BitLocker recovery key: where to find it, step by step

If your computer has started on a blue screen asking for a BitLocker recovery key, take a breath: nothing is broken yet, and your files are locked, not deleted. Don’t reset the computer, because Microsoft says a reset removes all your files. The key is usually saved in the Microsoft account used on the computer, and you can look it up on your phone in a few minutes. If you’d like someone beside you while you do it, we offer help finding your recovery key and getting back into Windows.

Leave the computer on the blue screen while you read. You’ll need it there to type the key.

First, write down the key ID on the screen

The key ID tells you which key to use. Microsoft’s first instruction is to take note of the first 8 digits of the recovery key ID shown on the screen. If there is more than one key saved, the ID is how you pick the right one. It can contain letters as well as numbers.

Take a photo of the whole screen with your phone. That gives you the key ID while you look, and it keeps the rest of the screen’s words too.

Read the rest of the screen before you go looking. It may give you a hint about where the key was saved:

• A Microsoft account. On Windows 11, version 24H2 and later, Microsoft says the screen shows a hint of the Microsoft account the key was saved to, and the address aka.ms/myrecoverykey.
• “Look for a printout or a text file with the key” means it was printed or saved to a file.
• aka.ms/aadrecoverykey means a work or school account.
• “Contact your organization’s help desk” means the computer is managed by a work or school.

Where is my BitLocker recovery key?

In one of five places, and the first one is the most likely for a home computer. Microsoft lists them all on its Find your BitLocker recovery key page (opens in a new tab).

Where the recovery key can be, and how to look

Where	How to look	Worth knowing
Your Microsoft account	On another device, go to aka.ms/myrecoverykey and sign in	The usual place on a home computer
Someone else's Microsoft account	Ask the person who set the computer up to sign in at the same address	Microsoft says the key may be in the account of whoever set the computer up or turned BitLocker on
A work or school account	Go to aka.ms/aadrecoverykey, or ask the IT department	For a computer from your job or a school
A printout	Look where you keep the computer's important papers	The printout shows the key ID beside the key
A USB flash drive	Plug it into the locked computer and follow the instructions	If it holds a text file, open the file on a different device

How do I find the key in my Microsoft account?

On a phone, tablet or another computer, go to aka.ms/myrecoverykey, sign in, and find the key with the matching ID. These are Microsoft’s steps, in order:

1. 1

   Pick up another device

   Use a phone, a tablet or another computer that is on the internet. The locked computer stays on the blue screen.

2. 2

   Go to the address

   Open a web browser, tap the address bar at the top, and type aka.ms/myrecoverykey exactly as shown.

3. 3

   Sign in

   Sign in with the email address and password of the Microsoft account used on the locked computer. If the screen showed a hint of an account, use that one.

4. 4

   Find the matching key ID

   Look through the recovery keys for the one whose key ID starts with the same eight characters as the ID on the blue screen.

5. 5

   Type the key

   Type the 48-digit recovery key beside that ID into the locked computer. The right key unlocks the drive.

Pick a step to watch

Find the key ID on the screen Open your recovery keys Match the first characters Type the 48 digits

Recovery key ID

ABCD1234-5678-90EF-ABCD-1234567890EF ABCD1234-5678-90EF-ABCD-1234567890EF

······ 111111 ······ 222222 ······ 333333 ······ 444444 ······ 555555 ······ 666666 ······ 777777 ······ 888888

aka.ms/myrecoverykey

Your recovery keys

• 9F8E7D6C-0000-1111-2222-333344445555 000000-000000-000000-000000-000000-000000-000000-000000
• ABCD1234-5678-90EF-ABCD-1234567890EF ABCD1234-5678-90EF-ABCD-1234567890EF 111111-222222-333333-444444-555555-666666-777777-888888
• 5E4D3C2B-6666-7777-8888-999900001111 999999-999999-999999-999999-999999-999999-999999-999999

Find the key ID on the screen

On the blue screen, find the recovery key ID and write down its first eight characters, here ABCD1234. A photo of the screen does the same job.

Open your recovery keys

On a phone or another computer, go to aka.ms/myrecoverykey and sign in with the Microsoft account used on this computer. It lists the recovery keys saved to the account.

Match the first characters

Find the key whose ID starts with the same eight characters, ABCD1234. The other keys are for something else, so leave them.

