Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key Before You Actually Need It

The best time to look for your BitLocker recovery key is while your Windows PC is working normally.

BitLocker and Windows Device Encryption protect information by encrypting the drive. Under certain circumstances, such as a security or hardware change, Windows can ask for a recovery key before it unlocks the drive.

That key is a 48-digit number.

If Windows asks for it and you cannot find it, Microsoft Support cannot simply generate a replacement for you.

Where might the key be?

On many personal computers where device encryption was automatically enabled, the key is associated with the Microsoft account used when the computer was set up.

A work or school computer may instead have its recovery information controlled by the organization.

The key may also have been saved to a USB drive, file, or printout when BitLocker was configured.

Verify your backup now

Windows users with BitLocker Drive Encryption can search Start for Manage BitLocker and use Back up your recovery key for an encrypted drive.

Microsoft supports saving the recovery information through several methods, depending on the system.

Do not store your only separate copy on the encrypted drive it is supposed to unlock.

And if you make a physical copy or USB copy, do not leave it sitting in the laptop bag beside the encrypted computer. Someone who steals both could potentially defeat the protection the encryption was intended to provide.

Treat the key like sensitive information

A recovery key is not a harmless serial number.

Someone with the appropriate recovery key and physical access to the encrypted drive may be able to unlock information that encryption was protecting.

Keep it private.

The five-minute precaution

You may never see a BitLocker recovery screen.

That is exactly why people forget where their key is.

Checking now can turn a frightening future screen into a straightforward recovery instead of a data-loss problem.

Sources and Further Reading

Microsoft BitLocker overview, recovery-key, and backup documentation.