How to Restore Files from File History in Windows 10

Windows 10 comes with a built-in file backup feature called File History. It periodically backs up your “Documents,” “Music,” “Pictures,” “Videos,” and “Desktop” folders to a local, external, or network drive, and can restore them if the original files go missing, get corrupted, or are deleted. But it doesn't back up your applications and programs.

Once File History is enabled, it will automatically back up all the files you select. It's also easy to restore files from a Windows 10 backup. Here, we'll show you how to restore files from a File History backup when the need arises.

How to Restore Files from File History in Windows 10

The steps below explain how to restore files from a backup using File History in two different ways on Windows 10.

1. Restore a file from a backup in File History

Step 1: Click in the search box and type File History. Click "Restore your files with File History" from the search results.

Step 2: The File History window will open, showing all backed-up files and folders. Preview the files to find the correct version you want to restore.

If there are multiple versions, you can switch to a different version by clicking the arrows at the bottom of the window. Alternatively, you can search directly in the search bar to quickly locate the file.

Step 3. Select the file you want to restore and click the green arrow to restore it. Alternatively, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the window and choose "Restore To" from the menu to restore the file to a specific location.

During the recovery, you may encounter naming conflicts. Depending on your needs, you can choose to "Replace files in destination folder," "Skip this file," or "Compare information of two files."

2. Recover files from a previous version

You can also restore files from a backup by using the "Revert to previous version" feature.

Step 1: Access the File History folder and locate the folder that contained the lost file. Right-click on it and select “Restore previous versions.”

Step 2: The Folder Properties window will pop up. All the backup versions will be listed under "Folder Versions." Select the appropriate backup file and click on the "Restore" button to restore from the backup.

Additional Tip: How to Recover Deleted/Lost Files Without Backup

Windows File History is a simple solution for backing up and restoring your files. However, the reality is that many people don't use this feature and don't create backups, so they can't recover their files when they're lost.

Data Recovery Wizard Pro is a professional and user-friendly data recovery software that helps you restore deleted (even permanently deleted) files even without having a backup.

You can download this deleted file recovery software for free to easily restore lost photos, videos, audio, documents, emails, and hundreds of other file types.

Step 1: Run tools Data Recovery Wizard, select the location where you lost data, such as Recycle Bin or hard drive. Click "Scan" to start searching for deleted files that can be recovered.

After the scan is complete, you can click the “Filter” menu or enter text in the “Search for files or folders” field to locate specific items that meet your criteria.

Step 3. Preview your selected files and choose which ones you want to recover. Click the “Recover” button to restore them.

Aside from being a reliable data recovery tool, Data Recovery Wizard can also repair damaged files, such as repairing corrupted videos, fixing damaged JPEG photos, and more.

How to Use File History to Backup Your Files in Windows 10

File History is turned off by default in Windows 10, but you can turn it on with these steps. If you want to back up your files to an external hard drive, make sure that you have it ready and connected to your computer first.

< strong > Step 1. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup. Then, under “Back up using File History,” click “Add a drive.” Select the target local or external hard drive. You can even use a network location as a File History backup drive.

Step 2. Click "More options" to configure your file history settings.

Step 3. By default, File History backs up your files every hour. You can set it to back up more or less frequently – say, every xx minutes. You can also specify how long you want versions to be kept.

Step 4. Once you've set your backup frequency, you can choose which folders and files to back up. Click on Add Folders to back up more folders outside of Desktop, Pictures, Documents, Downloads, and Videos.

Step 5: You can also remove folders you don't want to back up by clicking "Add folder" under "Exclude these folders."

Conclusions

Regular backups are the best way to prevent data loss. You can use the File History feature built into Windows 10, or use a third-party file backup tool like Todo Backup to back up important data.

With a backup created, you can easily restore your files from it in case of data loss or corruption. Depending on where you stored your backup, you can restore backup files on Windows 10 from an external hard drive, local disk, or a network location.

But don't despair if you lose your data without having a backup, because you can effectively retrieve lost files with the help of a data recovery software.