The user encounters the issue when he fails to enable the BitLocker on the USB drives and does not see the USB in the BitLocker settings (Control Panel» System and Security» BitLocker Drive Encryption). Also, if the user right-clicks on the USB drive in the Windows Explorer, no BitLocker option is shown. Before moving on to enable BitLocker on a flash drive, make sure to create the backup of the essential data on the USB drive (as the data may be lost when attempting the under-mentioned solutions). Also, the BitLocker encryption may not work on the USB drive if you are trying to enable the encryption through a Remote Desktop Connection. Moreover, check if the USB drive has enough space available. Last but not least, make sure to update the Windows and drivers of your system to the latest build.
Solution 1: Enable the BitLocker Encryption Service
The BitLocker encryption might not work if the BitLocker Drive Encryption service is disabled (or not running). In this case, enabling the above-mentioned BitLocker service may solve the problem.
Solution 2: Uninstall the Conflicting Update
If you were able to use the BitLocker on the USB drives but now the functionality is not available, then the issue could be a result of a conflicting update. In this case, removing the conflicting update may solve the problem.
Solution 3: Edit the Group Policy
You may fail to enable BitLocker on the USB drive if the Group Policy of your system is configured to bar the system to use the BitLocker on external drives. In this context, editing the Group Policy to allow the BitLocker to be used on the external drives may solve the problem.
Solution 4: Use the Diskpart to Set the USB Drive as Inactive
You may fail to enable BitLocker on the USB drive if the USB drive is marked active in the Disk Management (because the essential OS files are placed on an Active drive). In this scenario, making the USB drive Inactive through the Diskpart may solve the problem.
Solution 5: Format the USB Drive and Convert it to GPT
If the issue is still there, then you may have to repartition and format the USB drive. But make sure to backup the essential data on the drive.
Create a New Simple Volume on the USB Device
Convert the USB to GPT Disk
If that did not do the trick, then you may have to set up the USB drive as GPT. If the issue persists, then you may try a 3rd party utility (like HDD LLF) to perform a low-level format on the USB drive and check if the BitLocker issue is resolved.
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