BitLocker Recovery key not found

Anonymous
2019-11-26T09:43:01+00:00

Hi all,

I have a Dell XPS 13 9360 running Windows 10.1 Home. Here's what happened:

  • I was using Spotify one day and my computer started hanging. So I restarted the computer via the Start menu.
  • The computer went into automatic repair and then automatic repair failed. I disabled automatic repair using bcdedit and rebooted.
  • Then the computer went into Windows recovery. When I was exploring the different options on recovery, I noticed that some of them requested for the Bitlocker recovery key before I could proceed.
  • This was the first time I knew of BitLocker’s existence, so I definitely did not activate BitLocker manually. I’m not sure how my internal SSD contents got encrypted on their own.
  • I tried solutions like secure boot in BIOS, resetting BIOS settings to their defaults, all with no luck. At one point I also re-enabled Automatic repair.
  • Now, when the affected computer is booted up, I am brought to the BitLocker recovery screen.

Based on my reading and conversations with Microsoft Tech Support, when a Windows 10 Home computer is purchased, and the user signs in to a Microsoft account on first startup, BitLocker is setup automatically. 

So I went to that same Microsoft account that I used to setup the affected computer.

Sure enough, my device was listed there:

It even told me BitLocker was ON when I clicked “Manage”.

However when I clicked “Manage recovery key” and I got past the 2 factor authentication, I got this…

? It seems that no recovery key is associated with my account. But how is that possible given that this was the correct account that was used to setup the device, the device is listed in the account, and it even tells me BitLocker ON?

Regarding the other possibilities where BitLocker recovery keys may be found:

  1. The hyperlinks https://onedrive.live.com/recoverykey, aka.ms/recoverykey also don't work.
  2. This is a home computer, so the recovery key cannot be on Azure Active Directory services.
  3. Since BitLocker was activated by itself, there’s also no way the recovery key could be on a printout.
  4. I’ve already checked all my USB drives and no recovery key was present.

The data in my computer is valuable so I can't afford to format the disk.

Could someone help? Thanks.

Moved from: Outlook.com / Security, privacy, accounts / Other

***Original Title: BitLocker locked my drive by itself after failed automatic repair and recovery key is missing***

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2020-08-04T18:20:05+00:00

Hey everyone, this has been a total nightmare, but hopefully this will help.

Le issue: new Lenovo laptop, setup yesterday, today it doesn't like the password. No idea why. Tried password reset, security questions prompted were not the ones used during setup. MS account does not exist. ****. Went through BIOS and tried changing things, no avail. Tried full factory reset and was prompted for BitLocker (aka current-bane-o-my-existence) Recovery Key.

How does one find that?

* Definitely not by calling Lenovo support, they said I bricked the computer and can ship it to them or take it back ot the store I bought it from and ask for a replacement.

* Definitely not by going through the recommended processes on their support page, none of that worked, and it said I bricked my computer and need to send it to them.

* Not by https://account.microsoft.com/devices/

* Not by onedrive.account whatever

* Not by https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey

50 Chrome tabs later I'm reading this posted help request. Somebody said go to Azure (shrugwhy not). Log into Azure, don't have Azure, but still get in by giving Microsoft ID, pwd etc. At Azure landing page, at the top right I see my ID, so I click on it. It takes me to https://myaccount.microsoft.com/ which is a landing page I've yet to see. On the left hand bar I see devices, third option down. Click on that, AND THERE IS THE EFFING COMPUTER!!!!! I click "View BitLocker keys" and it shows the BitLocker ID of the "bricked" computer, I click "Show Recovery Key" and thar she blows. On the "bricked" laptop I type this in and bingo, we are doing a full reset. I'm doing a full full reset because it's brand new, and I definitely want to make sure that I'm not carrying over a user id and password. Hope this helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-05T04:47:18+00:00

    I am also having same issue associated with my Microsoft account. Data in my drive is encrypted and when I clicking links for recovery key in Microsoft account .

    The response i am getting is as follows. What a pathetic situation , data is not available for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-22T14:47:06+00:00

    Now, I see that I was needed to read other comments here, as other people mentioned the key was stored at https://myaccount.microsoft.com with my work account, may be this page works only from the office and with work laptop.

    At the bottom there is a section with devices.

    Quite strange the key is here, not in my personal account, although the device appears in both.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-27T20:50:38+00:00

    I used the recovery key but it’s not working

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-15T15:58:09+00:00

    I have run into this problem a few times. The computer has not had bitlocker enabled but you still get the bitlocker recovery screen. In my case sometimes just hitting the Esc key will work or that after pressing Esc the recovery screen will come back up but this one will have a Skip this Drive button on the lower right. When you click that it will come up on the recovery tools screen with the first one being Continue to boot to win 10 (something like that) press that and it just boots back into windows.

    Hope that helps I been trying to find why it goes to the bitlocker screen it the first place.

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