Can I safely delete individual files from the Windows File History?

Question

I'm using the build in File History feature from Windows 10 to backup my libraries and user folder on a network drive. The feature works nicely, but lacks quite some usability when it comes to configuration and flexibility.

I have a few database (and Outlook) files in my library that regularly get changed leading to a huge amount of backups and space requirements on the network drive. I would like to clean up these few files from time to time without touching my overall backup/retention policy. They should still be backed up - just not every few hours.

File History stores each files individually, but also saves some unknown information in a Catalog1.edb and Catalog2.edb file.

Can I safely delete individual files from the file history data folder without breaking the catalog and metadata information?

Answer 1

I don't have any official evidences, but I did this with my backups.

Drawback: file history GUI will still show these deleted files as if they exist, but it will show error on trying to preview or restore them (so links kept in database until cleaned up by date).

If you have multiple versions of a file for different dates, you will still be able to restore it for dates, for which you didn't remove the file, but you'll have pick these specific dates in history GUI (using slider buttons at bottom of window).

Otherwise, it works fine.