How to find bitlocker recovery key with recovery key ID

Catherine Briceño Vela 10 Reputation points
2025-11-26T18:48:38.1033333+00:00

How to find bitlocker recovery key with recovery key ID.


Moved from: Microsoft 365 and Office | Microsoft 365 Defender | For home | Windows

Windows for home | Other | Recovery and backup
0 comments No comments
{count} votes

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Q&A Assist
    2025-11-26T18:48:45.47+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    To find the BitLocker recovery key using the recovery key ID, you can follow these steps:

    1. Locate the Recovery Key ID: The recovery key ID is displayed on the BitLocker preboot recovery screen when you are prompted to enter the recovery key.
    2. Use the Administration and Monitoring Website: Go to the administration and monitoring website (e.g., https://webserver.contoso.com/HelpDesk).
      • In the left pane, select the Drive Recovery area.
      • Enter the user's domain and username if necessary.
      • To see a list of possible matching recovery keys, enter the first eight digits of the recovery key ID. For the exact recovery key, enter the entire recovery key ID.
    3. Submit the Request: Choose the reason for drive unlock and submit the form. The website will return the recovery password and recovery package if found.
    4. Use the Recovery Password: Once you have the recovery password, you can use it to unlock the drive.

    Note that recovery passwords expire after a single use, so ensure to use it promptly after retrieval.


  2. Lucky Charm Espinosa 4,530 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-11-26T19:36:52.5733333+00:00

    Hi Catherine Briceño Vela, I understand how stressful it can be to get locked out of your device and not know where to find the recovery key especially when you need access right away.

    If you need to find your BitLocker recovery key using the Recovery Key ID you have a few options run the manage bde command in Command Prompt to check locally search your drives for any saved key files look it up in your Microsoft account ask your IT team to pull it from Azure AD or Active Directory if its a work device or check the Windows registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FVE.

    Do you know where the recovery key might have been saved such as your Microsoft account a USB drive or printed copy or with your organization IT team?

    Best regards

    Lucky Charm

    0 comments No comments

  3. Lucus-V 2,685 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-11-28T05:08:08.5933333+00:00

    Hi Catherine Briceño Vela,
    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. I'm happy to help.

    If you sign in your Windows with online Microsoft account, BitLocker Recovery Code often saved on the Microsoft account you used to setup your computer. You may visit BitLocker recovery keys to check your devices and recovery keys on them. Please sign in with every possible account you have.

    If you use your computer with Local account / or you manually setup BitLocker later with another drive etc., so BitLocker Recovery Code is not saved on your Microsoft account. In this case, you have to find the BitLocker Recovery Code that you saved on your computer, OneDrive, E-mail, etc.

    If you can't find it at all or it was never backed up, unfortunately no one can send it to you, not even Microsoft. BitLocker encryption is designed so that only you control the keys for security and privacy.

    For more information, please visit official Microsoft Find your BitLocker recovery key.

    I hope that above information is helpful to you, and you can find the recovery code.

    If you have further questions, please feel free to let me know.


    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".  

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.


Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.