My Laptop asking for Bitlocker Recovery Key. I have never turned on encryption. Windows10HomeEdition. My Microsoft Account doesn't have a Bitlocker Recovery Key! Please help me!

Hi JR. I'm Greg, a Volunteer Moderator and 10 years Windows MVP here to help you.

If Bitlocker is enabled on your hard drive: This may have been done at the factory, which the manufacturer's Support should tell you and provide what you need to know. Here is HP and Dell's explanation of doing this:

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9360-...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06458046

If done since then it should always store the Recovery key that unlocks it in your MS Account.

See here how to find the Recovery key for Bitlocker:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/402618...

Try removing or turning off Bitlocker by one of these methods:

https://www.repairwin.com/how-to-remove-bitlock...

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/37060-turn-...

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/36701-turn-...

Manual for managing Bitlocker:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-bitlocke...

If you cannot find the key or turn off Bitlocker then you'll need to try to recover your data by one of the methods shown here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/263561/how-to-recover...

http://woshub.com/data-recovery-on-a-damaged-ha...

If nothing else works then wipe the drive to reinstall WIndows as shown here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase...

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

Due to number of similar cases with files lost I would not use Bitlocker. Instead I would periodically drag my User folders to external USB which I keep unplugged to protect against ransomware. Then I would also have a secondary method using the cloud which is fire, hacker and theft proof:

You can drag 5gb for free into OneDrive app to store in the cloud where they are safe from fire and theft, or backup your Documents, Pictures and/or Desktop to capture real time changes using OneDrive Backup.

If you install Google Drive, you can use their new Backup to choose User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) to sync up to 15g for free to their cloud.

If you want to report this to Microsoft use the Feedback Hub app in Start Menu where developers are tasked to process consumer feedback. They will not even see it here. This is a tech forums staffed mostly by volunteers trying to help others with your problems.

If you want to post back a Share link from your Feedback here others who see this thread can vote it up and add to it.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and keep me posted. If you'll wait to rate whether my post resolved your problem, I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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Follow up. I had the same issue and I kept trying all the options list any place I could find.

I was finally able to find the key in Onedrive account rather than the microsoft account that everyone is directing to.

You can try this to see if it works.

I think that Dell preinstalled the key as they admit they do in the first link in my post, and failed to notify you. I would contact Dell Support and ask them how to locate your key. Their excuse for doing this without notifying customers up front is feeble.

The strange behavior at the Key Recovery link is worth pursuing more. Try signing in with another browser to compare. Please provide any error or failure message verbatim.

Dear Greg, Thank you very much for your detailed answer and all of the links!

However, they don't have a solution for my situation.

The problem I am having is that when I go to my Microsoft account and select this laptop among my devices, and then I follow the instructions to get the Bitlocker Recovery Key for this laptop by going to Manage recovery keys under "Bitlocker Data Protection", it gives me the following message: "Try a different URL We don’t have anything to show you at this link. Try searching for what you want, instead."

This message has the following URL: https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey?refd=account.microsoft.com

The link that sends me to this message is:

https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey

Do you think this indicates that there isn't a Bitlocker Recovery Key for this laptop or that I am doing something wrong in getting the Key for this laptop?

Is there another way to access the Bitlocker Recovery Key?

Other information regarding your suggestions:

I have had this Dell laptop for a few years. This has never happened before, it has never asked me before for the Bitlocker Recovery Key, and I have never enabled encryption on this laptop. This is the first time this has happened in the few years I have been using the laptop. No one else has touched this laptop as well. So I can't figure out why it would NOW require a Bitlocker Recovery Key, nor can I find the Recovery Key for it. So I don't know what to do now.

What can I do to get the Bitlocker Recovery Key?

How do I approach Microsoft to get this help?

Thank you so much ahead of time for your continued help!!!

Dear Greg,

Thank you so much again for your responses and help! I appreciate it so much.

The message below that I get when I try to access the Recovery Key happens in Edge, Chrome and Firefox. The message is from Microsoft and is still on my Microsoft Account Page (ie it is not an error message from the Browser), and the message is verbatim as follows:

Try a different URL

We don’t have anything to show you at this link. Try searching for what you want, instead.

The URL for this message is: https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey?refd=account.microsoft.com or

https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey

It is a very weird message, since it doesn't respond whether I have a recovery key or not.

I will contact Dell. However, it seems weird that if this laptop had Bitlocker enabled from the beginning that this would be the first time this laptop has asked me for a Bitlocker Recovery key even though I have had this laptop for a few years. Why would it happen now?

It says:

"You need to enter your recovery key because Secure Boot policy has unexpectedly changed."

Was there just a new update to Windows that caused this? My laptop rebooted itself while I was sleeping, and then this happened. I didn't reboot the laptop or make any changes to the preferences, etc. Before this morning I had never heard of a Bitlocker or a Bitlocker Recovery Key or even that one can encrypt one's laptop. I have learned all this just now with this problem.

It gives me the Recovery Key ID. How do I use this ID to get the Recovery Key?

Thank you so much for your continued help!