Type the 48 digits

Type that key's 48 digits on the blue screen, one group of six at a time. Windows checks each group and lets you correct a mistake.

If the list is empty, or no key ID matches, the key is not in that account. Try any other Microsoft account anyone in the house uses, then ask whoever set the computer up, whether that was a family member or a shop. Then check the printout and the USB stick.

Open your recovery keys page at aka.ms/myrecoverykey (opens in a new tab) to start.

What if the other device can’t get online?

The phone or tablet needs the internet to open the address. If the WiFi is down for every device, restart the modem and NBN box in the right order, or use the phone’s mobile data instead. If you need the WiFi password for a tablet, it is usually on the sticker on the modem, with the login details. If the internet stays down for the whole house, that is a job for an internet technician who finds why the connection is down, and it is separate from the locked computer.

Forgot your Microsoft account password?

Reset the password first, then come back to aka.ms/myrecoverykey. Microsoft’s steps, on another device:

1. 1

   Start the reset

   Open the reset password link on Microsoft's help page, linked below, type your Microsoft account email and select Next. If you're already at the Enter password window, select Forgotten your password? instead.

2. 2

   Choose where the code goes

   Pick the email address or phone number the code should be sent to, then select Next.

3. 3

   Prove it's yours

   Type the first part of the email address or the last four digits of the phone number it shows, then select Get code.

4. 4

   Enter the code and a new password

   Type the code Microsoft sends, select Next, type a new password, and select Next again.

The full steps are on Microsoft’s page to reset a forgotten Microsoft account password (opens in a new tab), including what to do if the code never arrives. Microsoft says its support agents are not allowed to send password reset links or to access and change account details, so this is something you do yourself, on your own account.

If the reset code can’t reach you, Microsoft’s account recovery form and the other ways back in are set out step by step.

Typing the 48 digits

Type the key slowly, one group at a time. A recovery key is 48 digits, set out in eight groups of six. Microsoft says the recovery screen checks each group of six for typing mistakes and gives you the chance to correct one.

It helps to have two people: one reads each group aloud from the phone, the other types it. A wrong digit is easy to make and easy to fix. If the screen won’t accept a group, read it again from the phone rather than guessing.

Some recovery screens have two helpers. Pressing the Windows logo key, Ctrl and Enter together turns on Narrator, which reads the screen aloud, and on a touch screen, tapping the box where the key goes brings up the on-screen keyboard. Microsoft says these might not be available on every recovery screen, so if nothing happens, carry on typing.

Is it a work or school computer?

Then the key is with your work or school, not with you. On another device, go to aka.ms/aadrecoverykey and sign in with your work or school account. Select Devices, expand the locked computer, select View BitLocker Keys, and use the key whose ID matches the screen.

If it isn’t there, ring the IT department or help desk. Microsoft’s page says that for a computer managed by an organisation, the IT department is who to ask. You don’t need us for this one; it is theirs to sort out.

What is the BitLocker recovery screen?

It is Windows asking for the key to its own locked drive. BitLocker is the encryption built into Windows: it scrambles everything on the drive so that nobody who takes the computer can read it. Normally Windows unlocks the drive by itself every time it starts, and you never see it happen.

When Windows can’t unlock the drive by itself, it stops and asks for the recovery key instead. Microsoft describes the key as a 48-digit number used to regain access to the drive.

Many people who see this screen never turned BitLocker on. Windows has a feature called Device Encryption that switches it on automatically. Microsoft says that when you first sign in or set up a computer with a Microsoft account, or a work or school account, Device Encryption is turned on and a recovery key is attached to that account. That is the good news: the key was most likely saved for you, without anyone having to do anything.

Why is my computer asking for a BitLocker recovery key?

Windows asks when it can’t unlock the drive by itself, usually because something about the computer has changed. Microsoft says it happens at startup because of a security risk or a hardware change. Its list of common causes includes:

• A firmware or BIOS update, the software built into the computer itself, below Windows.
• A new main board, or the drive moved into a different computer.
• A change to the boot order in the BIOS, the order of the drives the computer starts from.
• Docking or undocking a laptop.
• Too many wrong attempts, at a BitLocker PIN or at signing in.
• The computer’s security chip, the TPM, turned off or cleared.

