Error when trying to save Bitlocker recovery key to Microsoft account

Question

It's not wise to store the recovery key on flash drive, for example. That means anyone that steal my computer and my flash drive can easily decrypt my recovery key. That defeats the purpose of encrypting it in the first place.

So I tried to save my Bitlocker recovery key somewhere, and a nice place to put it is of course my Microsoft account.

Yet, when I try I get a message "Can't save to your Microsoft account":

How can I successfully save my Bitlocker key to my Microsoft account?

My problem is similar to what's discussed here at answer.microsoft.com.

Solution

Go to settings (in Windows 10 it's in lower right corner), and select Account.

So settings -> all settings -> accounts.

Turns out there is a text saying that they need to verify my identity.

I click on that and put my pin.

I can now save my Bitlocker key to my Microsoft account.

It's kind of strange though. I always use my pin when I am logging in. So go figure.

Comments

[Jeter-work]

When you log in, MS live.com (or whatever they call it now) verifies your login credentials and authenticates you to your computer. Note how I did not say that it authenticates you to your MS account. That is separate. That is a good thing.

[PeterI]

After some bios / TPM updates I cleared the TPM and needed to verify the account. This fixed my issue.

[James Crowley]

On my build of Windows 10 you can find this by going to "Settings", "Accounts" and then under "Sync your settings" the "Passwords" option had the message about needing to verify the account.