Bitlocker recovery key

I will write my challenges better. Thanks for your input Emily. I have access to my microsoft account linked to my gmail address. The challenge is something else. Please read it again below. Any tips from yourside is useful.

I have a Microsoft account linked to my Gmail address (I’ll refer to it as my Gmail account). I use this account for my personal Microsoft 365 subscription, and my yearly billing email goes to this address.

I had an ASUS laptop with Windows and Microsoft 365 installed. The laptop screen is now completely damaged after it fell, so I cannot use it. I want to access my old data from the hard drive, but when I connect the drive to another computer, it asks for a BitLocker recovery key.

I signed into my Microsoft account again using my Gmail address and went to the BitLocker recovery page, but I don’t see my old ASUS laptop listed under devices. I only see my new Lenovo laptop there.

When I try to verify my Microsoft account on the BitLocker page, Microsoft shows a prompt:

“If [my Gmail address] matches the email address on your account, we’ll send you a code.”

I requested the code, but I never receive it. It has been hours.

Later I found out that:

In November 2025, I did receive a Microsoft security code from accountprotection.microsoft.com to this Gmail address, so the address was used for Microsoft account verification before.

In December 2025, my Gmail mailbox became full, and the Gmail account was blocked and could not receive any emails until this afternoon.

I cleared some storage space in Gmail and the account is now receiving emails again.

My main questions are:

Why am I not receiving Microsoft verification codes on this Gmail address now, even though I received one in November 2025?

Does Microsoft need any time to “reset” after I cleared Gmail storage, or should I try again immediately?

How can I find the BitLocker recovery key for my damaged ASUS laptop if:

The ASUS laptop is not showing in the device list, and

  I cannot complete Microsoft account verification because the code is not arriving?
  

I am trying to:

Access my old data from the ASUS hard drive (or securely wipe it if I cannot recover it), and

Confirm whether my BitLocker key is stored under this Microsoft account.

Any guidance on how to:

Fix the verification code issue with Gmail,

Use Microsoft account recovery if verification continues to fail, or

Find the BitLocker key when the old device is not listed,

would be very helpful.

Thank you.

I wish I could share good news, but the truth is no one can get you the bitlocker key, including Microsoft staff/support. https://support.microsoft.com/windows/find-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-6b71ad27-0b89-ea08-f143-056f5ab347d6 The link here says:"Important: Microsoft Support doesn't have the ability to retrieve, provide, or recreate a lost BitLocker recovery key."

Is this where you looked? https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey

If you set it up with school or work account, it is worth checking here as well https://aka.ms/aadrecoverykey sign in with your work/school email credential in that case.

Any chance your laptop was purchased used, or already set up for you? Or was it gifted? Or have you set it up with a different account at first? The key is stored with the very Microsoft account used to set up the computer for the first time, even if you had got rid of that account and set it up with a different account. So, if your computer was set up by anyone at the store you bought it from, it would be that person's account.

I assume you don't remember opting out of not saving it in Microsoft account, and saving it to a local file instead? That's another possibility.

If you can't find it at all, there's really no way to go around it. Bitlocker means business. If it can be bypassed, then it means the encryption is not working. Your only option is to format the drive in order to use it again.