Top 5 BitLocker for Mac Hands-on Test and Comparison

iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac

Full Review

iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac caters to users of all experience levels. Based on my hands-on experience, average users can rely on its File Manager mode, which allows you to unlock, delete, export, and import files to BitLocker drives without enabling System Extension or Full Disk Access. It's very convenient and easy to use.

For advanced users who seek the ultimate stability and speed experience, its Volume Mounter mode is the silver bullet. It can mount a BitLocker-encrypted drive as a physical drive, ensuring stable and rapid reading & writing operations (on par with a Mac native drive).

Another point that I'd like to share with you is its strong compatibility. Among the same type of products, iSumsoft, UUByte, and Hasleo, their support for Apple Silicon M chips is stuck on the old version, the M5 chip excluded. Only iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac is well compatible with Apple Silicon M5/M4/M3/M2/M1 chips. 

Hands-on Experience with iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac

Step 1. Free download iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac from its official website and install it on my MacBook Air (macOS Monterey 12.7.6). The whole procedure is fast and smooth.

Step 2. Launch the BitLocker To Go for Mac app. 

Step 3. Then, insert my external BitLocker-encrypted NTFS drive into my Mac. This BitLocker for Mac reader & writer program instantly recognizes my BitLocker drive and shows its status: Locked.

Step 4. Click the unlock icon to unlock my drive. Enter the password to unlock it and tick "Remember this password in my keychain". It will automatically unlock my BitLocker drive next time after the password is saved.

Two options are available to open my BitLocker-encrypted drive on Mac: File Manager and Volume Mounter. File Manager doesn't require me to enable system extensions, nor Full Disk Access. With zero extra steps, I can easily open my BitLocker-encrypted drive with its built-in file explorer. It lets me preview, import, export, delete, rename files, and create a new folder. 

File Manager is like a virtual mount. I can't directly open my files in File Manager. Therefore, I switch to Volume Mounter - physical mount. This time, I'm able to easily open, duplicate, delete, read, and write to my BitLocker volume in Finder like Mac's native volumes. 

And the speed at which I write the 14.24 GB ISO disk image file from Mac to my BitLocker drive reaches up to 131 MB/s, and the read speed achieves 140.4 MB/s, almost equivalent to the HDD disk's original write & read speed. I'm quite satisfied with its speed performance.

On top of the BitLocker unlocking feature, I'm also surprised to find that it supports encrypting external drives with BitLocker algorithms. This feature is not the key role of this post. Hence, this feature is not elaborated here. You can check here to see how to BitLocker encrypt your removable drives if interested.

Step 5. Click Eject on its main interface to eject my BitLocker drive after my reading and writing jobs are done.

iSumsoft BitLocker Reader for Mac

Full Review

All in all, Sumsoft BitLocker Reader for Mac delivers respectable performance in ease, stability, and speed, with no errors based on my actual experience. As for compatibility and features, it leaves much to be desired. 

Personally, I rate it two stars in compatibility. It failed to work on my Apple M3-chip Mac, let alone your M4 or M5 Mac. Meanwhile, I didn't find the BitLocker encryption feature when I planned to encrypt my exFAT drive with the BitLocker algorithm. By the way, buy its lifetime license before you start. There is no free trial version available.

Real Experience with iSumsoft BitLocker Reader for Mac

Step 1. Download iSumsoft BitLocker Reader for Mac and grant Full Disk Access to this app during installation.

Step 2. Launch this Microsoft BitLocker for Mac utility > insert my BitLocker drive > choose the BitLocker-enctyped volume > tap Mount at the top menu on its main screen.

I was informed that the drive mount feature is unavailable in the trial version. I bought the full version to access its functionality. Afterwards, relaunch this tool and enable System Extension.

Step 3. Tap Mount again, and this time it successfully recognizes and virtually mounts my BitLocker drive. Then, I enter my password to unlock it; copy files between Mac and my BitLocker drive. It works. 

