File History - The Latest Saga - Currently Down For The Count

First time caller, long time fan. File History...where to begin. It worked (mostly) alright in Windows 10. And now it's virtually useless in Windows 11. Lots of symptoms and behaviors to cover. In no particular order, for starters, it will not recognize any local USB drive as a storage option. And the same goes for network locations. In fact, "show all network locations" is grayed out. My share settings seem to be allowable for LAN backups, or so I think. And last but not least, I can't even toggle File History off or on. It's off now and seems to be stuck as such. Like I said, it wasn't perfect in Windows 10. But it worked. Not it's bricked. I do have OneDrive, but I prefer/enjoy local backups as well.

i had similar problems with file history after upgrading from 23H2 to 24H2
it was only after a clean install of 24H2 that file history became available.

you could try opening a CMD prompt as admin
and running > sfc /scannow < to correct any system errors.

best of luck, Steve ..

I have used File History from way back in Windows 8.1 (2014) and Windows 10.
Not set it up in Windows 11 home 24H2, but it does show both networked NAS Drives, all shared folders on them and USB drives in the list.

In your 2nd image that is correct, mine has "Show all network locations" greyed out, you add them with the Add link above that.
The Network locations can be seen in File Explorer as well.

No location so cannot turn it on I would think.

I do the DISM and SFC checks now and again, never do clean installs or system mods.

I'm still wondering if there is something "off" about my permission settings somewhere. My access to local or network locations may be restricted, for some reason or another.