How to delete older versions of file history in Windows 10. Deleting old file history versions is important to prevent your backup drive from filling up with outdated or unnecessary data. Regular cleanup ensures you have space for relevant backups and keeps your system running efficiently. In this video, we'll outline how to delete older versions of file history in Windows 10. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to Ninja One's IT Video Hub and our YouTube channel. For more tech content like this, when to delete file history. There are four common scenarios where you might need to delete your file history. These are low storage warnings, large backup volumes, repurposing a backup drive. Significant system changes two methods for deleting older versions of file history. In today's video, we'll outline two methods for deleting older versions of file history using file history cleanup and using command prompt using file history cleanup. This method is relatively straightforward and works for basic deletion. Here's how to do it. Open control panel. Then select file history. Locate advanced settings, which should be on the left side bar. If the selected drive has file history versions, you'll see the option to clean up versions. Select the time period for the versions you want to delete. Then click cleanup. If no versions are found, try repeating the process with a shorter timeframe using Command Prompt. This method allows for more detailed command input. However, you'll need administrator privileges to access Command prompt, or Windows PowerShell. Once either of these apps are open, there are a number of commandlets you can run depending on your chosen time period. There are way too many to go over in this video, so be sure to check out our blog post for the full list. If command prompt doesn't return any file history versions to delete, try adjusting the timeframe. Click okay on the dialogue box to complete the process. However, keep in mind that the confirmation message will not appear if you use the dash quiet command. You should delete old file history versions every few months or after major projects and system updates. If you don't delete these old versions, your backup drive can quickly fill up with outdated files, reducing available storage, and potentially preventing new backups from being saved. For more information, check out our official blog post on how to delete older versions of file history in Windows 10, linked in the description below.