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System Event Log 24641: "An unexpected error was encountered attempting to retrieve the BitLocker volume master key during restart".

Anonymous
2020-07-23T12:46:29+00:00

The above error has started appearing over the past 2 days.  However, the system seems to be working just fine, should I be concerned or do anything?

I have several drives, all of which are Bitlocker encrypted and I have a motherboard with TPM enabled and apparently working just fine. No errors reported in the TPM troubleshooter, nor in the BIOS and everything looks fine.  All the drives auto-unlock on boot, with me simply entering my pin at logon. So I assume the system is clearly reading the keys from the TPM chip without issue, or else the drives could not unlock, right?

I have checked the recovery keys manually, and they all work fine as well.

So I am a bit stumped as to what the Windows error is about?  Should I just ignore it?  The "fix" it would seem would be to disable Bitlocker and re-enable it. But that would take days since disabling it on C: will also require disabling it on the other drives, so we are talking tens of Terabytes.  Understandably I am very, very reluctant to do that simply to sort out an event log error!

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T16:01:55+00:00

    Thanks again.

    That said, I don't see there being any "sorry" option. I have recovery keys, so the way I see it, worst case I need to enter recovery keys to access my data.   VERY worst case, I will restore from a backup no more than 1 day old.

    That seems like a fair risk, considering the very large amount of time and effort trying to fix a problem which is not actually manifesting itself as a problem. And incidentally which may not get fixed even after "fixing" it. Who's to say the error won't remain, or even come back again 2 days later.

    I am inclined to think there is actually nothing wrong and this is just yet another MS bug introduced in the last update.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T15:12:07+00:00

    I would make the same assumption, however I would probably take the safe rather than sorry approach and perform the decrypt/re-encryption just incase it just suddenly fails.

    If you are using a TPM module, it could be an intermittent fault, which is why the troubleshooter might not pick anything up.

    Kind Regards,

    Elise

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T14:37:29+00:00

    Hi Elise - thanks for your answer.

    But would I be right in assuming that the key store is obviously not so corrupted as to not be working, else my drives would not unlock?  If everything is working fine - as it seems to be - is there any reason not to just leave things are they are?  And potentially simply remedy this at some future stage if the drives fail to unlock?

    If I boot from a recovery disk, the drives are all encrypted and locked and only accessible using the recovery keys. So everything seems secure, and at the same time Windows unlocks them just fine.

    So I am reluctant to spend days waiting for decryption and re-encryption whilst everything appears to be working just fine.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T14:30:25+00:00

    Hi, I'm Elise, an independent advisor and I'd be happy to help with your issue.

    This error generally means the key store has become corrupted for some reason (which could be any number of reasons), but you are correct and saying the resolution is basically switch off bit blocker and switch it back on again.

    http://kb.eventtracker.com/evtpass/evtpages/Eve...

    Kind Regards,

    Elise

    Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T16:32:14+00:00

    That’s is true, it may not fix it at all. Just my opinion but your approach is equally as valid.

    It may well be a bug introduced after the last update, there isn’t anything published I can find referencing it but your never know.

    Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

    Kind Regards,

    Elise

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