Has anyone ever permanently lost data because of issues related to the BitLocker recovery key? I've been coming across situations where BitLocker gets enabled automatically, the recovery key isn't saved properly, or changes in the BIOS/TPM lead to people being locked out. When this happens, there's often no way to recover the data besides wiping the drive. I'm curious to know how often these scenarios occur. Are they more frequent among individual users or small businesses? What are the common points of failure when people encounter these issues? I'm not looking for workarounds, just trying to gauge how prevalent this problem is.
5 Answers
In my experience managing about 1000 endpoints with Microsoft BitLocker, I've never run into a situation where we have permanently lost data. We're using tools like MBAM for Windows 10 and Intune for Windows 11, and if set up correctly, it won’t encrypt unless the recovery key can be saved. However, I have heard of issues when the recovery object is deleted.
We've had some close calls, but we've always managed to find the recovery keys. One incident involved a decommissioned computer that someone needed data from months later. Thankfully, we had the BitLocker key saved in our RMM backups. If you don't have a solid plan for saving these keys, you're taking a big risk.
Exactly! Always keep the recovery info in multiple locations. One time, we managed to retrieve a key just in time—definitely a learning experience!
I think most lockouts happen to small and medium-sized businesses, especially when they enable BitLocker accidentally and treat the recovery key as just another checkbox. It’s kinda like putting away the manual and getting stuck later.
In the past five years with around 2500 endpoints, I've only seen one case of irrecoverable data loss due to BitLocker. It was a crazy chain of errors, mostly due to a tech not following procedures correctly during a remote help session. One rare issue that causes lockouts is firmware updates—those happen maybe once a month across the machines we manage.
I once had a customer who waited months on a motherboard repair, during which their data was locked. It wasn't permanent, but it was frustrating for them since they didn’t understand the lock situation initially.
I guess it can also depend on how devices are managed. Sometimes, if a device isn't active, clean-up rules can remove the backup too.