Event details
I have stumbled in a wall with an Acer Laptop stuck in the Hello screen stating "something happened and your PIN is not available". There is a link stating "reconfigure your PIN" which after 2 clicks goes to a windows stating "you do not have internet - reconnect and try again". Nothing works any further.
The windows 11 disk is Bitclocker encrypted and any attempts to boot in Safe Mode end into the Bitlocker screen asking for the KEY to unlock.
Fortunately the user of the Laptop does not know what User account was made on this windows. Remembers the Password (probably because she is using the same one everywhere) but not the User account at Microsoft. And since this laptop is the only machine ever used by this User , she never logged in from another machine. She never remembers activating Bitlocker but as she Uses MSOffice of some type the Bitlocker might been activated automatically and then the KEY should be in her MS Account.
So, the devil's circle is formed - no working PIN to log in - no Bitlocker KEY to decrypt the drive - No MS account name to log in and get the Bitlocker KEY to decrypt.
Files on this laptop are very much needed!
Please advise what will be the next step to brake this circle!
- Trevor_RusherJun 09, 2026
Community Manager
Hi Stan, this AMA is specifically pertaining to the expansion of Microsoft Defender to AWS RDS. Please reach out to Microsoft Support for help with your query.