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Easily Remove Excel Password Protection

You are here: Home / Excel / Easily Remove Excel Password Protection
Easily Remove Password Protection from Excel Files
August 11, 2022 by Mynda Treacy

In most cases you can easily remove Excel password protection if you’ve forgotten the password.

However, the likelihood of your success depends on which password protection method was used, as some of the four options below are more robust than others.

Excel password protection is available for:

  • Sheets
  • Workbooks
  • File Open
  • File Edit

Each method requires a slightly different solution to remove the password.

Before we get started, keep in mind that password protection for worksheets and workbooks was designed to prevent users breaking your files, as opposed to keeping your data confidential.

If you’re relying on it for this purpose, you might want to reconsider your approach. This post is written on the basis that you’re being ethical and only unlocking your own files where you’ve forgotten the password and not trying to hack into confidential files.


Table of Contents

  • How to Remove Excel Passwords Video
  • Remove Excel Worksheet Password Protection
  • Unprotect Workbook Structure Without Password
  • Unprotect Read Only Workbooks Without Password
  • Unprotect Excel Files Without Password

Watch the Video

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Remove Excel Worksheet Password Protection

Excel worksheet protection is applied via the Review tab > Protect Sheet:

Easily Remove Excel Password Protection

A password is optional:

Excel Passwords 02

If you enter a password here and later forget it, it’s easy to unlock the protected sheet.

Unprotect Sheets Without Password

Step 1: The first thing you’ll want to note is which sheet in the file contains the password protection. Notice there are three sheets in the file. The second sheet called ‘Sales Data’ is the one protected.

Excel Passwords 03

Note: if you rearranged the sheets in your file after inserting them, the numbers will not be in sheet tab order. To find out the sheet number, right-click a sheet tab > View Code:

Excel Passwords 04

Step 2: Close the file and make a copy just in case you make a mistake!

Step 3: Rename the file and change the extension to .zip

Excel Passwords 05

Tip: if you can’t see the file extensions, go to the View tab in your File Explorer and check the box ‘File name extensions’:

Excel Passwords 06

Step 4: Drill down through the zip file folders: xl/worksheets/ and select the .xml file for the sheet containing your password.

Excel Passwords 07

Notice the sheet tab names are not visible here, hence why you need to know which sheet you applied the password to.

Step 5: Copy the sheet .xml file to another location outside of the zip folder and open it in a text editor like Notepad.

Step 6: CTRL+F to find the text ‘sheetProtection’. Delete everything between the < > tags. See highlighted example below:

Excel Passwords 08

Step 7: Save the file and copy it back to the xl/worksheets folder, replacing the original file.

Step 8: Rename the file type from .zip back to .xlsx

Now you can open the file and the worksheet protection will be gone.

If you have multiple sheets with worksheet protection, you can repeat steps 5 through 7 above for each sheet.

Unprotect Workbooks Without Password

Workbook protection is applied via the Review tab > Protect Workbook:

Excel Passwords 09

It enables you to protect the structure of the workbook, preventing sheets being added, removed, hidden/unhidden etc.

Excel Passwords 10

The process for unprotecting a workbook is similar to unprotecting worksheets.

Step 1: Close the file and make a copy just in case you make a mistake!

Step 2: Rename the file and change the extension to .zip

Step 3: Drill down through the zip file folders: xl/ and select the workbook.xml file.

Excel Passwords 11

Step 4: Copy the workbook.xml file to another location outside of the zip folder and open it in a text editor like Notepad.

Step 5: CTRL+F to find the text ‘workbookProtection’. Delete everything between the < > tags. See highlighted example below:

Excel Passwords 12

Step 6: Save the file and copy it back to the /xl/ folder, replacing the original file.

Step 7: Rename the file type from .zip back to .xlsx

Now you can open the file and the workbook protection will be gone.

Unprotect Read Only Workbooks Without Password

Read only protection is set up when you save the file. Click on the Tools drop down > General Options:

Excel Passwords 13

When opening a Read Only password protected file, you’ll be prompted to enter the password. If you don’t have it, or you’re happy to open it in Read Only mode, you can click the Read Only button

Excel Passwords 14

To remove the password on a Read Only file:

Step 1: Close the file and make a copy just in case you make a mistake!

Step 2: Rename the file and change the extension to .zip

Step 3: Drill down through the zip file folders: xl/ and select the workbook.xml file.

Excel Passwords 11 Again

Step 4: Copy the workbook.xml file to another location outside of the zip folder and open it in a text editor like Notepad.

Step 5: CTRL+F to find the text ‘fileSharing’. Delete everything between the < > tags. See highlighted example below:

Excel Passwords 15

Step 6: Save the file and copy it back to the /xl/ folder, replacing the original file.

