Why BitLocker Protection Status OFF and How to Resume It

Deepti Tripathi
3 min readMay 20, 2024

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bitlocker protection status off

What does it mean when the BitLocker protection status off? When I restart BitLocker, what are the steps to take? It is necessary for you to read this post if you are also interested in these questions.
There are some users who discover that the BitLocker protection status is off, and they are unsure of what this indicates. An actual example can be found on the Microsoft forum, which is that:
An extensive deployment of BitLocker on laptops results in a significant number of endpoints responding with a BitLocker protection status that is set to off, despite the fact that encryption is set to on. In what kind of situation would this occur?

BitLocker Protection Status: OFF

BitLocker is a comprehensive disc encryption feature that comes bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system. When the BitLocker protection status is disabled, it typically indicates that BitLocker has been temporarily halted. As a result, the drive does not currently have BitLocker encryption enabled. There may be potential security concerns.
A lot of different endpoints show that the BitLocker Protection Status is disabled more than once.

Here are a few possible situations:

Group Policy Configuration: If you don’t set up BitLocker’s Group Policy settings correctly, it might report that protection is “off” even though encryption is on.

BitLocker can give incorrect status reports if there are problems with the software or systems it uses. There could be problems with drivers not working with BitLocker, problems with other security software, or bugs in BitLocker.

Drive unlocked or suspended: Occasionally, the BitLocker protection status may appear as “Off” if the drive has been temporarily unlocked. This can happen when the user manually suspends BitLocker protection or when the system enters a suspended state.

Hardware changes or failures can sometimes result in BitLocker

incorrectly reporting the protection status as “off,” even when encryption is enabled. For instance, in cases where the TPM configuration is altered or if there is a hardware issue with the TPM module, BitLocker might fail to accurately determine the encryption status.

Here are some helpful suggestions:

If you lose your data on a drive that isn’t encrypted with BitLocker right now, you might be able to get it back with the BLR BitLocker recovery tool. This software is very good at getting back lost data.

You can turn on BitLocker security in three different ways:

Method 1: Enabling BitLocker Protection through the Control Panel

One method to activate BitLocker protection status is by resuming BitLocker protection.

Step 1: Open the Run box by pressing the Win+R key. Then, type “control” in the box and press Enter to open the Control Panel.

Step 2: Adjust the view to Category and navigate to System and Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Step 3: Find the drive you have encrypted and select Resume Protection. Please click on “Yes” to confirm your selection.

Method 2: Enabling BitLocker Protection using PowerShell

Furthermore, the resume BitLocker command line can be utilized. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to execute the BitLocker PowerShell commands to resume the protection.

Step 1: Locate the Start menu and right-click on it. From the options that appear, choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) and confirm by clicking Yes to run the programme.

Step 2: In the elevated PowerShell window, enter the command provided and press Enter to resume BitLocker for the drive.

Substitute the X in the commands above with the appropriate drive letter of the unlocked encrypted drive.

Method 3: Enabling BitLocker Protection using Command Prompt

When you’re in the Command Prompt terminal, you can use the resume BitLocker command. You can use this step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Open the search box and type CMD. Next, right-click on the Command Prompt window and choose the option to Run as administrator. Please select Yes in the UAC window.

Step 2: In the elevated Command Prompt window, enter the command provided and press Enter to continue with BitLocker.

In conclusion

This post provides a clear explanation of what it means when the BitLocker protection status off, along with three effective methods to resume BitLocker protection.

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Deepti Tripathi

I work as a Product Consultant. When it comes to MS Outlook and Office 365, I write about the newest tech tips and offer unique solutions.