Explorer and
going to the Properties - Prior Version tab to grab a prior saved copy
of the file. The incremental file backup for a backup program would
step on the prior saved copy, so I'd only have 1 prior version up until
the next incremental backup. I use Macrium Reflect and it isn't
designed as a file versioning tool. I don't know if I can massage it
into doing file versioning but the interface to see older versions of a
file is clumsy.

OK, I'll offer a theory without evidence. It could be
that your OS which is misbehaving, is an Upgrade Install
over Win7 or Win8.1. Whereas the test I just set up using
a 1903 throw-away VM is a Clean Install. My .library-ms files
would be in "original condition" such as it is.

There is the usual junction for My Documents (the legacy folder),
which points it at the Win10 place for it. And we're testing
Documents, so this has no effect on the outcome.

\\?\C:\\Users\bullwinkle\My Documents: JUNCTION
Print Name : C:\Users\bullwinkle\Documents
Substitute Name: C:\Users\bullwinkle\Documents

*******

While the "documents.library-ms" file exists, as near as I can
tell the functionality has been disconnected. There is still
a menu item "Add to Library", but the other facilities like
Managing Libraries is gone.

*******

I tried a test with libraries and nothing sensible is happening.
My library folders are backed up in File History, if they happen
to be in the "sweep" area of File History. If you move them out
of the way (say, to the root of C:\ ), they're not included in
history, and the file set doesn't appear in Documents as if
Documents was a library. The documents.library-ms file is
duly updated with the information, but nothing works.

So it's more than File History that is broken there, it
seems Libraries don't work there. Not that I can see.

*******

Your question about File History and the "deleted file problem",
there was some web page which suggested searching the history
for the "folder that contained the file" offered a way
to get the file back. You restore an old version of the
folder and your file comes back. Which is cool, but a
little nerve wracking.

Paul

VanguardLH wrote:
I noticed today that my entire C:\Downloads folder got wiped (all
subfolders and files were gone). I do daily backups using Macrium
Reflect, so I was able to recover the Downloads folder. I only use the
default %userprofile%\Downloads folder for temporary storage of
downloads. Once I decide to keep a download, it gets moved to a
subfolder under C:\Downloads. If I didn't have Reflect's backups, I
would've lost all my downloads, along with the license keys, purchasing
order, and other data stored in the subfolder for each download. My
C:\Batch folder lost half of its files. I noticed when I double-clicked
a shortcut and it failed to run, and then I noticed its .bat file (and
many others) were missing from that folder.

I hadn't done anything complicated on my computer since 5 AM when the
Reflect backups were ran other than use the Mail app for e-mail and post
here. Oh, I did look at but did not change the File History settings
(the original topic of this discussion). I have both OneDrive (there by
default with the Win10 install although I used it back on Win7 but it
didn't sync on anything but its own local folder) and Google Drive
running on my computer. OneDrive used to only sync files in its local
folder to my OneDrive account, but now Microsoft changed that to include
folders they think are important (versus letting me decide which are
important). Its "Chose folders" doesn't let you choose other than the
important folders that Microsoft chose to list. Google Drive lets me
actually choose which folders to sync.

Looks like there is a conflict between concurrent synchronization when
both OneDrive and Google Drive (and perhaps other sync clients) are
running that might've been the cause of wiping my Downloads folder.
See:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-e5cf45bef425

which notes:

Situation: Both OneDrive and Google Backup/Sync are running at the
same time, and both are working in my Documents folder.

Still a OneDrive issue! Here's why:

