Forum Discussion
Windows 11 File History
I use File History to backup stuff to an external drive on a weekly basis. This past week, when I plugged in the drive to start the File History Run, it complained that it found "File History has found files that are encrypted with Encrypting File System, on a network location, or on a drive that doesn't use the NTFS file system. These files won't be backed up." That's the first time i've ever gotten that message. File History didn't show me the "Turn On" link to enable File History. Did some checking and discovered that Bitlocker was on for my C: drive. I DIDN'T turn it on myself!
I turned Bitlocker off and let it decrypt all the files. I still see the message "File History has found files that are encrypted ..." but Bitlocker is off and i have nothing on a network drive and my external drive is still NTFS. At least it let to turn on File History again. It wasn't giving me the Run Now option.
I looked through the settings for FH and it lets me set the Advanced Settings. When I select the drive that i've been backing up to and select my folder on that drive and click Ok, nothing happens. It won't let me use that same drive anymore.
I can select a drive that File History has never accessed and it will give me the Run Now button.
I checked Event Viewer and didn't see any obvious problems there.
*** the other things that concerns me was that something turned on Bitlocker. i vaguely recall seeing a pop-up about Bitlocker a week or two ago but i thought i cancelled/rejected it so it wouldn't turn on.
7 Replies
I found a solution to the problem here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/6011199/how-to-resolve-run-file-history-failure
It requires the removal of two updates, KB5129195 then KB5124008. The only problem i have now is that the updates keep getting re-applied. i need to figure out how to block them "permanently".
My post has also been mentioned by others who have encountered the same issue, and other users, including Windows Latest (including members of the Japanese community and previous discussion posts), have confirmed the same problem. File history is crucial for daily backups, so resolving this issue is extremely important. I'm really on the verge of a breakdown…
On September 23, I contacted Microsoft Support Vensky to chat with him and reported a small problem in the file history log caused by the KB5124010 update. Several other users have also reported this issue. Microsoft support staff Vensky sent an email on October 6 to confirm that they were aware of the issue and were currently investigating.
Hi Jamony,
I tried the cipher command and I get the message "Cannot find object or property." I searched and saw a suggested EFS check command "certutil -user -store my". It shows me 5 certificates, three are related to iPhone. The other two show "Provider = Microsoft Software Key Storage Provider" among a lot of other info.
When I run File History, it shows my external drive "Backup Plus (E:)". If I use the Select Drive command, the E: drive is already selected and the OK button is not active. I can pick an Existing backup and then the OK button becomes active but as I observed before, clicking OK doesn't really fix anything. From the main FH screen, I can click on "Turn on" but it thinks for a few seconds and never does anything.
Have you encountered the following issues: Steps and observations: After modifying and successfully saving files on drive D, manually triggering a backup via "Control Panel" > "System and Security" > "File History" > "Execute Now": Timestamp mismatch: The date and time of the last backup failed to update to the latest save time.
For newly added files (such as Word files), "File Properties" > "Previous Versions" displays: No previous version is available, or the content of the old file does not display the latest timestamp version of the updated/newly added file, only the old version's timestamp version is displayed. A new entity version of the file has been created without any modifications.
No, i've never had any problems with it backing up files when manually triggering it.
The working new drive and failing old target suggest two issues worth separating: backup destination handling and the encryption warning. BitLocker encrypts a volume; EFS encrypts individual files. Decrypting C: with BitLocker therefore does not necessarily remove EFS encryption.
Run cipher /u /n to identify encrypted files without updating their keys. If EFS files exist, preserve their certificate and private key before changing encryption; cipher /x backs up the current user’s EFS credentials. Keep using the working destination and test restoring a file. For the old drive, use Control Panel’s File History settings and Select drive rather than selecting its existing backup subfolder. Do not format or delete that backup while investigating. Automatic Device Encryption can activate on eligible devices during account setup, but that does not prove what happened here. The old target’s exact error is still needed to diagnose its failure.
