If you use BitLocker to encrypt your drives, you need to enter the password every time you want to open and access the data. This helps protect your data from unauthorized access. However, if you want a bit more convenience, you can configure BitLocker to auto unlock the drive as soon as you log into your user account. This gives you the benefit of BitLocker security and ease of access to the drive as soon as you log on without using the BitLocker password. For example, this is particularly useful for things like USB drives, external HDDs, etc.
In this tutorial, I will guide you through the processes of configuring BitLocker to automatically unlock a drive as soon as you log into your account in Windows. Let’s get started.
Before You Start
- You need to manually unlock the drive to configure the auto unlock feature. For that, you need the BitLocker password.
- You need administrator rights to modify BitLocker settings.
- The below steps are tested to work on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Auto Unlock BitLocker Drive in Windows
- First, unlock the drive if it is not yet unlocked.
- Press the Start key on your keyboard.
- Search and open “Control Panel“.
- Choose “Large icons” from the “View by” dropdown menu.
- Click the BitLocker Drive Encryption option.
- Expand the drive you want to turn on auto-unlock.
- Click the Turn on auto-unlock link.
- With that, BitLocker will automatically unlock the drive as soon as you log into your user account.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
The first thing you should do is unlock the BitLocker drive if it is not already. To do that, open the File Explorer and double-click the encrypted drive. Enter the BitLocker password and click the “Unlock” button when prompted.
Note: If you don’t have the password, use the recovery key to unlock the drive and change the BitLocker password. Once done, follow the below steps.

Once the drive is unlocked, you need to open the Control Panel. Press the Start key on your keyboard, search for “Control Panel” using the search bar, and click the top result to open the Control Panel.
By default, the Control Panel will be in the “Category” view. Click the “View by” dropdown menu on the top-right corner and choose the “Large icons” option.

Next, click the “BitLocker Drive Encryption” option in the Control Panel window.

The above action will open the “BitLocker settings” page. Here, expand the drive for which you want to enable auto-unlock. Next, click the “Turn on auto-unlock” link next to the drive.
Note: If you don’t see the “Turn on auto-unlock” option then the drive is not unlocked. Open the File Explorer and unlock the drive as shown in the first step.

That is it. From now on, the BitLocker drive is unlocked automatically as soon as you sign in to your user account.
Remember that this setting only applies to your computer and user account. If you plug in the drive into another computer or log in with another user account, you have to manually unlock the drive. The drive will not be unlocked automatically. The same applies when you reinstall Windows.
Wrapping Up — Unlocking BitLocker Drive Automatically
As you can see, it is pretty simple to turn on the auto-unlock BitLocker drive in Windows. Do keep in mind that after configuring the auto unlock settings, if you use the same drive in some other system, log into your system using another user account, or reinstall Windows, you have to manually enter the password.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.