1. OneDrive LOCKS this .tmp.drivedownload folder and its contents for
uploading, and thus prevents Google Sync from working in it
properly. Race condition!
2. OneDrive syncs this folder and its temporary contents to Microsoft,
thus even after Google Sync is done with it and tries to
delete it, OneDrive RESTORES the deleted folder and contents
occasionally. (Happens if I don't let Google Sync finish -
especially during Sleep/Hibernation/Power loss conditions.)
3. Google Sync MOVES my actual files files into and out of this temp
folder, so OneDrive THINKS the user DELETED the current file being
synced. And promptly deletes it from OneDrive. (They also get
renamed by Google Sync to *.tmp which further confuses OneDrive.)
4. Then Google Sync moves the file back a few seconds later, and
OneDrive reuploads the temporarily moved file again. Wasting double
my bandwidth and creating useless file modifications history and
filling my trash with duplicates.
5. Google Sync cannot work if there already is a temp folder. (Wrong
attributes too; Not system and Not hidden) OneDrive interrupts
Google Sync by keeping the tmp folder around. I have to manually
delete it, frequently. With files inside! Who knows if some of my
data is LOST then, or not?
6. Google Sync is guilty too, of not using TMP anymore (It used to, in
the past...) At least when both TMP and GD are on C:\, it SHOULD!
7. OneDrive spams randomly named GUID files in the root folder, such
as ".2339C9593-DI756-4EC6-8DE-4241E2A707B" and even after I delete
them it recreates them. Keep it elsewhere, damn it! Google Sync
uploads and tracks changes to this stupid OneDrive-exclusive
settings file. And then OneDrive gets confused when Google Sync
changes the GUID back during an "out of sync" Sync.
8. There are inadequate settings in OneDrive. We can't blacklist the
folder, to prevent it from being OneDrive'd.
9. Google Sync can blacklist file extensions, but not file names, and
since the GUID spam has random file extensions and HAS NO NAME, I
cannot prevent Google Sync from uploading OneDrive's junk file
either.
10. This is insufficient. One is similar to the other in ineptitude.
Like how I can't blacklist Google Sync folders in OneDrive. Both
have insufficient settings.

Race conditions and interference all around. Both are at fault for not
ignoring each other and for working / being designed in various stupid
ways that aren't compatible with one another.

Workaround is terrible: Run OneDrive first, wait for it to sync, then
KILL OneDrive. Only THEN may one run Google Sync, also wait for it to
finish, and KILL that too. The two cannot run at the same time.

Antivirus companies fixed this years ago. Cloud apps should, too.

So, looks like I'll have to decide between OneDrive or Google Drive.
With free accounts, OneDrive only gives me 5 GB of storage quota. At
this point, it's backup up only about 1 GB of data. In contrast, Google
Drive starts at 15 GB for a free account - five times that of OneDrive.
Also, over the years I've used Google Drive, and without paying
anything, my storage quota has gone up to 115 GB. With Google Drive, I
can pick which folders to sync. With OneDrive, I'm limiting to
/choosing/ from Microsoft's fixed list of "important" folders.

The odd part is that neither OneDrive or Google Drive are supposed to
sync on the C:\Downloads folder. It's just too big. So, there
shouldn't be a race condition between which will sync that folder. Yet
I did find a .tmp.drivedownload file used by Google Drive under the
C:\Downloads folder.

Using both OneDrive (as it worked then on sync'ing ONLY on files in its
own local folder) and Google Drive worked for years back on Windows 7.
Only when I moved to Windows 10 did the new OneDrive version and Google
Drive appear to conflict with each other. If I have to make a choice,
OneDrive loses, unless I can neuter OneDrive to only sync those files in
its local OneDrive folder and not access any other folders. Google
Drive doesn't accessthe local OneDrive folder (it wasn't added) since I
don't need one online storage service backing up the files for another
online storage service. If I can get the OneDrive client to sync ONLY
on files in the local OneDrive folder then I'll keep using it. For
other folders, the 5 GB quota is too small and I'll use Google Drive for
those with its 115 GB, and rising, quota for my Google account.

Now I have to visit every folder in my local drives to see what else
besides C:\Downloads and C:\Batch got wholly or partially wiped. Geez,
I just noticed my Documents folder got completely wiped. I'm starting
to blame OneDrive from what I've read that it wants to upload (move)
documents to its cloud storage and then delete them locally; i.e., your
docs go into their cloud. Yet, the setting "Save space and download
files as you use them" for OneDrive client's Files On-Demand feature is
disabled. I went to onedrive.com and there were my documents. I
disabled the OneDrive client from synchronizing on other folders, so
hopefully it only syncs what I put into %userprofile%\OneDrive and
doesn't again touch any other folder; however, the "Sync all files and
folders in OneDrive", when enabled (and seems to indicate sync on the
OneDrive folder) forcibly enables the "Files not in a folder" selection.
I do NOT want the OneDrive client to move docs in the local OneDrive
folder to my OneDrive account's storage. I want their client to *sync*
my local files in the OneDrive folder to those in my online folder, just
like it used to.