Step 7: Rename the file type from .zip back to .xlsx

Now you can open the file and the Read Only protection will be gone.

Tip: Another option with Read Only files is to open the file in Read Only mode, then Save As a copy without the password.

Unprotect Excel Files Without Password

If your file is password protected and there is no option to open it in Read Only mode i.e. you get the dialog box below when opening the file:

Excel Passwords 16

You cannot use any of the techniques above. If you try to change the file type to .zip and then open the zipped folder, you’ll get this error:

Excel Passwords 17

Password protection at the file level is the most secure way to protect your data, but it’s still not completely secure.

You can purchase third-party apps to unlock Excel files. Just be sure you’re being ethical and only unlocking your own files.

Fortunately, I’ve never needed to remove a password at this level, so I don’t have any firsthand experience of apps I can recommend.

Easily Remove Password Protection from Excel Files
Mynda Treacy

Microsoft MVP logo

AUTHOR Mynda Treacy Co-Founder / Owner at My Online Training Hub

CIMA qualified Accountant with over 25 years experience in roles such as Global IT Financial Controller for investment banking firms Barclays Capital and NatWest Markets.

Mynda has been awarded Microsoft MVP status every year since 2014 for her expertise and contributions to educating people about Microsoft Excel.

Mynda teaches several courses here at MOTH including Excel Expert, Excel Dashboards, Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Allan B

    September 21, 2023 at 6:25 am

    This worked like a champ to unprotect worksheets as long as you follow the directions explicitly. I was having trouble until I saved the modified xml files in a separate area and then use copy/replace as you demonstrated. You saved me many hours of work! Thanks.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      September 21, 2023 at 8:57 am

      Awesome to hear, Allan!

      Reply
  2. Rodrigo

    August 31, 2023 at 4:11 am

    Hi, I am trying to unprotect sheets and workbook, I remove the text as you explained but finally when I try to open the xlxs a warning message saying that the file is corrupted, is shown and no way to open or repair. Can you help me on this
    Rgds

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      August 31, 2023 at 9:17 am

      Not sure, Rodrigo. If you’re happy to post your question on our Excel forum where you can also upload your file and we can help you further.

      Reply
  3. David

    April 9, 2023 at 7:17 pm

    Hello.

    Thank you for your helpful tips. Please, is there a way I can unlock a protected header/footer in Excel?

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      April 10, 2023 at 9:36 am

      Hi David,

      I believe the header/footer protection falls under the workbook protection, so once you’ve removed that level of protection, you should be able to access them. If you’re still stuck please post your question on our Excel forum where you can also upload your file and we can help you further.

      Mynda

      Reply
  4. Mahmudul Hasan

    April 6, 2023 at 1:25 pm

    another easy way of unprotected excel file is—–Just upload your protect file is google drive, edit anything. Than save it. It will become an unprotected sheet. This techniques only applicable for worksheets/workbooks lock

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      April 6, 2023 at 1:41 pm

      Thanks for sharing

      Reply
  5. Jason Grant

    March 1, 2023 at 3:30 am

    I’ve tried this method over the years and have been successful in the past but now when I change the extension to zip and open it I’m not seeing those xml files? I’ve tried 7zip, winrar, etc. Any idea?

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      March 1, 2023 at 8:53 am

      Hi Jason,

      That’s usually an indication that the password is at the file level, as per the last example in the tutorial above.

      Mynda

      Reply
  6. E

    February 23, 2023 at 2:19 am

    Very clearly explained. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      February 23, 2023 at 8:57 am

      Glad you thought so, thank you!

      Reply
  7. Susan M

    December 23, 2022 at 6:31 am

    Thank you so for your newsletter today that led me back to this post. We work from spreadsheets that were saved & updated & copied & pasted multiple times over the last 20 years, and sometimes we find a random locked sheet in the workbooks. This worked perfectly so I was able to fix one of our files today and saved us the hassle of copying and renaming and reinserting the worksheet from another similar file. Thanks for all the wonderful Excel tips and best wishes for 2023.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      December 23, 2022 at 7:56 am

      Wonderful to hear, Susan! Best wishes for 2023 to you too 🙂

      Reply
  8. Alan James

    August 12, 2022 at 8:52 am

    Password protected Excel files are AES encrypted. Providing you use a reasonable length password then no tool is going to crack it.

    See How to encrypt Excel Workbook

    “Microsoft uses AES with a 128bit key, plus SHA1 salt and cipher block chaining for encryption

    Currently, no practical methods can break or crack the algorithm provided by Microsoft.”

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      August 12, 2022 at 10:29 am

      Interesting, Alan. Thanks for sharing. Wikipedia also has some informationhere on the history and different types of encryption used by different versions of Excel.

      Reply

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