Today in this article, we’ll show you how to back up the BitLocker drive encryption key. When you have a recovery key with you, turning off BitLocker for a drive becomes easy. So let’s see the how-to part:
Backup BitLocker Drive Encryption Recovery Key
- Type bitlocker in Start search and from search results, pick Manage BitLocker entry. 
- In the BitLocker Drive Encryption window, look for the drive whose recovery key you’re required at the moment. Click on Back up your recovery key. 
- Moving on, in the following window, you have three options to back up your recovery key. You can save it to Microsoft account to a text file, or you can print it to get a hard copy. We chose to save it to a text file, which was the simplest bet. Save the text file to a most convenient location, which you couldn’t forget, for example, My Documents. 
- Once you have saved the text file, open it, and scroll down to look for the recovery key. In this way, we’ve backup the recovery key for a fixed operating system or an external drive/USB drive. 
If you wish, you can also save it to your Microsoft account, provided you are using Microsoft Account to sign in to your Windows 11/10 PC.
Check this if you receive a Your Recovery Key Couldn’t Be Saved To This Location error message. Also read:
How to find BitLocker Recovery Key with Key ID in Windows 11Why Microsoft stores your Windows Device Encryption Key to OneDrive.