How long does it take for the BitLocker key to populate in AAD?

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How long does it take for the BitLocker key to populate in AAD?

Andy Slater 96

Hello all-

I recently had to remove some laptops from a tenant and re-add them in order to get them to enroll in Intune and was curious to know how long it takes (on average) for the BitLocker keys to re-populate in AAD? BitLocker was enabled before I removed them and stayed on throughout. Most of the keys have repopulated, but I have one or two that don't. I know its completely subjective given the size of the HDD and other hardware/software factors, but is there a rough guide to this? BitLocker does show enabled on the laptops in question.

Thanks!

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Answer 1

Andy Slater 96

Just figured it out the easy way to re-populate it. On the laptop goto Settings - Device Encryption - Backup BitLocker Recovery Key - Save to Azure account

Thanks!

Jason Sandys 31,411 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-11-19T21:04:05.79+00:00

Right, this is a way to manually force it on the device itself, but if you need to do this to more thana few devices, then using a PowerShell deployed from Intune is the way to go.
Andy Slater 96 Reputation points

2021-11-19T21:08:04.537+00:00

Totally agree.

Answer 2

Jason Sandys 31,411 Microsoft Employee Moderator

BitLocker recovery passwords will never "re-populate". Windows only sends recovery keys to AD or AAD at the time they are set or changed. You can force them using PowerShell though: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/bitlocker/backuptoaad-bitlockerkeyprotector?view=windowsserver2022-ps

Andy Slater 96 Reputation points

2021-11-19T20:08:15.103+00:00

Jason-

Thanks for the response. "Re-populate" might be a bad choice of phrasing.

I've had maybe 8 laptops that I had to disconnect from AAD (Win10 - Settings - Access work or school - Disconnect) and reconnect (same process) in order to get them to show up in Intune. Bad initial setup and currently rolling out of Intune. 5 of those had the BitLocker key show back up in AAD after a period of time. The remaining three have not. My assumption, based on those 5 laptops, was that the BitLocker key will repopulate, for a lack of a better term, after it gets finished doing whatever BitLocker does.

Any ideas?
Jason Sandys 31,411 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-11-19T21:02:40.157+00:00

Same answer. That's not how it works. Windows only automatically sends the recovery password to AD and/or AAD when the key is set or reset. If you need anything else, you need to use a script to force it.

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How long does it take for the BitLocker key to populate in AAD?

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