You know there is a button in CleanMgr that deletes
%userprofile%\Downloads, right ?

That's one easy way to lose all your downloads.
I came that close once, to ticking that button...

I am dead set against fully automated "user profile"
deletion tools. CleanMgr on the other hand, is merely
a hand grenade, where the user has to be clever enough
to not pull out the pin while playing catch with it.
But some day, we won't even have a choice in the
matter, and it'll be "hammer and tongs" to turn crap
features like this OFF. The OS already has some
feature where "it detects we're low on space", as
well as "reserving 7GB for future Upgrades". Wonderful.
It's like you invite a Bum into your house, and
he tells you that you can't use the LivingRoom
any more because he wants to use it. And stay
out of his LivingRoom.

Paul

Paul wrote:

You know there is a button in CleanMgr that deletes
%userprofile%\Downloads, right ?

I prefer to use CCleaner and add the folder to the Include list.
Besides a shortcut in a taskbar toolbar to run "ccleaner /auto", I also
added an event in Task Scheduler to run it at night. However, for the
%userprofile%\Downloads folder (which I use only for temporary storage
of downloads which might get copied to C:\Downloads for permanent
storage if I like the download), I also configured CCleaner to empty
that folder for items over 10 days old. That gives me some time to
review a download and later decided if I want it. Just because I
downloaded something doesn't mean that I must look at it right now.

I already ran "cleanmgr.exe /sageset:0" to create a cleanup profile
(recorded in the registry) which I could use later by running
"cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:0". It, too, has an an event in Task Scheduler
to run it occasionally at night. While CCleaner and Cleanmgr overlap on
many locations to clean, each has locations the other doesn't. Both
CCleaner and Cleanmgr are scheduled to run before the daily image
backups by Macrium Reflect. I don't need to include the garbage in my
backups.

Microsoft came up with something besides their cleanup wizard
(cleanmgr.exe) called Storage Sense (no, not Storage Spaces) that is yet
another drive cleanup tool. Go to the Settings app - System - Storage
to see how it is setup on your Win10 setup. I turned it off. CCleaner
has far more options. It will do its cleanup when the event "low
storage space" fires, but all it cleans up are temp folders, and those
get repeatedly cleaned out every day by CCleaner and Cleanmgr. Instead
of cleaning up on a schedule, Storage Sense cleans up on thresholds.

https://www.guidingtech.com/windows-...-sense-enable/
"Microsoft has cleverly merged the old Disk Cleanup feature and the
Delete Temporary files feature."

That's one easy way to lose all your downloads. I came that close
once, to ticking that button...

And why I never permanently store my downloads in the
%userprofile%\Downloads folder. I use it only for temporary storage of
downloads. If I decide to keep a download, it either goes into
C:\References (if some doc about the OS, apps, or other products I have,
like smartphones and snowblower) or it goes into C:\Downloads. I even
have my Reflect backup jobs run a post-processing command to run
SyncBackLite to copy C:\Downloads to E:\Downloads (a USB HDD) just to
have another copy (besides the copy stored in the image backup of C:,
and the image backups also get mirrored to the USB HDD).

I am dead set against fully automated "user profile" deletion tools.
CleanMgr on the other hand, is merely a hand grenade, where the user
has to be clever enough to not pull out the pin while playing catch
with it.

When I run "cleanmgr.exe /sageset:0" (you can use any profile number,
but use the same one with the /sagerun:x switch), I select the following
to clean:

Temporary Setup Files
Old Chkdsk files
Setup log files
Diagnostic data viewer database files
Downloaded Program Files (not the same as Downloaded Files)
Temporary Internet Files
System error memory dump files
System created Windows Error Reporting Files
DirectX Shader Cache
Delivery Optimization Files (although I have that option disabled)
Recycle Bin
RetailDemo Offline Content
Temporary Files

The other selections are unchecked, so they don't get cleaned, like the
Downloads folder. Instead I have a scheduled event to have CCleaner do
cleanup which includes the Downloads folder (which is, for me, just for
temporary storage) but only for files older than 10 days.

