BitLocker locked me out of my PC after a system update, but the recovery key saved me. I found it on my Microsoft account under the device’s details and used it to unlock each encrypted drive.

But if you made major changes to your PC, or an administrator has triggered a security event, you may need to input your BitLocker recovery key to get into Windows. Don't have it at hand?

See my BitLocker Guide for details. If you're running Windows 11 Pro, Windows prompts you to save the recovery key when you first turn on BitLocker encryption. Windows gives you three (or four ...

BitLocker and Device Encryption are ... your work or school systems will have the recovery key backed up, and you can request it from them. If you sign into your PC with a Microsoft account ...

The problem with this situation is that users will need to have a BitLocker recovery key if this were to happen, and it is one of the benefits of having a Microsoft Account (MSA) over a local account.

May’s KB5058379 update is causing some annoying problems, like making Windows request the BitLocker recovery key on startup on some Windows 10 PCs. (Windows 10 normally only requests this key ...