Meanwhile, I transfer the 14.24 GB ISO disk image from MacBook Air to my BitLocker NTFS drive. It goes smoothly and delivers a high throughput, 103.7 MB/s in writing, and 109 Mb/s in reading.

Step 4. Hit the Eject button to eject my BitLocker drive after the job is accomplished. 

UUByte BitLocker Geeker

Full Review

UUByte BitLocker Geeker gives me much the same experience as iSumsoft BitLocker Reader for Mac. Neither of them will be installed unless I enable system extensions and grant full disk access. No free trial version is available, nor BitLocker encryption feature. Similarly, this BitLocker reader & writer software wasn't installed on my M4-chip Mac, let alone an M5 Mac.

You may wonder about the difference between UUByte and iSumsoft. Its speed (94.4 MB/s read; 89.2 MB/s write) is slightly slower than iSumsoft (109 MB/s read; 103.7 MB/s write).

Overall, it's suitable for beginners who just need the basic BitLocker unlocking, reading & writing features with middling performance, and don't mind the price tag.

Practical Experience with UUByte BitLocker Geeker

Step 1. Download UUByte BitLocker Geeker from its official webpage. After installation, I'm required to grant Full Disk Access in System settings, and allow the system extension, same as iSumsoft and Hasleo.

Step 2. Activate this BitLocker reader & writer program via License. No free trial version is available.

Step 3. Insert my external BitLocker NTFS drive into my Mac > enter the password to unlock it. And similar to iSumsoft, my BitLocker drive is mounted virtually, and I can only open it in its built-in file manager, not Finder.

Step 4. Once it's unlocked, again I copy the test 14.24 GB file between my MacBook Air and my drive.

Its speed is slightly inferior to the previous two, 94.4 MB/s in reading and 89.2 MB/s in writing. 

Step 5. Tap Eject to safely unmount my HDD drive.

Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere for Mac

Full Review

Among the tools compared, only Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere for Mac got five stars for its features. Not only does it allow BitLocker drive unlocking, reading & writing, encrypting drives with BitLocker, but it also supports decrypting BitLocker drives.

That said, I placed Microsoft BitLocker for Mac fourth because it could not mount my encrypted drives, unlike the other four products, which worked flawlessly. After I tried several methods and got help from its support team, I finally got my problem fixed. That's really a long journey. You can check the effective solution below.

To sum up, Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere for Mac is another option worth considering, as long as you can handle error troubleshooting on your own, and accept its mediocre speed performance.

Real-world Experience with Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere for Mac

Step 1. Download Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere for Mac from its official website. Tap Open when the pop-up window reminds you of system security (Apple doesn't verify its developer).

Step 2. Enable system extension. Follow its instructions to allow it in the Security & Privacy System Preferences. After that, restart my MacBook Air. In contrast, iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac proves more convenient than Hasleo, as its File Manager mode operates seamlessly without forcing me to enable system extensions.

Step 3. Launch this Microsoft BitLocker for Mac app and insert my BitLocker-encrypted NTFS drive (WD My Passport 2626 Media HDD) into the Mac. 

Step 4. Double-click my BitLocker drive > enter password > tick "Save Credential in keychain" > click Mount.

It shows "Operation failed. (0x7DB000200000019)" on its home screen. I manually tick “Mount as read-only" under Advanced Settings. The problem still hasn't been fixed. A new error pops up: Failed to run system API. (0x0A8A001500000002). I tried using 48-digit recovery key to mount this drive, but I still got the same error report.

I couldn't find any solutions to this problem on its official website. Google this issue and ask ChatGPT & DeepSeek for help. Try the solutions provided by AI platforms to grant Full Disk Access in System settings and check the permissions. Yet, the miracle did not happen. 

Unfortunately, I tried to open BitLocker-encrypted USB drive on Mac (Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 Media), and this time I got a different error message: Operation failed. (0x0868000200000002). 

