Written by
Wilsey YoungSummary: This post shows how to mount BitLocker encrypted drives on a Mac computer with read-and-write access support. With the help of the M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac, you can easily encrypt an external drive with BitLocker on Mac.
A lot of Windows users find their BitLocker encrypted drives unmountable on a MacBook or other macOS computers, just like the situation described in a forum:
I always encrypt my hard drives with BitLocker on my desktop installed with Windows 10 Pro Edition, and I bought a MacBook Air recently. I used BitLocker to encrypt one of my USB flash drive this morning and I was planing to deal with the files in it on my new MacBook, but I found it unmountable anyways. Can anyone please tell me what happened? How to open a BitLocker encrypted drive on my MacBook? Any help would be appreciated!
This post first explains why the BitLocker encryption feature is unavailable in macOS. It also offers a tutorial on how to use mount BitLocker encrypted drives on Mac computers with the help of M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac, a powerful BitLocker for Mac tool that can also help encrypt external drives with BitLocker on macOS computers.
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What is BitLocker and why is it secure?
BitLocker is a special full-disk encryption feature built-in certain versions of the Windows operating system, designed to protect data by encrypting entire drives or specific volumes, effectively preventing the data from unauthorized access, especially when the device is lost, stolen, or improperly decommissioned.
BitLocker uses the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm and works perfectly with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), to ensure unauthorized users cannot access your data without the corresponding credentials, such as password, PIN, or recovery key.
The BitLocker recovery blue screen will be triggered if BitLocker detects any significant hardware changes, system updates, BIOS setting changes, suspicious and unauthorized access, and more. In this situation, any user who attempts to access the BitLocker encrypted drive will be prompted to enter the correct BitLocker recovery key.
To sum up, BitLocker offers robust and enhanced security for sensitive data, ensuring that any unauthorized access to your data is extremely difficult, making it a popular choice for businessmen, students, and anyone who attaches great importance to their precious data.
Does BitLocker work on Mac?
BitLocker is a special encryption feature developed by Microsoft specifically for Windows. Since it relies on Windows architecture, it's not natively available for macOS, so you may encounter the popping-up error below if you insert a BitLocker encrypted drive into a Mac: 
Although Apple offers its own encryption system, FileVault, which serves a similar purpose by providing full-disk encryption on macOS, some users prefer handling their daily tasks on Windows and macOS computers. Furthermore, those new macOS users may wonder how to open BitLocker encrypted drives on a Mac computer.
Is there any way to use BitLocker on Mac?
Although BitLocker isn't natively supported on macOS, there are third-party applications that allow Mac users to access and manage BitLocker-encrypted drives, and encrypt external hard drives with BitLocker.
In this case, M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac is what you can rely on, it enables you to mount a BitLocker-encrypted drive as the physical drive on your Mac computer. You can open the BitLocker encrypted drive in Finder to read, write, delete, edit, modify, and rename files in the drive.
In addition, with the help of the M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac, you can use the BitLocker Drive Encryption algorithm to encrypt an external drive on a Mac computer. What's more? The external drive encrypted by this professional BitLocker tool can be normally accessed on Windows with a password, this means you don't have to download any other software to do it.
This tool bridges the gap between Windows and macOS. It is compatible with macOS Sequoia 15, macOS Sonoma 14, macOS Ventura 13, macOS Monterey 12, macOS Big Sur 11, macOS Catalina 10.15, macOS Mojave 10.14, macOS High Sierra 10.13, and Mac OS X. It also supports Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 Mac and Intel Mac.
You can share this wonderful BitLocker for Mac tool with your friends!
M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac: How to mount BitLocker encrypted drive on Mac?
Follow the tutorial below to mount a BitLocker-encrypted drive in Finder like your Mac's native drive. The volume mounter option allows you to easily open, preview, edit, delete files, etc. in Finder.
- Download, install, and launch M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac on your Mac computer.
- Insert a BitLocker encrypted drive into your Mac.
- Click the "Open" icon in M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac.
- Choose the "Volume mounter" option.
- If the system extension is not enabled before choosing this option, you will be prompted to allow system extension.
- Enter the password or BitLocker recovery key) and click "Unlock" to mount the BitLocker encrypted drive on your Mac. The lock icon will be shown as the unlocked state(as in the picture shown below).
- The "Remember this password in my keychain" option can save the password in an encrypted file so that you can retrieve the password after forgetting it.
- The BitLocker encrypted drive will be automatically opened in Finder if it's successfully mounted, you can deal with this BitLocker encrypted drive the same way as with your Mac's native drive, including open, preview, read, write, edit, delete, tag files, and airdrop files, etc.
- When you are done with handling the BitLocker encrypted drive using M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac, please click the "Lock" button in the main interface to lock the BitLocker encrypted drive and then click the "Eject" button to remove it from your Mac safely.
M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac: How to encrypt an external drive on Mac?
You can follow the steps below to encrypt an external drive on a Mac. Before getting started, you need to make some preparations for using the BitLocker drive encryption feature on a Mac:
- Prepare for an external drive, such as a USB drive, flash drive, or external hard drive.
- The file system of the external drive must be NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT.
- BitLocker drive encryption requires macOS 10.13 and later version.
Tutorial to encrypt the external drive with BitLocker on Mac:
- Download and install M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac.
- Connect the external drive you want to encrypt with the Mac computer.
- Launch M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac.
- Click the "Encrypt" button in the toolbar.
- Choose the partition that you want to encrypt and click “Encrypt.”
- Enter the password as required.
- Back up the BitLocker recovery key, which can be used to unlock the drive when you forget the password.
- Click “Start encrypting” to let the encryption begin.
Conclusion:
In summary, while BitLocker isn't a built-in feature for macOS, M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac allows you to access the BitLocker-encrypted drives on a Mac with ease, and you can use the BitLocker encryption feature to encrypt your USB flash drive or other external drives.
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