Microsoft surface locked with bitlocker for no reason

Question

I have a surface pro 4 and today I turned it on and I am presented with a bitlocker screen saying it is locked. It was working fine yesterday and I am unaware of any updates or that it was ever active on my computer I certainly never activated it. I now need to type in a key. So I follow the steps to log into my microsoft account. I have a new phone number having just relocated back home after working abroad so I update my phone number on my account. When doing this there is no warning that I am now locked out of my microsoft account for 30 days or at least anything in it that is useful. Having spent 2 hours trying to get help from customer support and just wasting my time. The final thing they said was try again later or tomorrow? Like really? So I have attempted to cancel the request to update my phone number which it gives me the option of doing. When this happens I need to type in the last four digits of my phone number which I have (luckily have my foreign sim card) got the message and typed in the code and it is not accepting the code. I have tried resending the code typing in the new one etc and it will not work. I have now spent all evening looking at forums and posts and it seems like bitlocker activating is quite common. But I cannot loose my files.

So I have two questions.

1. Why has this triggered on my device?
2. What can I do to get back into my surface? Customer support said I could reset my device but that would mean me loosing all my work which I need for my job.

Answer 1

Hi need to buy a mac,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear that you are suddenly locked out of your Surface Pro 4 due to the BitLocker Recovery Key prompt.

BitLocker Drive Encryption technology in Windows 10 uses the strongest publicly available encryption to help protect the computer’s data by preventing others from accessing disk drives and flash drives without authorization. BitLocker is enabled by default for devices that supports Modern Standby which includes the Surface Pro 4. There are a few things that could trigger recovery mode which includes device encountered a hardware malfunction, an unexpected configuration change or another security event.

On the 30days account restriction, this happens when we change a security information on our Microsoft Account which includes phone number. See: “Your security info change is still pending” or “You can’t access this site right now” Microsoft account message for details. We can't expedite the 30-day process unless you cancel the request.

Going back to the concern to get back on your device, I'm sorry but Microsoft support is unable to provide, or recreate, a lost BitLocker recovery key. See: Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows (microsoft.com). I'm afraid that our only option left is what the live support advised which is to reset the device by a clean installation of Windows on the device using the Surface Recovery Image through USB Recovery. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset and it will wipe out everything on the device. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll another working device running on Windows.

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for
   Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device
4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page
5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

Hi need to buy a mac,

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our first response yet. We would like to know if you still need some assistance on the concern raised. If yes, please reply back for us to further assist you.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 3

Hi need to buy a mac,

We still have not received any response from you since our last follow up message. Please do not hesitate to create a new thread for further concerns. We hope that the issue you reported to us has been resolved. We personally understand that finding time to work on this matter can be a little difficult to manage.  Thus, we would like to let you know how much we appreciate your patience and most importantly the time you've dedicated to getting a resolution for this issue of yours.

Thank you for spending time here in the Community.

Kind regards,

Marrion