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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.
Looking at this again at support.microsoft.com I see the following below in bold. My laptop is a modern device and I guess automatically enabled device encryption but there was NO BitLocker recovery key automatically saved to my MS account. I never set up BitLocker. I bought the laptop at BestBuy and perhaps when they booted it up originally to transfer the files from my desktop they inadvertently turned it on (maybe it was set to come on automatically) but they didn't have a key. Plus, everything I had read at the time this happened stated BitLocker wasn't part of W10 Home edition. It seems to be the case now. It's just such a messed up situation with MS support not knowing all these things and no way to fix the problem. At least when I buy a car with a major problem there's a lemon law and I can take the car back. So many people have PCs with Windows and MS makes so much off them I guess they can afford not to care. Our time isn't even worth diddly squat to them.
How was BitLocker activated on my device?
There are three common ways for BitLocker to start protecting your device:
BitLocker is always activated by or on behalf of a user with full administrative access to your device, whether this is you, another user, or an organization managing your device. The BitLocker setup process enforces the creation of a recovery key at the time of activation.
If you are unable to locate a required BitLocker recovery key and are unable to revert and configuration change that might have cause it to be required, you’ll need to reset your device using one of the Windows 10 recovery options. Resetting your device will remove all of your files.
