Enabling Bitlocker on Windows 10 Disables Built-in Keyboard & Trackpad at Boot

General
1

I installed Boot Camp with Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro and then enabled BitLocker encryption on the Windows 10 partition. (P.s. My macOS partition has FileVault enabled.) Since then, my built-in keyboard and trackpad only work after my Mac boots up when booting into macOS.

However, if I plug in an external keyboard and a mouse, both the built-in and external keyboards function properly.

In addition, the BitLocker-encryption Windows 10 partition doesn’t appear in the Startup Disk preferences, so I can’t switch to Windows easily.

Since the built-in keyboard is not working before my Mac starts up, I can’t enter Recovery Mode or use the Option key to boot from Windows.

Note that the Windows 10 partition can see the FileVault-encrypted macOS partition. I can also use the keyboard when booting into Windows 10.

2

MacBooks use internal USB/SPI interfaces for the trackpad and keyboard. Usually, the Mac’s EFI firmware initializes these immediately.

However, when Bitlocker is enabled on the Windows side, it can sometimes interfere with the NVRAM variables that tell the Mac how to handle the pre-boot input stack.

By plugging in an external USB keyboard, you are forcing the EFI to poll for HID (Human Interface Device) drivers, which “wakes up” the bus and, ironically, often brings the internal keyboard back online with it.

The Fix: Reset NVRAM/PRAM

This is the first step for any Mac hardware communication issue. Since your internal keyboard isn’t working at boot, you must use that external USB keyboard to perform this:

  1. Shut down your Mac.

  2. Turn it on and immediately press and hold Option + Command + P + R.

  3. Keep holding for about 20 seconds. The Mac might appear to restart.

This clears the cached hardware states and often restores the bridge between the firmware and the internal keyboard.

3

macOS can read the Windows NTFS partition but can’t recognize a BitLocker-encryption Windows partition. If you want macOS to show your Windows partition in the Startup Disk Preferences, you must disable BitLocker or use a BitLocker for Mac tool, such as iBoysoft Bitlocker for Mac.

If your keyboard still won’t work before your Mac boots up, try removing the Windows partition and rebuild it without enabling BitLocker encryption.