***** WARNING *****

Microsoft already includes a scheduled event to run cleanmgr. Load Task
Scheduler and go to Task Scheduler Library - Microsoft - Windows -
DiskCleanup. You'll find an event defined to run:

%windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe /autoclean /d %systemdrive%

If, as I am, you define your own profile of what cleanmgr will purge and
ensure THAT is what that wizard uses, be sure to disable Microsoft's
event to run cleanmgr.

But some day, we won't even have a choice in the
matter, and it'll be "hammer and tongs" to turn crap
features like this OFF. The OS already has some
feature where "it detects we're low on space", as
well as "reserving 7GB for future Upgrades". Wonderful.

Storage Sense. I believe it is disabled by default in a new OS install.

Paul wrote:

OK, I'll offer a theory without evidence. It could be that your OS
which is misbehaving, is an Upgrade Install over Win7 or Win8.1.

Nope. I never do OS upgrades. I make sure I have image backups and
data file backups (online, on other internal drives [which are
disconnected during the OS install], and USB drives). I do a FRESH
install of Windows (every version) and then install all the apps anew.
I restore my data files. I don't want to carry any pollution of files
or registry remnants into the new installation.

Upgrades are easier and quicker but almost always users start reporting
problems sometime later due to incompatible files or versions thereof or
registry remnants. I figure the new OS is going to crap on my a lot to
start with. I don't want the pollution carried with an upgrade to dump
more crap on me. Also, it's a good time to decide which apps I really
use and will install rather than revisit them all beforehand to
uninstall before an upgrade. To me, a new version of the OS is also
cleanup time. No migrated pollution, and choosing what to install
again.

Zaghadka wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

After selecting to show libraries, yep, the Documents folder is
listed there. Yet it was not included in the File History backups.

By default, File History backs up libraries, but it also backs up every
folder in your [User] (home) folder.

The it would also be backing up the OneDrive and Google Drive folders.
Tis another reason not to use File History: the user doesn't have
control over just what folders get their files versioned in a backup.

Yep, I have a %userprofile%\Documents folder with 294 files, but none of
them got copied to File History's backup location.

Yes. MS is ditching libraries, same as they eventually did with
Homegroups, but libraries were the basis of File History in Windows
8, so there is still some legacy there. It automatically adds folders
in the four default libraries, too. There were always difficulties
with custom libraries that the user added.

Also interesting is the Microsoft is moving to UWP (Universal Windows
Platform) app coded using Window RT. By the time all major apps convert
the Win32 programs to WinRT apps, something else will replace WinRT and
UWP will go dead.

I'm going to ditch the unreliable File History feature (see my other
post about a new test where File History /mostly/ worked but still
failed, because 1 missing file means an incomplete backup). I'll hunt
around for reliable file versioning software. Tis typical with
Microsoft's OS: find 3rd party software to do what you want. I already
use SyncBackupLite but that version doesn't include file versioning.
I'd have to pay $40 (no upgrade path from SyncBackLite) to get their
SyncBackSE program that has file versioning. Doubt I'll find a reliable
and robust freeware solution.

Is your Documents folder on a different drive/in a different
directory? Did you change the defaults for it?

The Documents folder is in its default physical location under the
%userprofile% folder. I played around with redirecting the special
folders to other drives, but it has been a very long time when I was
running out of space on drives.

My C: drive is a 1TB m.2 NVMe SSD with 150GB of it reserved as
unallocated space for over provisioning (helps to lengthen SSD
longevity) and with only 103GB used of the remaining 850GB partition.
I've installed all the apps that I'm likely to use for years to come.
While there will likely be more apps and more data files over the next
several years, I really don't see more than twice the current amount of
consumed space on my C: drive. I way overbuilt, but then I don't have
to later do hardware upgrades other than for hardware failure.

I have no need to move or redirect to where is the Documents or other
special folders. My premise has been for a very long time that if you
are running out of disk space then get a bigger disk. By the time you
need more space, computer parts have become a lot cheaper.

