- The retreat has several bugs in initial testing (as expected)
- An error means no snapshots are saved
- The cure for this is to restart the PC (and it is also the solution for another error)
Windows 11's controversial recovery feature is finally in play (well, at least in testing) and some people are finding bugs, one of which has an old fix provided by Microsoft. Yes, turn it off and on again.
As a quick reminder, when Recall was first revealed, it caused quite a storm on the privacy and security fronts, as it is a powerful AI-powered search feature (for PC Copilot+) that takes regular screenshots (called snapshots) of activity on your PC (leveraging those grabs for its natural language search powers). It was then pulled and delayed several times, before Microsoft put it back on the table last week.
One of the main issues some early Recall testers are experiencing is the inability to save snapshots, as The Verge's Tom Warren complains on Bluesky, as noted by TweakTown.
CNBC further noted that right now, Recall can go “several minutes” between the screenshots it uses to power its AI search, which can leave gaps in its snapshot timeline, potentially weakening those search powers. .
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue of snapshots lagging or not appearing at all, and recommends restarting the PC to fix the latter issue.
In known issues for the preview that includes Recall (in the development channel for Windows Insiders), Microsoft warns: “Some users are experiencing a delay before snapshots first appear in the timeline while using their device. If the snapshots do not appear after 5 minutes, restart your device. If saving snapshots is enabled, but you see that they are no longer saved, restart your device.”
Turn it off. Turn it on again.
Analysis: expected problems
Recovery has just been implemented in testing and with such a complex feature we can expect teething problems. You could argue that Microsoft has been working more on Recall since the functionality was pulled from launch in June, when it was originally supposed to arrive (in preview for Copilot+ PCs), so shouldn't it be pretty well polished by now? ?
However, it's not as simple as that, as obviously a lot of changes have been implemented in that time (reinforcing various security and privacy elements) and therefore all that new work needs to be put to the test. And only limited (internal) testing has been done so far, which doesn't go that far.
Other notable issues according to Microsoft include Recall not working with some accessibility apps and the feature telling you to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots” when snapshots are, in fact, turned on. Apparently, this last problem is solved again by restarting your PC. So, we're back to the old thing: turn it off and on again.