BitLocker drive Encryption stuck in Windows 11

1. Pause and Resume encryption

Start by pausing and resuming the encryption using the manage-bde tool.

manage-bde stands for Manage BitLocker Drive Encryption. It is a command-line tool that can be used to check the BitLocker status of a drive, encrypt or decrypt a drive, manage access to BitLocker-protected data, etc. Several users have reported that using the tool helped when BitLocker was not making any progress.

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

manage-bde -status X:

Replace X: with the drive letter of the affected drive.

In the results, check the Conversion Status and Percentage Encrypted fields. This helps determine whether the encryption process is still running or has been paused.

If the encryption process is paused, resume it by running:

manage-bde -resume X:

Note: In the above command and the commands below, replace X: with the drive letter of the affected drive.

If BitLocker is not paused but the encryption percentage has remained unchanged for an unusually long time, reboot your PC, then try pausing and resuming the encryption process.

In an elevated Command Prompt, run:

manage-bde -pause X:

Then run:

manage-bde -resume X:

2. Check the drive for file system errors

If BitLocker encryption is still stuck, check the affected drive for file system errors. First, check Event Viewer for any disk-related errors.

Press Win + X and select Event Viewer. Go to:

Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > BitLocker-API > Management

Look for recent Error or Warning events related to the affected drive. Also check Windows Logs > System for disk, storage, or NTFS-related errors.

If the logs report bad blocks or repeated disk errors, the problem may be related to the storage device rather than BitLocker itself.

You can also use CHKDSK to check the affected drive for file system errors. Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

chkdsk X: /f

The command checks for and fixes file system errors. If the Event Viewer logs report disk errors, run:

chkdsk X: /f /r

The /r parameter makes CHKDSK look for bad sectors and attempt to recover readable information. Please note that this can take considerably longer, especially on large drives.

Once CHKDSK completes, restart your PC and check the BitLocker status:

manage-bde -status X:

If the encryption percentage starts increasing, allow BitLocker to complete the process. If BitLocker is still stuck, check the health of the drive using a disk diagnostic tool. If the diagnostic results indicate that the drive is failing, consider replacing it.

3. Decrypt the drive and start a fresh encryption cycle

If the drive doesn’t report file system errors but BitLocker still stops at the same point, you can decrypt the drive and start a fresh encryption cycle. Use this as a last resort, as decryption can take considerable time.

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

manage-bde -off X:

This starts decrypting the drive and turns off BitLocker. Wait for the decryption process to complete before starting encryption again. You can check its progress by running:

manage-bde -status X:

Once the drive shows that it is fully decrypted, start BitLocker encryption again:

manage-bde -on X:

BitLocker Decrypting stuck in Windows 11

To fix a BitLocker drive if it is stuck on decrypting, try pausing and resuming the decryption using the manage-bde -pause and manage-bde -resume commands. You can also check the drive for file system errors using Event Viewer and CHKDSK, as explained in the BitLocker encryption stuck section above. If these steps don’t help, try the following solutions.

1. Restore partition size and resume decryption
2. Shrink the volume
3. Re-encrypt the drive, then decrypt it again

Let us look at these in detail.

1. Restore partition size and resume decryption

One user reported that BitLocker decryption became stuck after he resized the partition while decryption was in progress. Restoring the partition to its previous size and then resuming decryption solved the issue. Other users have also reported similar results with this workaround.

If you’re facing a similar situation, resize the partition back to its previous size using Disk Management.Once you have restored the partition, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

manage-bde -resume X:

Then check the decryption status:

manage-bde -status X:

If the decryption percentage starts changing, let BitLocker finish the process.

2. Shrink the volume

Another user reported that BitLocker decryption became stuck after restarting the PC for a Windows Update. After the usual BitLocker commands failed to resume the process, the user shrank the volume below the remaining percentage left to decrypt using Disk Management. He could then resume decryption from the BitLocker management interface, and the process completed successfully.

1. Press Win + X and select Disk Management.
2. Right-click the affected BitLocker volume and select Shrink Volume.
3. Enter the amount by which you want to shrink the volume and click Shrink. For example, in the reported case, decryption was stuck at 88.9% on a 512 GB drive. The user estimated that around 450 GB had already been decrypted. Because the usable partition was about 470 GB, they shrank it by approximately 25 GB, reducing the partition to around 445 GB.
4. Once the volume has resized successfully, open the BitLocker management interface and click Resume.

3. Re-encrypt the drive, then decrypt it again

If BitLocker decryption remains stuck after trying the above solutions, you can try re-encrypting the drive and then starting the decryption process again.

Before proceeding, back up your important data. This process requires the drive to be encrypted and then decrypted again, so make sure you have enough time for both operations to complete.

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

manage-bde -on X:

Allow BitLocker to complete the encryption process. Once the drive is fully encrypted, start the decryption process again:

manage-bde -off X:

Then check the decryption status:

manage-bde -status X:

If the decryption percentage starts changing, allow BitLocker to complete the process.