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HP updated BIOS which turned on BitLocker and locked and encrypted my drive. I never set up BitLocker so I don't have the key or a password. It is not saved in my Microsoft account since I never set it up. BestBuy set up my laptop and transferred files from my old computer last November but they don't have the key. They claim the manufacturers are turning it on when they're shipped. HP states they don't have the key. HP has also stated it's a known problem with HP Envy laptops but they don't have a fix or workaround. Microsoft wasn't any help either. They claimed HP should have the code and of course they state they don't. So far the only advice I've gotten is I'll have to reload a fresh Windows 10 and will lose all my data files, which I'm trying to avoid. I've looked in the registry editor and there are things there for BitLocker. I didn't want to make any changes w/o knowing what they might do but on the other hand it's a doorstop now so I'm not sure how I could make it worse. Anyone have any ideas how to get around this?
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.
This suggestion is only applicable if you actually created a Bitlocker recovery key. Many people did not do this. Hard drives from HP and Dell have Bitlocker activated by default if you choose to use the Microsoft account as the log in instead of creating a local account.
Good day!
When I shut down my HP Envy laptop today, it automatically did a BIOS update. After that, I also encountered the Bitlocker issue. It was asking for recovery keys that I thought I do not have.
I followed the specified instructions. I went to aka.ms/myrecoverykey. After logging in to Microsoft account, there's no Bitlocker recovery keys in there. I've read most of the comments here and I was in the brink of resetting my laptop even if I'd lose my data. Then, I tried to log in again to Microsoft account but this time I used my another email. Fortunately, I have Bitlocker recovery keys in there. There are actually 2 recovery keys but I used the one corresponding to the recovery ID indicated in the instructions. And yay, I was able to log in to my PC again! I was only successful on my third try because I did not enter 0 using F10 key (the instructions are in Japanese).
Suggestion:
Try logging in to your Microsoft account using all the email addresses you are using or you have used. It might turn out that the recovery keys are in one of those addresses.
Thank you for all the help from this discussion! Arigatou gozaimasu! :)
I hope you can fix your PCs too.
If you ever used the locked laptop for your work or school, try the link with your work or school email even you never created a Microsoft account with the email. https://myaccount.microsoft.com/
It worked for my HP. Hope it helps!
I am the one who originally started this thread. I had a Microsoft account at the time but NO BitLocker key. Why? Because I had not set it up. Technically, W10 Home edition isn't suppose have BitLocker that one can set up (at least back when this happened because I appear to have device encryption at this time). I had not turned it on. When all this happened I spent HOURS speaking to Microsoft and HP reps. After speaking to several people at MS I got someone who said they couldn't help with this KNOWN problem but the spoke to the HP people they actually have on site. They stated HP might have the key since at least laptops are being shipped with it turned on (claimed it was part of the hardware). HP stated they didn't have it. I went to several computer repair shops none of who had any idea how to get around it and didn't even know about the problem. They (MS, HP and the stores) should be warning people to immediately set up a BitLocker key or look for it in case it was set up already and store it somewhere. The hardware security is called TPM. I was told BitLocker turned on automatically when the HP hardware of my update, which Windows did on a restart of my computer, failed and then thought someone was trying to break into my computer so it encrypted and locked the drive.
Go back to my original posts and you'll see what happened and what I tried. I got down into the command prompt to find things I could maybe do. I found things related to TPM and BitLocker and did try making some changes to them and followed instructions provided by some people from the Microsoft Community but nothing worked. There was NO key to be found anywhere.
I think John's problem is different and he was lucky to have had the key. For some reason, even though I had a MS account, there was no key.
I now make images of all computers in the household at least once a month so I can restore the whole system, files, programs and all to a previous state. However, this is a Windows 7 legacy tool that could go away. Luckily for me most of my files were still on my old desktop so I only lost about 6 months worth of personal things,. Unfortunately, some things were very recently done for my job which I hadn't had a chance to back up (this was on my home computer and my backup drive had filled up). This has been fixed by connecting a 4 TB home cloud drive that I use for backup.
My main concern with this whole problem is they know about it and have known for quite some time and don't seem to be concerned enough to fix it or at least tell people about it. If they're shipping computers with it turned on or at the hardware level they need to include the key. It's irresponsible and they don't really care.
Your response is a blatantly false misunderstanding of the issue. If you are able to see the Bitlocker key from your Microsoft account, then YOU yourself were the one who set up that encryption. Of course you will have a recovery key associated with your Microsoft account. The problem here is that people who did not set up Bitlocker, and have no recovery key, still have to deal with an encrypted hard drive after BIOS update or system change, due to a coding defect from Microsoft.
I am disappointed that you see it this way. The truth is that after my new HP Laptop failed folowing an upgrade was the first time I became aware that BitLocker was installed on it. I later found out that it was part of the MS Windows 10 OS package installed on the Laptop computer. When I was asked to put in a PIN when I was setting it up for the first time, was when I automatically and unknowingly activated BitLocker. I had previously set up a MS Account because I installed MS Office 365 on a separate PC, and so that is how I already had the MS account. My older PC never had Bit Locker and so I knew nothing about it. When I registered the Laptop with MS to install Microsoft 365, that was when my MS Account was automatically linked with the Laptop, but I still knew nothing about BitLocker. All I can say is that rectifying the locked Laptop in my situation was staight forward, but I accept there may have been difficult for others. I am now aware of this problem, but I was not aware of it when I set up the Laptop, and up until the failure. But for you to allege that my reponse to the issue "is a blatently false misunderstanding of the issue", is just not true. And I am not a computer professional and I have no connection with MS, or with HP. I am just a humble personal compure user, so please do not blame the messenger.
