Windows 11: Boot loop into Bitlocker entry screen.

Question

I installed the 22H2 (KB5012170) update but was not aware at that time that the update required two restarts. As a result during boot the system endlessly cycled through Bitlocker Entry Screen. In order to fix this boot loop I wiped the C:\ drive, and re-installed W11 from recovery USB. Question: does the old Bitlocker key remains or a new Bitlocker key will be assigned to the newly installed W11?

Answer 1

Thanks for reaching out. My name is, Zadee. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user like you. I'll be glad to help you today.

If the key was saved to your MS account, you'd have to manually delete that. I had bitlocker before on my device and had to reformat it as well, the key remained in my account (image below). I no longer use bitlocker but it's still there, I could remove it but I decided to just leave it. You can go to this link to see what's saved.

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

Answer 2

Bitlocker does not automatically get created. You'd actually have to manually enable it by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption > BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Once you have set that up, it's going to ask you where you want to save the key. Either locally to your computer or to your MS account. If you select your MS account, that's going to send the new keys and save it to your MS account.

Answer 3

Hi Zadee,

Thank you for your reply. My concern is prompted by some posts on the Web about Windows OS automatically applying a Bitlocker encryption without asking a user to enable it. In my case before this incident the original machine came with W10. I had no idea whether it had Bitlocker activated. After I unpacked the computer the first thing I did was to upgrade it to W11. Again I had no idea about the status of Bitlocker because I had never used it before nor had any need for it. It is only after the update problem popped up I learned that it had Bitlocker active.

So here is the scenario: Currently I have Bitlocker disabled. I delete the current key on my MS account. Then some software, similar to the update one, activates Bitlocker automatically. Would the OS update this new key to my MS account or ask me where do I want it saved? Again thank you for taking the time to respond.

AppoloWZ

Answer 4

I actually had the same experience. When I first bought this laptop (brand new with Win 10 "HOME"), I know, HOME should not have a bitlocker because as per MS it's only available on Pro and Enterprise, but yeah I can still vividly remember because my laptop is just a couple of months old. I don't know why I had that and I could only guess. But I immediately noticed it because it gave me that padlock icon on my drives. Backed up the keys locally and saved them to my cloud drive and also backed it up to my MS account MANUALLY. Yes, I had to manually do it, it did not automatically sent these keys to my account, I had to trigger it.

So no, it's not going to ask you where you want to save it if a major update somehow triggers that. I suggest keeping an eye on that "padlock" icon that appears on your drives after some major updates.

But I need to tell you, so far, after upgrading my OS to Pro I have not at all experienced any automatic triggering of the bitlocker in my device. Since I moved to Pro, my bitlocker is turned off.

People experiencing the same issue in this thread.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Answer 5

Thank you Zadee, good info especially the link you provided. Turns out many people had a similar problem while I thought I was the only one with the weird bug. Now I know what to do in the future.