When BitLocker missing from Control Panel in Windows 10 and 11, you can try the following 4 fixes. This post also provides a effective solution once you suffer data loss during the fixing process.
I clean installed windows 11 on my windows 10 laptop without deleting windows 10's existing efi,msr and recovery partitions yesterday as I thought they will work same with windows 11. All worked properly, BitLocker(device encryption) worked properly as well. But when I try to open BitLocker from settings>about section today the settings app suddenly disappeared and the BitLocker settings in Control Panel not opened. So I checked the control panel and bitlocker option is not available there but it was available there yesterday. How can I solve this and get BitLocker back?
- Question from Microsoft Community
To keep your important data safe, you may want to enable BitLocker in Windows 10 and 11. But sometimes you might can’t find the BitLocker Drive Encryption option from Control Panel where the feature can be turned on. This post will guide you to fix BitLocker encryption options missing from Control Panel without losing data.
When the BitLocker Encryption options missing from Control Panel, you can try the following fixes to fix the issue effectively.
BitLocker is a disk encryption feature that introduced since Windows 8 released. However, it only supports specific editions like Pro, Enterprise, or Education. If you are using Windows Home, you have to first upgrade to one of these editions and then activate BitLocker.
AOMEI Partition Assistant provides a simple solution for Windows Home users. Its BitLocker function allows users to easily enable this feature and manage it in an effective way.
The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click the "Tools" main tab and select "BitLocker". Or, right-click the partition you want to encrypt and click the "BitLocker"->"Turn on BitLocker" option in the Context Menu.
Step 2. All drives on the system will be displayed, including operating system drives, fixed data drives, and removable drives. Please find the partition you would like to encrypt BitLocker and click the "Turn on BitLocker" option. (Here, we take the drive D: as an example.)
Tip: Currently, it only supports encrypting NTFS partitions. Other partition file systems, for example, FAT or FAT32 cannot be encrypted.
Step 3. Please set and confirm a password to encrypt the drive and click "Next".
1. Encrypt used disk space only (faster and best for new PCs and Drives): If you are setting up BitLocker on a new PC or a new drive, you only need to encrypt the part of the drive that is currently being used. And, BitLocker will automatically encrypt the newly-added data.
2. Disk encryption compatible mode (suitable for removable data drives): Windows 10 (version 1511) introduces a new disk encryption mode (XTS-AES). This mode provides heavy integrity support but is not compatible with earlier versions of Windows.
If this is a removable drive to be used on an earlier version of Windows, you should select Compatible mode.
If this is a fixed drive, or if this drive will only be used on devices running at least Windows 10 (version 1511) or later, select the new encryption mode.
Step 4. Select a way to back up your recovery key. You can either select "Save to a file" or "Print the recovery key".
If you select "Save to a file", please choose a location on your PC to save the recovery key.
If you would like to encrypt your current system drive, you will be asked to restart your PC into Windows PE mode to execute the operation because it is the current system drive. The program will first create Windows PE and then boot the PC into Windows PE mode to encrypt the drive. After the encryption is finished, you can restart your PC.
Step 5. The encryption process might take time to encrypt the drive. Before the process is finished, please do not terminate the program, remove the drive, or turn off the power.
When the BitLocker Drive Encryption Service starts up, its type should be set to "Manual." If you cannot find BitLocker in Control Panel in Windows 10 and 11, you can open Services to see if that service is turned off and make any necessary changes.
Step 1. Click on the search bar in the taskbar and type "Services." From the search results, choose "Services" to open it.
Step 2. Look for "BitLocker Drive Encryption Service" and double-click it to open its Properties. In the "Startup type" section, choose "Manual" from the dropdown options.
Step 3. Click "Apply." Then click "OK."
When the BitLocker missing from Control Panel in Windows 10 and 11, you can go to the Service to enable it.
Step 1. To start, press the Win and R keys together on the computer to bring up the "Run" box.Typing services.msc into the Run box and clicking "OK"
Step 2. Locate "BitLocker Drive Encryption Service" in the right panel of the Services Window and double-click on it.
Step 3. In the window that opens, choose the "Automatic" option from the "Startup type" drop-down menu and click "OK" to save the changes.
Step 4. Within the pane providing the description of BitLocker Drive Encryption Service, select "Restart the service."
Tips: If the description pane is not visible, switch to the Extended section by clicking the "Extended" option to locate it.
Step 5. Finally, restart your PC, and you will find that the BitLocker drive can be opened again without any issues.
It was a straightforward solution to address the "BitLocker access denied offline files on Windows PCs" error on the Service.
If none of these methods fix the BitLocker not showing in Control Panel issue, you may need to factory reset your Windows 10 or 11 PC. During the reset process, you can choose to keep your files or not, depending on your needs. AOMEI Partition Assistant offers a Recover Data feature if you experience any data loss during the process.
Step 1. Simultaneously hit “Win+I” and enter “Settings”. Then click “System” > “Recovery” > “Reset PC” in turn.
Step 2. Then we need to access the Windows Recovery Environment. Forcefully shut down your PC 2 times and then restart it. Once in the Recovery Environment, click “Troubleshoot” > “Reset this PC” to initiate the reset process.
Step 3. When seeing this interface, you can choose "Keep my files option” or "Remove everything” according to your needs.
Step 4. Here you need to choose the way to reinstall the system after factory reset Windows 11.
Step 5. Now, you can select “Just remove your files” or “Fully clean the drive”.
Step 6. Upon reaching the reset screen, you will be presented with a list of impacts associated with resetting your device. If you have no further inquiries regarding these effects, proceed by clicking on "Reset" to commence the Windows 11 PC factory reset process.
To fix BitLocker missing from Control Panel, you can use the shared methods to fix the issue. Apart turning on BitLocker or manager this utility, AOMEI Partition Assistant also supports extending C drive, moving installed apps to another drive, reset Windows password, cloning disk without rebooting, and so on.
