[Fix] BitLocker Waiting for Activation Error Icon on Drives in File Explorer

This article will help you in fixing “BitLocker waiting for activation” problem in Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. When this problem occurs, it shows a strange padlock icon and an exclamation mark (!) on C: drive or all hard disk drives in File Explorer (also known as My Computer or This PC).

Recently in one of my Windows 11 devices, all hard disk partitions started showing a lock icon along with an exclamation mark over the default drive icon. Following screenshot shows the lock icon and exclamation mark present on all hard disk drives in File Explorer:

When I selected a drive icon to check its details, the Details Pane displayed following error message:

This was the issue which was causing the lock and exclamation mark on all drive icons.

Somehow the BitLocker drive encryption was turned on or off on all drives and was waiting for the activation key. It might be possible that the BitLocker encryption was modified during the latest Moment 3 Update installation.

If you also encounter the “BitLocker waiting for activation” error message and the padlock icon along with exclamation mark on hard disk drives in File Explorer, you can turn on or off the BitLocker encryption to fix the issue. As soon as you turn on/off BitLocker encryption, the error message will go away.

The easiest method to enable/disable BitLocker encryption is using command-line. I turned off BitLocker encryption on all drives using a simple command and it removed the error message as well as the lock icon and exclamation mark on drives.

Following steps will help you in turning on/off BitLocker drive encryption in Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices:

1. First of all open Command Prompt as Administrator. You can use any method given in following article to launch Command Prompt as Administrator:

[Guide] Different Ways to Open Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows

2. After opening Command Prompt, run following command:

Here c: is the drive letter which is showing the BitLocker error message and exclamation mark icon. If you are facing the problem on a different drive, replace c: with the correct drive letter.

The command will take a few minutes or seconds in completing depending upon the drive total size and the data inside it.

Once the decryption finishes, the error message will disappear along with the lock icon and exclamation mark from File Explorer.

3. If you are getting the problem on other drives as well, run the manage-bde command on other drives too.

If you want to turn on the BitLocker drive encryption, you can run following command in Command Prompt:

PS: You can also search for BitLocker using Start Menu search and you’ll get “Manage BitLocker” shortcut in search results. Click on it and it’ll open BitLocker Drive Encryption page in Control Panel.

Here, you can also manage, turn on/off BitLocker drive encryption on all drives.

manage-bde -status command can also be used to check the status of BitLocker encryption on all hard disk partitions.

Also Check:

[Fix] Hard Disk Drives (Partitions) Not Visible in Computer

[Fix] Drives Appearing Twice in Navigation Pane of File Explorer