How to Fix [BitLocker Turned Off By Itself] in Windows 11 and 10?

User case: Has anyone experienced BitLocker turned off by itself?

Similar situations are also discussed in Windows 10 Forums, Super User, etc. If you encounter the BitLocker suspends itself in Windows 11 and 10, you can read this passage to get the easy solutions.

Why does BitLocker turn off by itself?

If a Windows device shows a "suspended Device Encryption" message, it means that BitLocker protection has been turned off. So, the drive is still encrypted, but it's not protected. Why does the BitLocker suspend itself? There are some possible causes:

Possible reasons that cause BitLocker turned off by itself:

Software updates: Certain Windows updates or patches can interfere with BitLocker settings, causing it to turn off.

Group Policy changes: If your computer is part of a domain, group policy changes made by the network administrator can affect BitLocker settings.

Hardware changes: Changes in hardware, like a new hard drive or motherboard, can trigger BitLocker to turn off as it may see the changes as a security risk.

System errors: System crashes or errors can sometimes disable BitLocker to protect the data from potential corruption.

Incorrect settings: Incorrectly configured BitLocker settings or conflicts with other software can also cause it to turn off.

User action: Sometimes, BitLocker may be manually turned off by a user without realizing it. You can just re-enable it.

According to the reasons, there are some target solutions in the next section.

How to fix “BitLocker turned off by itself”?

There are some effective methods for fixing the issue. And they are also applicable for the situation where BitLocker randomly disabled itself.

Fix 1. Check the BitLocker status in the Control Panel

Step 1. Open Win+R to open Run dialogue. Type control and press Enter.

Step 2. In the Control Panel, click on System and Security. Then, click BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Step 3. Here, you will see the status of BitLocker for each drive. It will show whether BitLocker is on or off.

Step 4. If BitLocker is off, click on Turn on BitLocker for the drive you want to encrypt. If you encounter any errors while enabling BitLocker, please move on to this part.

Fix 2. Ensure your system is fully updated

Step 1. Press Win + I to open the Settings. Next, choose Update & Security.

Step 2. Click Windows Update on the left side. Choose Check for updates. If updates are available, download and install them.

Step 3. After installing updates, restart your computer to ensure all updates are applied properly.

Fix 3. Review group policy settings if applicable

Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open Group Policy Editor.

Step 2. In the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration. Go to Administrative Templates.

Step 3. Choose Windows Components. Find and click on BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Step 4. Review the policies set under BitLocker Drive Encryption to ensure they are configured correctly. If not, you can click the Enable button to turn on it again.

Step 5. If your computer is part of a domain, consult with your network administrator to ensure that the policies are not conflicting with BitLocker settings.

Fix 4. Resume BitLocker protection

The regular feature updates of Windows 10 are a common example because they stop BitLocker for one or more reboots. In this case, the update will usually resume protection on its own, without any further action from the user. In this case, the computer needs to have its protection turned back on. When BitLocker protection was purposely turned off, Central Device Encryption did not turn it back on.

Step 1. Open Windows Explorer. Now, right-click the system volume.

Step 2. Choose Manage BitLocker and click Resume BitLocker protection.

Run AOMEI Partition Assistant to turn on BitLocker

If you encounter BitLocker turned off by itself and you cannot turn on it by following the above methods, maybe it’s time to run a reliable third-party tool to continue protecting your privacy.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a multifunctional disk manager. It provides BitLocker easy management function. With it, you can turn on/off, back up recovery key, and so on. Even if you are a Windows Home user, you can enable BitLocker with this powerful software.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

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Step 1. Get AOMEI Partition Assistant and run it. Choose "BitLocker" from the "Tools" menu. You can also right-click on the partition you want to protect and use the Context Menu to choose "BitLocker" > "Turn on BitLocker."

Step 2. It will show all of the system's drives, such as the operating system drives, fixed data drives, and removable drives. To use BitLocker, find the partition you want to protect and click the "Turn on BitLocker" button. It's easy to see this with the drive D:

▶ Tip: Currently, it only supports encrypting NTFS partitions. Other partition file systems, for example, FAT or FAT32 cannot be encrypted. In this situation, you can convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data with AOMEI Partition Assistant.

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.

▶ Tip: It is not allowed to save the recovery key on the drive you want to encrypt. For example, it is unable to encrypt D: and save the recovery key on your D:.

It will generate a TXT file with the name: Bitlocker Recovery Key + 45-bit Key. The recovery file will be saved in the TXT file. You can open the file to view the recovery key. Please keep the file.

If you select "Print the recovery key", it will enable the print function on your PC to print the recovery key. Then, please click the "Next" button to start the encryption process.

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

Note:

Once the BitLocker on the drive is turned on, the drive will be locked automatically. If the drive is locked, the used space on the drive will not be displayed and the drive will be unable to access in Windows File Explorer.

Conclusion

That all about how to fix "BitLocker turned off by itself". With AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can easily re-enable it even if you encounter problems like BitLocker suspends itself. This powerful software also supports cloning disks, cleaning up hard drive, moving installed apps to another drive, restoring lost data, and so on. For Windows Server users, it prepares the Server edition.