If not, the place to go for backup is Settings-Update &
Security-Backup. The folders included and excluded should be under the
"More options" link that appears under the on/off toggle.

Yep, and C:\Users\myprofile\Documents was listed. Yet File History
didn't create backups for that folder. Documents was in the Include
list. The Exclude list was empty.

Beyond that, your account may be corrupted. You can create a new account
and transfer everything from the old account to the new account and see
if that works. This tactic fixes a lot of bizzaro Windows problem. I've
been through a few fresh accounts on various machines.

An anomaly that I saw with OneDrive when it is configured with its
defaults (which includes all the special folders) is that there were two
Documents folders (yep, by the same name) in the %userprofile% folder.
One was empty. The other had all my docs. Maybe File History didn't
know which to back up due to the identical folder names. Normally I
would say folders cannot have the same name, but then again this is
Windows and Microsoft has become enamored with junctions and symbolic
links. Once I configured OneDrive to NOT sync on all folder (well, the
folders Microsoft pre-selects), I deleted the empty Documents folder, so
only the occupied Documents folder remained. Still File History did not
backup the remaining Documents folder -- until my later test (see my
other reply to myself).

I did the following in a re-test:

- Removed the USB flash drive used by File History which then disabled
File History (no target drives anymore for where it would save its
backups).
- Quick-formatted the USB flash drive.
- Disabled OneDrive from synchronizing on all folders. Just the folders
within the %userprofile%\OneDrive folder were listed, and those had
local and online copies.
* I'm forced to use OneDrive because some Win10 apps refuse to store
their files anywhere else. For example, the OneNote app won't
save local copies of its notebooks. Instead it demands to use
OneDrive to put links (1KB) to my notebooks in the OneDrive folder
which are copied to my OneDrive account (where the online account
hides the .one files in their folder and just shows the 1KB links,
too).
- Checked Google Drive's setup, so it no longer overlapped on OneDrive.
Basically when I disabled sync on all folders in OneDrive and just
selected the folders in the %userprofile%\OneDrive folder than all
overlap already got eliminated.
- Inserted the USB flash drive.
- Enabled File History and added the USB flash drive for its target of
where to store its backups.
- Stupid File History went about pre-selecting a bunch of files of which
few were the ones that I would want versioned backups. One was the
OneDrive folder and even the Google Drive subfolders under
%userprofile%. No thanks. Several other folders got pre-selected
that I had to remove. Then I added the folders that I really wanted
versioned backups.
- I forced a backup in File History (didn't want to wait an hour for it
to start).

It /mostly/ worked okay this time (but mostly is not good enough).
Alas, still some problems. Of the 294 documents under the
%userprofile%\Documents (my docs), only 293 showed up in the versioned
backup location for File History. Took me awhile for digging, but I
found it was a .pdf file that didn't get a copy stored in File History's
Documents folder. I tried forcing another backup in File History but
the .pdf file still did not show up in the File History backup location.
Other files, including other PDFs, showed up in File History's backup
location but not this particular PDF file. %userprofile%\Pictures has
977 files in 87 folders but the Pictures folder in File History's backup
location had 975 files in 82 folders. That's too many files and folders
for me to go hunting for where was the mismatch between the source
location and File History's matching backup folder.

File History was mostly working now (don't know how it might fare over
more than one backup or over time), but it already is missing files in
its backups that exist in the source location. File History is not
reliable. Yeah, just the one .pdf file missing in the backups, but what
if that were a very important document (the one that was missing was a
registration form for requesting probate court to make me the admin of
my late mother's estate). What if it were a document listing your
purchase of software with the order ID and license key, but the source
file got changed and you don't have a prior version from which to
restore.

Also, just how am I to restore a versioned backup using File History
when the source file is missing? Say I delete a file. I obviously
cannot right-click on it anymore to get at the Properties - Prior
Version tab. Are users really expected to dig into File History's
backup store to find old but currently deleted files?

I turned off File History again, quick-formatted the USB flash drive,
and won't bother with this unreliable backup software. No wonder I've
read of hints that Microsoft is dumping File History. Of course, this
also reflects on their backup program since that is supposedly what File
History uses. Mostly backing up is not sufficient. That means restores
will be incomplete.