File History Function cannot backup files in D:\Users\%UserName%\Documents

Question

I have set the whole D drive as Backup Include Folder but it still doesn't work... I have even tried to modify the config1.xml and config2.xml file in C:\Users%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration

It is very weird that I did see a line:
<FolderExclude Hidden="true">D:\Users\hxq\Documents</FolderExclude>

After I removed it from both config1.xml and config2.xml and then triggered the backup job, this line came back!!

Then I tried to remove this line from the confg1.xml and config2.xml in both my C Drive and my target Driver, this line haven't come back yet, but D:%username%\Documents still cannot be copied into the Target Drive...

Answer 1

You removed the exclusion but just use the UI lol. You don't ever need to edit the xml files as it won't do anything the UI won't already do. You don't know better than it :-)

For whatever reason, if its not backed up then its excluded in some way, not included in some way, hasn't finished, or out of space. These are the reasons and its not the xml. You can include it anyway in UI even if you include the whole drive so you can try that also.

Answer 2

Hi kind03,

Welcome to post in Microsoft Community.

I'm Mosken, I do apologize for the inconvenience that you're experiencing right now, let me help you figure it out.

According to your description, I knew that your File history cannot back up a specific directory, even if that directory is on the drive you've chosen to back up. If my understanding is wrong, please correct me in the reply.

First of all,

<FolderExclude Hidden="true">D:\Users\hxq\Documents</FolderExclude>

means that the D:\Users\hxq\Documents directory will be excluded from the backup directory, that is, it will not be backed up.

You can cancel these settings in File history, visit How to Perform a Backup Using File History in Windows 11 or Windows 10(microsoft.com) to see the specific method.

The above steps are provided based on the information I have learned so far, I wish that will be helpful to you. If your problem still cannot be solved by these steps, you could tell me the specific situation in the next reply. I will continue to assist you in solving the problem.

Best Regards,

Mosken- MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist