I recently booted up my work laptop after not using it for a few months and ran a Windows update. After shutting it down, I was prompted for a BitLocker recovery key when I started it up again. The disks were previously encrypted, and I had backed up the recovery keys, but now the identifier for the key is different. What could have caused this issue? Could the Windows update be responsible, considering I had no USB devices connected and didn't access the BIOS?
1 Answer
Yeah, Windows updates can definitely trigger BitLocker recovery prompts! This usually happens when the TPM measurements change due to updates, especially hardware-related ones like firmware updates. If you check your update history, look for anything related to firmware or TPM updates—those are often the culprits for this kind of problem. It's actually pretty normal when you haven’t updated in a while.
I tried accessing the recovery key through my Microsoft account, but I got a message saying I don't have permission to view it and to contact IT for help. Does this mean my access was disabled? Is this a standard procedure? It feels inconvenient to have to reach out for support each time this happens.