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Opening BitLocker Encrypted SSD

Hello everyone,


I am a new user of apple's ecosystem, recently I bought my fist macOS device ( MBP 13" M1 CPU ) which slowly slowly I am figureing out, I have a 5TB HDD which I encrypted with BitLocker and now I want to move some files to my Mac and I simply cannot get it to work, on windows everything is fine .

Could you please point me in the right direction ?

Posted on Mar 7, 2021 6:17 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 20, 2021 4:28 PM

Hi iamXulescu,


BitLocker is a proprietary encryption solution provided and supported by Windows. AFAIK no other operating systems can natively unlock or decrypt BitLocker-protected drives or volumes. If you want to move the data to macOS, you'll need to turn off BitLocker on the drive first.


In terms of encryption solutions that both OSes understand, you could look into third-party encryption solutions such as Veracrypt. You'll need to install the appropriate software on both macOS and Windows for this to work.

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 20, 2021 4:28 PM in response to iamXulescu

Hi iamXulescu,


BitLocker is a proprietary encryption solution provided and supported by Windows. AFAIK no other operating systems can natively unlock or decrypt BitLocker-protected drives or volumes. If you want to move the data to macOS, you'll need to turn off BitLocker on the drive first.


In terms of encryption solutions that both OSes understand, you could look into third-party encryption solutions such as Veracrypt. You'll need to install the appropriate software on both macOS and Windows for this to work.

Mar 9, 2021 8:06 AM in response to iamXulescu

Hello iamXulescu,


Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

If we understand your post correctly, You have a 5TB HDD which you've encrypted with BitLocker and you want to move some files to your Mac but you're unable to get it to work. We're happy to help!


If you're trying to move files from your Windows computer to your Mac then the article below will help you to migrate the contents.

Move your data from a Windows PC to your Mac


If you're trying to move some files from BitLocker to your Mac we recommend contacting the manufacturer of the drive for some assistance.


Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!

Mar 9, 2021 8:13 AM in response to iamXulescu

Take a look here


https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/can-i-open-a-bitlocker-encrypted-usb-flash-disk-on-mac


https://www.m3datarecovery.com/mac-bitlocker/open-bitlocker-encrypted-usb-drive-mac-osx.html


Before installing anything on your Mac, you may want to consider moving the data to an unencrypted drive that can be read by Mac OS. And, you can also check into the Mac OS’s capabilities to encrypt.




Mar 20, 2021 1:21 PM in response to babowa

thank you for your answer .

the idea is that I am migrating from windows to Mac slowly slowly , I'm pretty much all setup for the moment the only windows device in my home for the moment is my personal pc . that 5tb hdd is may main storage device which I'm using everywhere I travel due to the nature of my work so I would love it if I could have it being read by windows and Mac at the same time . I will have to make some research if I can encrypt it with my Mac and have it read the other way around , but one thing is for sure , my hdd has to be encrypted and accessible on both os .

Mar 20, 2021 2:47 PM in response to iamXulescu

Understood; I believe another problem may be the formatting on your external. I'm not at all familiar with Windows anything, but i know there are only a couple of formatting choices if your want to be able to read from both a PC and a Mac.


So, what is the formatting on that external drive? (I am not referring to the encryption).


https://www.macworld.com/article/234613/how-to-format-a-thumb-drive-for-both-mac-and-windows.html


https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-hard-drive-220151en/

Opening BitLocker Encrypted SSD

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