Home > Questions

How to get past BitLocker recovery screen on Dell computer?

Has anyone had the blue Bitlocker recovery screen suddenly appear on their Dell computer without you having installed or activated it? I'm stuck at the BitLocker recovery screen because I don't have the key it asked. I have lost all data on my hard drive because of this, and I think Dell might be responsible for the whole situation. Also, and more importantly, can you imagine any way for me to get my files back?

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Jenny Zeng

Jenny Zeng

Answered on Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Look for the BitLocker recovery key in all of your accounts that were logged into a Microsoft product and try them on different Microsoft websites.

The BitLocker encryption in your case is called Device Encryption. Different from the standard BitLocker encryption, it turns on automatically when you sign into your laptop with a Microsoft account or join with a corporate domain account. The recovery key will also be saved to your Microsoft account automatically.

Windows generally won't pop up the BitLocker recovery screen unless you've made changes to it, such as updating BIOS, disabling Secure Boot or Trusted Platform Module (TPM), replacing hardware, or restoring Windows using the push-button reset feature.

To get past the recovery screen, you need to retrieve the BitLocker recovery key from your Microsoft account.

It's usually in the account you used to log into Windows for the first time. Use it to log in to the links below one by one until the recovery key is found. After logging in, look for your device and the recovery key should be near it.

  • https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey
  • https://myaccount.microsoft.com
  • https://mysignins.microsoft.com/
  • https://azure.microsoft.com/en-ca/account

If you have no luck with this account, try all the other email addresses that you have used with Microsoft services. The recovery key could be a work or school account that you rarely use.

If you've tried all the possible accounts but still can't find the recovery key, consider:

  • Reactivate your One Drive account if it's locked, then log into the given links again to see if the recovery key shows up.
  • Enabling Secure Boot.
  • Uninstall the recent update.
  • Rolling back to the previous BIOS version.
  • Reinstalling Windows.

Also read:

BitLocker Password & Recovery Key Not Working, How to Fix?

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

create windows 10 installation media

How to Create Windows 10/11 Installation Media/Bootable USB?

This post provides three ways to create Windows 10/11 installation media, you can follow the detailed steps to create a Windows 10/11 bootable USB via the windows media creation tool, Rufus, and CMD.

icloud backup

iCloud Backup: A Feature for iPhone and iPad to Back Up

This post is an introduction to the iCloud Backup function on iPhone and iPad, including what the iCloud Backup is, how to back up iPhone/iPad with iCloud, how to restore from iCloud Backup, etc.