How to stop BitLocker stuck on decrypting or encrypting

Method 1: Pause BitLocker decryption and resume

Once started, you cannot cancel the BitLocker decryption process. However, if it becomes stuck, you can pause it and then attempt to resume decryption to see if it responds. Here’s how to stop and resume the BitLocker decryption process on Windows 11/10/8/7:

1. Click Pause in the BitLocker Drive Encryption dialog window.

2. Then click Resume.

3. In the search box on the taskbar, type “Manage BitLocker” and then click it from the results.

4. On the “BitLocker encrypted drive” window, select “Suspend Protection.”

5. Click “Yes” to confirm that you want to stop BitLocker decryption temporarily.

6. Select “Resume Protection.”

 

If the above steps cannot resume BitLocker decryption on an external drive, please try the following steps:

1. Safely eject the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive.

2. Plug the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive into another USB port. Or connect the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive to another computer.

3. Right-click on the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive in My Computer, select “Unlock” and then enter the password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key to decrypt again.

 

Method 2: Recover data from the partially decrypted BitLocker drive

1. Download, install, and launch iBoysoft BitLocker Recovery on your computer.
(For internal drives, create a Bitlocker recovery boot disk first.)

2. Select the corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive, and then click Next to continue.

3. Enter the password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key and click OK.

4. Scan the lost data from the corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive.

5. After your files are found, please select them and click “Recover” to start data recovery from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive. 

6. If some recovered files cannot be opened, check the “Revert decryption” option under the Help menu and recover them again.

 

Credit: https://iboysoft.com/bitlocker/bitlocker-decryption-stuck.html