BitLocker encrypted drive won't unlock with correct password, what to do?

Updated by Tim to Home > BitLocker Recovery Tips on April 1st, 2020

I have an external hard drive encrypted by BitLocker, and works fine until I reinstalled the OS one day. I am petty sure the password is correct, but always give me error: The password you entered is incorrect. How should I unlock this BitLocker encrypted external hard drive?

There are four solutions to solve 'BitLocker encrypted drive won't unlock with correct password' problem.

Solution 1: Try recovery key

BitLocker recovery key is another option to unlock BitLocker encrypted drive. Follow below steps to unlock BitLocker encrypted drive with recovery key:

Step 1: Open My Computer (or This PC) on the desktop.

Step 2: Double-click on the BitLocker encrypted drive in Windows explorer.

Step 3: Click "More Options".

Unlock BitLocker encrypted drive

Step 4: Click "Enter recovery key".

Unlock BitLocker encrypted drive

If you cannot find recovery key, refer to How/Where to find BitLocker recovery key?

Step 5: According to the BitLocker recovery key ID, enter the corresponding 48-digit recovery key and then click Unlock.

Enter recovery key to unlock BitLocker encrypted drive

Solution 2: Try BitLocker encrypted drive on another Windows computer

Sometimes, BitLocker encrypted drive can be unlocked with correct password or BitLocker recovery key on another computer. For example, if you encrypted drive with New Encryption Mode built-in Windows 10, the BitLocker encrypted drive cannot be unlocked with correct password or BitLocker recovery key on Windows 7/8 computer.

Solution 3: Try M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows

Step 1: Download, install and launch M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows on your computer.

Step 2: Click Unlock.

Step 3: Enter the password to unlock BitLocker encrypted drive.

If your BitLocker encrypted drive won't unlock with the above three methods, try solution 4 to recover data.

Solution 4: BitLocker data recovery

Unlike common data recovery, BitLocker data recovery requires intact BitLocker metadata and password or BitLocker recovery key to decrypt data from BitLocker encrypted drive so that lost data can be recovered properly.

M3 BitLocker Recovery is a professional BitLocker data recovery software which can recover lost data from formatted, corrupted, failed, inaccessible, unknown, deleted or lost BitLocker encrypted partition, recover lost data after BitLocker failure, recover lost data after BitLocker error, recover lost data after BitLocker drive encryption failed, interrupted, froze, hung, recover lost data after BitLocker encrypted drive decryption failed, interrupted, froze, hung as long as we provide the correct password or 48d-digit recovery key.

Steps to recover data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive:

Step 1: Download, install and launch M3 BitLocker Recovery on your computer.

Step 2: Select the corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive and click Next to continue.

BitLocker data recovery software - M3 BitLocker Recovery

Step 3: Enter the password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key.

Decrypt data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive

Tips: If M3 BitLocker Recovery doesn't accept correct password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key, it means BitLocker metadata has been completely erased so that there is no way to decrypt data.

Step 4: Scan the lost data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive.

Recover lost data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive

Step 5: After all your files are found, preview the documents, photos and play the videos, audios to see if your lost files are recoverable.

File preview of M3 BitLocker Recovery

Step 6: Select the needed files and click "Recover" to start the recovery.

If the recovered files cannot be opened, check "Revert decryption" option under Help menu and recover these files again.