No better solution, I sent a detailed description of the problem along with the log file to its official support team via Email. Roughly 12 hours later, I got a reply from its support team, and I tried the solution provided - install the latest version of macFUSE 5.2.0 on my Mac.

Step 5. Luckily, it works this time. Restart my Mac and re-launch this BitLocker for Mac software. It eventually mounts my BitLocker NTFS drive.

Step 6. Copy the 14.24 GB ISO disk image file between my MacBook and my BitLocker-encrypted drive. The transfer process is smooth, no crash or error reports, but the speed is mediocre, only 75.9 MB/s in reading and 69.36 MB/s in writing.

Dislocker

Full Review

Dislocker is not an easy-to-operate BitLocker for Mac tool. It is only for professionals who are familiar with the command line.

Unlike other software with a one-click installation feature, Dislocker needs to be installed after you install Homebrew and macFUSE first. And the BitLocker drive mounting also relies on complicated command lines. Any mistake will cause the installation or mount process failure.

To sum up, Dislocker is best for professionals who are adept at the command line and want a free BitLocker for Mac. Meanwhile, those users are willing to accept trade-offs in speed, stability, functionality, and tech support.

Actual Experience with Dislocker

Before installing Dislocker, two essential components are required first: Homebrew (a package manager ) and macFUSE (a file system driver). Run your Terminal to install them.

Step 1. Install Homebrew: Enter the following command to install the package manager first.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install macFUSE: Dislocker requires macFUSE to create a virtual file system bridge. Install it via Homebrew.

bash 
brew install --cask macfuse

Note: I was greeted by a reminder in Terminal - "To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`". This message pops up because myTerminal is currently using an older shell program called bash. However, Apple changed the default shell on macOS to zsh (Z shell) several years ago. I can change bash to zsh, or keep the older bash & silence the warning via the below command in Terminal:

bash 
echo "export BASH_SILENCE_DEPRECATION_WARNING=1" >> ~/.bash_profile

Press Enter > close Terminal and reopen it. The warning now becomes muted.

Step 2. With the prerequisites in place, I can eventually install Dislocker via Homebrew. In Terminal, run the following command:

brew install dislocker

Step 3. Identify my drive. Plug my BitLocker drive into my MacBook Air. Click Ignore on the "The disk you inserted was not readable" pop-up reminder. 

Step 4. Unmount the Drive. Dislocker requires the drive to be unmounted before it can work with it. I unmount my Windows BitLocker NTFS drive by clicking the "Unmount" button in Disk Utility.

Step 5. Create a mount point. Dislocker mounts my BitLocker drive via virtual mount. And it requires a directory where Dislocker can place the virtual decrypted file.

bash 
sudo mkdir /tmp/bitlocker

Step 6. Unlock my BitLocker-encrypted drive with Dislocker. Use the dislocker command with the -u (user password) flag. I use my BitLocker password to replace YourPassword and my actual device identifier to replace disk3s1.

bash 
sudo dislocker -V /dev/disk3s1 -uYourPassword -- /tmp/bitlocker

Note: When typing the drive password, the Terminal screen didn't show my password —no characters, asterisks, or dots, and the cursor stayed still. Actually, this is a built-in security measure in macOS to prevent anyone nearby from figuring out users' password length. Just type it blindly and press Enter when you type the password.

Step 7. Finally, I can mount this virtual drive, and it shows up on my desktop like a normal drive.

bash 
sudo hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage /tmp/bitlocker/dislocker-file

I open my BitLocker drive and have a test on its reading & writing speed. The data transfer is comparatively rapid, up to 82.3 MB/s in 14.24 GB ISO disk image writing and 88 MB/s in reading. 

Conclusion

After hands-on testing all BitLocker for Mac software, iBoysoft BitLocker for Mac outperforms its competitors in each aspect, from ease, compatibility to stability and speed. Free download it now to open, read, write, rename, and add new files to the BitLocker-encrypted drive on Mac. Also, use it to securely and quickly transfer files from the BitLocker drive to your Mac.

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