If you know what changed, for example a part was replaced last week, tell whoever did the work, because they may be able to undo it. Don’t go into the BIOS settings yourself to try. The key is the safer way back in.

What if I can’t find the BitLocker recovery key?

Then Microsoft’s honest answer is hard but plain: if you can’t find the key and can’t undo the change that caused it, you’ll have to reset the computer with one of the Windows recovery options, and resetting removes all of your files. We’d rather tell you that now than have you find out halfway through.

Microsoft’s own words are that its support doesn’t have the ability to retrieve, provide, or recreate a lost BitLocker recovery key. Without the key the drive stays locked; that is what the lock is for.

So before you accept that, go through every place once more, slowly:

• Every Microsoft account anyone in the household has ever used, at aka.ms/myrecoverykey.
• The person who set the computer up, a son, a daughter or the shop, signed in to their own account.
• The drawer with the computer’s papers, the receipt and the box it came in, for a printed page.
• Any USB sticks in the house, plugged into the locked computer one at a time.
• A work or school account, if the computer ever came from a job or a school.

Anything you backed up somewhere else, such as an external drive or a cloud account, is not on the computer, so a reset doesn’t touch it. If you’re not sure what is backed up and what isn’t, stop and ask before anything is reset.

How do I save my BitLocker recovery key now?

If you can still get into Windows, check now that your key is saved somewhere you can reach. Microsoft says that in most situations the key is backed up automatically when BitLocker is first switched on, and on a computer with a Microsoft account it is usually attached to that account. Make sure it is.

First, on any device, sign in at aka.ms/myrecoverykey and see that a key is listed for this computer. Then make a second copy with Microsoft’s steps:

1. 1

   Open Manage BitLocker

   Select Start, type BitLocker, and select Manage BitLocker from the list of results.

2. 2

   Back up the key

   Select Back up your recovery key next to the drive.

3. 3

   Choose where

   Choose Save to your Microsoft Account, Save to a USB flash drive, Save to a file, or Print the recovery key.

4. 4

   Finish

   Select Finish. You can make as many backups as you want.

Printing it is the simplest second copy. Keep the page with your important papers, not with the computer. A USB flash drive works too, kept somewhere other than the computer bag.

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Gear mentioned here, on Amazon Australia

Product	What it is for	Link
SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0, 64GB	USB stick for saving a copy of the key	View on Amazon for the SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0, 64GB (opens in a new tab)

You can’t save the key as a file on the locked drive itself, which is why Microsoft offers a USB flash drive. If Manage BitLocker doesn’t come up when you search, the computer may be on Windows Home, which Microsoft says has Device Encryption rather than BitLocker Drive Encryption. Device Encryption attaches the key to the Microsoft account when you first sign in, so the recovery key page in your account is where to check. The steps are on Microsoft’s page to back up your BitLocker recovery key (opens in a new tab).

While you’re there, write down which Microsoft account the computer uses and keep it with the printout. It’s a good time to back up the photos on your phone too. If a family member set the computer up, note that the key may be in their account. It is the one fact that would have saved the search.

Selling the computer? Reset it with Remove everything, the right way, and have the key ready first.

Once you’re back in Windows, it’s a good time to make a backup of your photos and documents too. Our Windows checks guide starts with backing up using File History, and if the computer has been misbehaving, is it the computer or the internet? sorts out where to start.

When to call us, and when you don’t need to

You don’t need us if the key is in your Microsoft account, on a printout or on a USB stick. That is five minutes with a phone and the blue screen, and it’s yours to do. A work or school computer is the IT department’s.

Call us when:

• You can’t get into the Microsoft account, even after the password reset steps, or the code goes to an old phone number.
• You’re not sure which account the computer used, or who set it up.
• You’d rather someone sat beside you while you go through it. That is a fair call.

A home tech support visit is made for this. We come to you, work on the computer in front of both of us, and go through the account’s own recovery steps with you. You type your own passwords, and the account stays yours. Where a key exists, we help you find it and get you back into Windows, then make sure a second copy is saved.

Be clear on what we can’t do. Microsoft says its own support can’t recreate a lost BitLocker key, and we can’t either; we don’t do data recovery. A visit covers setup and help, not hardware repair or data recovery. If there is no key to be found, we’ll tell you so straight away.

Not sure whether it’s worth a visit? Send us a message with a photo of the screen, or ring 02 9188 1577.