Tips to Resolve Bitlocker Encrypting or Decrypting Issues

How long does it take BitLocker to lock or open your drive? It might get stuck. Find out the eight tried-and-true ways to get BitLocker to stop encrypting.

Do you get this message when you try to bring the BIOS or other software up to date? It states, "MS Windows BitLocker drive encryption/decryption is currently in progress." For how long is it going on? It might get stuck. It's clear when the progress bar stays at the same number for hours or days.

How long does it take for BitLocker to decrypt? Just how long does it take to decrypt with BitLocker? Why not make it secret? 

Find out what might have made your BitLocker get stuck and how to fix the encryption or decoding problem in a tried-and-true way by reading on.

Once BitLocker has encrypted a drive, how long does it take?

That's the question you want answered once BitLocker protection refuses to relinquish control. Maybe yes or no is the response.

Your hard drive speed and the amount of data on it will determine how long BitLocker takes to protect your data. Windows 10 says that protecting 500 MB of files takes about one minute. 16 hours for 500 GB, 33 hours for 1 TB, and 67 hours or more for 2 TB or more.

The process goes faster with the Used Space Only encryption, though. BitLocker runs in the background, so you can still use your computer while it helps you.  

While BitLocker can access a drive, how long does it take? BitLocker still takes the same amount of time to decrypt.

It depends on how fast your disk is and how much data you have that you want to encrypt and decrypt. It's a sign of a problem if you have to wait hours or days to view a few gigabytes of secured data or secure 1 GB of data, even if your disk is slow. That might be what's causing it.

What messes up BitLocker when it tries to secure or decrypt?

The most common reasons why BitLocker encryption gets stuck or decoding can't move forward are listed below:

• The hard drive is broken.

• Data or disk damage

• Software issues for a short time

• Problems caused by other apps

• Not up to date enough operating system

• Computer restarting while Bitlocker is encrypting or decrypting it

It can be more than just a worry that you will lose data if BitLocker gets stuck while encrypting or decrypting a drive.

The warning "MS Windows BitLocker drive encryption/decryption is currently in progress" keeps showing up for a lot of Dell users, who say they can't update the BIOS.

Solutions to fix the error. These are the things they are.

Tips on How to Get "BitLocker Stuck Encrypting or Decrypting" to Work Again

You can fix the problem if BitLocker won't finish securing or decrypting your drive with these steps.

Method 1: Stop and start again

BitLocker usually lets you stop and start the process of encrypting or decrypting a drive. If you don't want to damage or lose data on an external disk, you should wait before taking it out.

It's pretty simple to follow the steps:

Hold down the mouse button in the BitLocker Drive Encryption box. You can get to it from the system tray on the Taskbar if it's not on the screen.

Press "Resume."

Now and then, this simple fix works, but what if you don't have the Pause button? In the last part, look at the picture. So, give these steps a shot.

Method 2: Get Back Your Locked Files

Before it got stuck, BitLocker may only have kept 2% of your data safe, but you don't want to lose that while you try to fix it. Here's software that can get back lost info.

BitLocker recovery tool BLRTools can get data back from both internal and external hard drives. It's not expensive, simple to use, and works 95% of the time in over 500 strange scenarios. This program is great for everyone because it can restore more than 1,000 different kinds of files and works with more than 2,000 devices.

Get back data from a drive that has been encrypted with BitLocker using BLRTools:

• Download Bitlocker recovery software from the BLR Tool page.

• Start the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install.

• Choose Hard Drives and Locations in the app and press "Start."

Choose the BitLocker disk.

Let the app look for info that it can get back. To get the files you want, you can sort the list by state, size, time, and tag. When you find the file you need, you can stop or pause the process. You can also use the search box.

There are pictures, videos, papers, slideshows, audio files, and other files that you can see in full screen. You can pick which files to get back and then click "Recover."

Click "Recover" again after you've found a safe spot on your computer.

Method 3: Close any apps you don't need by using Task Manager.

When third-party software get in the way of BitLocker encryption or decrypting, it could get stuck. For many jobs that run in the background, this is also true.

Stopping apps and jobs that you don't need might fix the problem. Task Manager is a good way to keep an eye on your system. If you restart your PC after BitLocker is done, the apps will start up again.

Use this method to close apps in Task Manager on Windows 10 and older versions:

• Ctrl + Shift + Esc or Alt + Delete opens Task Manager.

• Select "End task." from the right-click menu to close all apps.

• Windows 11 makes Task Manager easier:

• Your machine's same button opens Task Manager.

• Top-click End task. Next, select the app or background process to cancel.

Method 4: Turn BitLocker protection on and off

It won't help to end apps and jobs in the background in Task Manager if they don't mess up BitLocker. The next thing that makes sense is to see if the problem goes away by turning BitLocker security on and off again.

If you want to stop BitLocker from decrypting or encrypting, turn it off and then back on again:

Select BitLocker Drive Encryption from the list of options after starting up your computer.

To turn off BitLocker, expand the drive that is being secured or decrypted, click it, and then confirm your choice in the box that appears.

Press the power button again.

Now you can make BitLocker work by following the same steps. What if you can't turn it off while encrypting or decrypting a BitLocker drive? This is what your computer might look like:

Method 5: Use Manage-bde

"Manage BitLocker Drive Encryption," or "Manage-bde," is the name of a command-line tool that lets you set up BitLocker with codes that aren't available in the Control Panel.

For instance, you can change file passwords and PINs, decide how to protect the encryption key, and make an OS that is protected by BitLocker return when it starts up. You can also turn BitLocker protection on and off and stop and start encryption and decoding.

You can use this command in the Command Prompt:

• To open the app as a manager, go to Start > Command Prompt.

• You can see the BitLocker setup tool's inputs and code if you run the command manage-bde.exe -? 

• Type manage-bde -unlock <drive letter>: RecoveryPassword <your recovery key> without the < and >. In this case, the right drive letter is G. The Command Prompt doesn't care if you capitalize it or not. 

• Please run this command to stop BitLocker from locking down the volume and to decrypt it if it gets stuck: When you type manage-bde -off g:, make sure you use the right drive letter.

• Manage-bde -status is the tool to use to see how BitLocker decoding is going. "Decryption in Progress" and "Protection Off" should be shown. 

• In the command, change "off" to "on" if BitLocker is having trouble decrypting. Then, check the state again. There should be "Protection On" and "Encryption in Progress" messages.

You can just stop the process and start it again instead of turning the safety on and off. You should use manage-bde -pause and manage-bde -resume one after the other.

To learn what this setup tool can do, read the list of options. The best thing about it is that you can stop any program you run by accident.