Checking Windows 10 Backup (File History) without Having to Restore

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

File History in Windows 10 is a helpful part of an effective data preservation strategy. Leave a large external USB drive plugged in to your computer and setup File History to effortlessly get a constantly updated backup of your important information.

Since this all happens behind the scenes, it's important to occasionally check that everything is working properly. Perhaps, File History was never setup on your computer. Or you were impacted by a Windows Update that may have interrupted or even reset the File History settings.

But how can you tell if File History is working?

In an ideal world, you would recover one or more files from the backup and then check that they are restored effectively.  However, this is time consuming, somewhat technical and disruptive to do.  

Here are some quick checks instead:

Check for Versions of an Active File

1. Locate an active file in File Explorer

2. Right click and choose..  Restore Versions

3. Visually confirm that there are versions available

Check Date of Last Backup

1. Go to Windows Settings -> Security

2. Choose File History

3. Choose More Options

4. Check the date of the last backup.  If File History is not on, or the last backup is not set or seems out of date, then click the Backup button to start things up again and check it the next day.