Windows - stuck decrypting drive, can't unpause

A.L 0 Reputation points
2025-12-16T04:46:06.2866667+00:00

I wanted to dual boot my new laptop with another operating system as well as Windows. However, I couldn't do this because the drive was encrypted by BitLocker.

So, I went to disable drive encryption. It got stuck and, following advice from other forum posts, I tried to pause and resume the decryption. Problem is, after pausing it, it will not let me resume.

manage-bde -status says that the drive is 12.0% encrypted with a status of "Decryption Paused," but if I try to do manage-bde -resume C: it tells me "Device encryption can't be turned off while this device is being encrypted. Please try again later."

Finally I tried resetting the entire device through recovery settings (there's no important data on the device currently), but it remained at 12% encryption with decryption paused even after doing that. What can I do?

User's imageUser's image

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Security and privacy
0 comments No comments
{count} votes

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Ron P 385 Reputation points
    2025-12-16T09:30:19.98+00:00

    Windows "Cloud Reset" or "Reset keeping my files" options do not actually format the hard drive or clear the BitLocker metadata. Since you mentioned there is no important data, the cleanest method is to completely wipe the drive and then reinstall Windows. The steps are as follows: https://woshub.com/clean-instal-windows-11-guide/

    0 comments No comments

  2. Carl-L 4,310 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-12-16T09:35:36.0433333+00:00

    Hello A.L,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. It's my pleasure to help you today.

    I understand that you are having issue with decrypting your drive. Based on the size of the drive, decrypting might take from a couple of minutes to a few hours. So, sometime even when the task seems not to be progressing, it is still working, just the progress bar is not updated.

    Regarding your photos, the decryption is currently paused, but there might be some conflict that made the system assume that encryption is in progress and prevent you from resume the decrytion. In this case, please try those steps to fix it.

    • Disable device encryption
      1. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption
      2. Turn it off if it is on. The reset of your computer might have reenable it.
      3. Try the command again.
    • If you cannot turn off Encryption in Settings
      1. From the prompt in the photo, type manage-mde -off C:, this will force disable BitLocker. The decryption should continue though.
    • Check group policy.
      1. Type group policy in the search bar and press Enter.
      2. Go to Computer configuration > Administrative templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption
      3. Check and make sure there are no policy that enabling BitLocker.
    • Run the commands in Safe Mode. If all above fail, please try to go to Safe mode and try to run the commands again.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    0 comments No comments

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.