Mac Can’t Recognize My BitLocker-Encrypted Disk, What Should I Do?

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MacBook laptops and their operating systems do not directly support BitLocker-encrypted disks. This causes a drive access restriction whenever you want to access the important files you want to access on this disk.

Accessing your important data on this encrypted disk quickly becomes a hassle you will prefer not to deal with. However, there is a solution to this access problem with M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac software.

This article considers how to read and write BitLocker drive on Mac with M3 BitLocker Loader software to access your data on the disk, how to decrypt BitLocker drive on Mac, and all other features from the M3 BitLocker Loader software.

What to Do When Mac Does Not Recognize BitLocker-Encrypted Drive

One of the main reasons why you might be experiencing this block might be due to a recent macOS security feature. For macOS Catalina and above, the security feature requires full access to a drive before you can gain access to it. This is the reason why you need to use third-party software to access it for full disk access.

Below are two recommendations on how to make your Mac recognize your BitLocker-encrypted drive. These recommendations are:

  1. M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac software

There are different third-party software that offers compatibility with BitLocker-protected disks for Mac users. These tools provide read-write functionality for your drive on Mac. M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac is one effective tool that allows you to safely unlock your BitLocker encrypted drives on your Mac.

Here are the steps you will need to go through to unlock and recognize your BitLocker-encrypted disk on your Mac:

  1. Download the M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac free on the internet and install the software on your Mac. Follow the installation wizard to continue this installation.
  2. Insert the BitLocker-encrypted drive to your laptop and launch the M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac from the application folder.
  3. On the M3 BitLocker Loader window, select the BitLocker-encrypted drive and enter the password to unlock it.
  4. Click on the ‘Unlock’ button to complete the mounting process of your BitLocker-encrypted drive. This gives you the read-write functionality to operate on the drive right on your Mac. Other functions you can perform on your drive include edit, delete, rename, Airdrop, tag and so much more.
  5. After completing all the operations, click on the ‘Lock’ button on the program to re-enforce the lock functionality.
  6. From the main interface, select the ‘Eject’ button to eject the drive safely from your Mac. You can go ahead to unplug it right after the safe eject process.

Going through the steps above provides you with an option to decrypt and access your drive on Mac. This easy-to-use method makes your drive natively available for read-write functionality.

  1. Formatting option on Mac

In a situation where you do not have any data on the BitLocker-encrypted drive, or you have already backed the drive up, formatting this drive on your Mac can help to decrypt it for your use. Formatting a drive helps you get rid of the BitLocker protection that is in place. It also makes it usable on your Mac when you reconfigure the format to a macOS-recognized format. If this scenario fits a situation you are in, follow the following steps to format your drive:

  1. Navigate to Disk Utility and select the drive with the BitLocker encryption. You should see this option under ‘External’ on the left sidebar.
  2. On the top menu, select ‘Erase’ to begin the formatting process. a small dialog box should appear asking for the format type and some other information. Select the format type you desire and select Erase to continue.
  3. On completion of the formatting process, navigate to your Mac home screen and access the drive directly without any restriction.

This method provides an out-of-the-box solution as it delivers you access but at a cost. It removes the BitLocker security feature and deletes the files that are on the flash. As a result, we don’t suggest you do so.

M3 BitLocker Encryption feature

The M3 BitLocker software also provides an encryption feature for the security of your external drive on Mac. A useful and free software makes all BitLocker features compatible with your Mac. For the encryption process, follow the steps below:

  1. From the M3 BitLocker Loader software on your device, launch the software to kick-start this process. Note, this process requires an operating system higher than High Sierra for drive encryption to be successful.
  2. Plugin the external drive you wish to encrypt to your Mac. The external storage device can be USB drives, SD cards, thumb drives, external hard drives, and so on. Note, the external drive should have NTFS, FAT32/exFAT file system type.
  3. On the M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac menu, select ‘Encrypt’ and select ‘Encrypt’ in front of the storage device you wish to encrypt.
  4. On prompt, enter the password you wish to set for this drive. This will be the password for decrypting the drive later
  5. Click ‘Save to a file or ‘Print the recovery key’ to save the recovery key. The recovery key is useful to unlock your drive in a scenario where you forgot your password.
  6. Select ‘Start encrypting’ to finish this encryption process.

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