How to Find BitLocker Recovery Key Windows 10/11

What is BitLocker Recovery Key?

To regain access to a BitLocker-protected drive when the standard unlocking method fails, the BitLocker recovery key plays a crucial role. This specialized 48-digit numerical password is automatically generated during the encryption process using BitLocker technology. It serves as a means to unlock the protected drive, requiring authorized privileges.

The BitLocker recovery key ID, a key identifier visible on your PC, is an integral component of this recovery process. Now, let's explore how to locate the BitLocker recovery key on Windows 10/11 and optimize the retrieval process.

How to find BitLocker recovery key in Windows 10/11

This key may be stored in different places including your Microsoft account, USB flash drive, a TXT file, or paper document. Here comes a question. Where to find BitLocker recovery key? Please keep reading the following context, in this part, you can see 5 ways to locate BitLocker recovery key.

Method 1. Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key in Your Microsoft Account

Step 1. Click here to open the Microsoft web page.

Step 2. Login to your Microsoft account, and then you will see the BitLocker recovery key in the OneDrive section.

Method 2. Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key on a USB Drive

As mentioned above, the Locker recovery key can be used to encrypt your USB flash drive. If you save the key in the USB flash drive, you can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Plug the USB flash drive that you use the BitLocker technology into the PC.

Step 2. Double-click This PC (Windows 10) to open File Explorer, and then open the USB drive. In this drive, you should find a text file named BitLocker Recovery Key where the key is saved in.

Method 3. Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key in TXT File

In addition, you can try searching for the TXT file on your computer directly. It is very simple. For that. Double click This PC (Windows 10) to open File Explorer, and then type BitLocker Recovery Key in the search bar. After that, Windows will detect this file automatically for you.

Method 4. Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key in a Paper Document

If you save the Windows 10 BitLocker recovery key in a paper document, you can try finding the location where you can print or save the key. Connect the printer to your PC, and then find the paper document that stores BitLocker Key. This key may have been printed to Microsoft Print to PDF. You can search for PDF files on your PC.

Method 5. Find Your BitLocker Recovery Key in Active Directory

If you are a domain user, perhaps you can find Windows 10 BitLocker recovery key in the Active Directory. Here you can use the BitLocker recovery password viewer to locate the key.

Step 1. On the page of Active Directory Users, right-click the Computer container and select Properties.

Step 2. Navigate to the BitLocker Recovery tab in the Properties window, then you can view the BitLocker recovery passwords related to the particular computer.

Alternative BitLocker tool to Windows BitLocker Encryption

Windows BitLocker Encryption is a very reliable and helpful tool for Windows users to protect their privacy. However, not all Windows PC users can use BitLocker encryption. Windows 10 and Windows 11 Home users cannot use BitLocker, so if you are a Windows Home user but want to use BitLocker encryption, you can only employ a third-party tool.

In this case, let us recommend AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, an all-in-one disk and partition management tool for all Windows users. This tool's “BitLocker” function can allow Windows Home users to use BitLocker encryption.

To avoid BitLocker key loss, this tool also offers “Save to a file” and “Print the recovery key” to help you keep your key safe. In addition, this tool also has a key backup option to ensure your key won’t be lost.

How to Encrypt BitLocker in Partition Assistant Step by Step

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click the "Tools" main tab and select "BitLocker".

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.)

Step 3. Please set and confirm a password to encrypt the drive and click "Next".

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.

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.

Once the encryption process is finished, please click "Completed". Finally, the drive is BitLocker encrypted.

How to Back up Recovery Key

Step 1. Find the encrypted drive you would like to back up the recovery key and click the option "Back up recovery key".

Step 2. You will be asked to enter the password you set. Please enter the correct password and click the "Next" button.

Step 3. After you enter the correct password, there are 2 ways available to back up your recovery key: "Save to a file" and "Print the recovery key". Please select a way you prefer and then click the "Next" button.

If you select "Save to a file", you need to choose a location on your PC to save the recovery key. It will generate a TXT file with the name: Bitlocker Recovery Key + 45-bit Key.

Final lines

After you set up a BitLocker drive, please carefully keep your BitLocker recovery key in Windows 10/11. You can save it on another partition or a USB drive, but if you're afraid of a USB loss, you can also print it on a paper file. For Windows Home users, if you want to use BitLocker, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant, it's the same as the built-in tool. What's more, this tool has many handy functions like disk cloning, app mover, duplicate file cleaning, OS migration, and so on. In addition, this tool also has the Server edition for Windows Server users, and other two advanced editions for higher-need users.