14 DAY TRIAL // One of the updates that Microsoft recently released for Surface 2 tablets is apparently messing up the BitLocker recovery key configuration, so some users are finding their devices completely locked.
As PC Pro is reporting, users turned to Microsoft’s Community forums to tell Redmond about the issue, asking for advices and recommendations on how to address the bug until a fully working patch is being released.
Here’s what one of the affected users wrote in a post:
“At the weekend our two Surface 2 devices got a firmware update installed. My Surface 2 updated and rebooted fine with no issues. But my wife's Surface 2 (64GB model) asked for the Bitlocker Recovery key at boot after the update, and now every time it reboots. Although I have the key this is very poor end user experience. Especially as I am trying to sell her the Surface 2 over an iPad. Any assistance in this would be most welcome.”
While some Microsoft support engineers recommended affected users to reset their devices, this particular workaround doesn’t seem to be solving the problems for some.
Others have turned to pretty extreme solutions, such as keeping the Bit Locker key, which you can find by logging into your Microsoft account, in their wallets, just in case the device reboots all of a sudden.
“I'm experiencing the same prompt for the BitLocker recovery key on my Surface 2 intermittently, starting last Thursday (in a Microsoft meeting on campus, no less). It's happened twice so far. I've screenshotted the recovery key information to my phone, but this certainly shouldn't be happening,” another user explained.
Microsoft is already aware of the issue and is now working on a fix, so expect the company to address the bug in the next Patch Tuesday rollout scheduled to take place on December 10.