Comments on: How to protect and unprotect Excel sheet with or without password

The tutorial shows the detailed steps to protect Excel sheet with or without passwords. It also explains how to unlock Excel spreadsheet without password if you forgot or misplaced it. Continue reading →

Comments page 10. Total comments: 391

  1. Its not extra-ordinary. Its average. Its OK

    1. I'm looking forward to seeing you post a better article on this topic...

  2. My excel workfile (2013) is password protected for open.
    No problems with this.
    However in some unknown way my workbook structure has become protected (meaning I can't add a new worksheet etc.) When I try to add a new worksheet by clicking on the + symbol at the end of all the worksheet tabs - the + symbol is greyed out.
    Any solution to this would be appreciated.
    I'm hoping to avoid the slow solution of copying all the worksheets individually to a new workfile.
    I am very hesitant to download any non Microsoft software to unprotect my workfile and MS don't provide any support in this area.

    1. (just replying to my own post).
      I have now given up on this and taken the slow solution by copying all my worksheets to a new workfile.

  3. Does this work for Excel 2013 and 2016? If not, is there tutorial available for these versions?

    1. Hi Mark,

      To unlock Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 worksheets, you can save the file as Excel 97-2003 workbook (*.xls), run the macro to unprotect it, and then save it back as an .xlsx file.

      1. Thank you so much Svetlana Cheusheva...
        it's working..

  4. thank you it was very easy and perfect

  5. Hi

    it is very worth for me

    thanks

  6. This is helpful, thanks for the post!

  7. How to unlock workbook password if I forgot the password

  8. i forgot my pass what should i do?

  9. Thanks a lot...

  10. Hi, I wanted to in-protect workbook, I tried all the options but not worked, file saved in Excel 2013

    Kindly help

  11. thank you

  12. It really worked. Thanks a lot

  13. This is awesome. Thanks a ton!!

  14. This is ridiculous. In "Copy the protected sheet contents to another worksheet", it fails to say that you cannot highlight locked cells, which if someone has the know-how to lock the sheet, they will most likely have locked certain cells/columns/rows. Therefore you can only highlight up to the next locked cell, which if column B, will highlight only A1. Pretty useless.

  15. Very informative
    thanks

  16. thank you!

  17. I am trying to unprotect a workbook but it is not letting me with the above methods. When I click on file, the protect workbook button is highlighted in yellow and if I click on it just wants to make further protection

  18. Will this work for a word document?
    thanks

  19. How to unlock excel

  20. Thanks a lot. I found the VBA code a good solution for me.

  21. Nice article, just wanted to tell the Author great job on helping me crack this stupid workbook

  22. These tips really worked for me. I was able to unlock a spreadsheet just based on these steps. Thanks

  23. How do you open a workbook for which you forgot the password?

    1. Hi Don,

      Worksheet-level protection does not prevent you from opening a file, it only prevents you from editing a specific worksheet.

  24. You rock. Thanks so much for sharing this information!

  25. THANKU

  26. Awesome! Thank you.

  27. your direction to open VBAProject(*.xls) Password protected sheet didn't work. I have attempted open a Password protected sheet which used excel 2007. After you right click on the VBAProject I was able to see Insert option but Module part is grayed out not available to insert the code mentioned. :(

    When you have a chance please reply.
    Thanks

    1. Double click on the worksheet so that i displays to enter the code. Just copy and paste the code there it works fine.

    2. save your file as 97-2003 version, follow the process as mentioned in: Unlock Excel spreadsheet with VBA code (for Excel 2010 and lower)
      Then the password should be removed.
      simply save the file back to 2007 or higher version.
      done

      1. CANNOT CONVERT THE LOCKED EXCEL TO LOWER VERSIONS

  28. How can you run the code if you cannot open the file?

    1. Hi!

      The code published in this article is intended for unprotecting worksheets, not workbooks. Worksheet level protection does not prevent you from opening a file and running the macro. As for removing the workbook encryption or workbook password protection, sorry we don't know a way to do this with VBA.

      1. If you have workbooks please try to share. I will retrieve the password and give you asap. Thank you.

        1. Hi

          Can you please support me on this

  29. Genius !!
    Thanks.

  30. Actually Very Nice information. I opened password Protected Excel file in just 5 min using your techniques.Thank You.

  31. Hi,

    Many thanks it works very easily and really use full

    Again Thanks

  32. wow it's amazing yaar very good thanks for sharing this information

  33. Nice information. Thank you

  34. when try to run this code excel workbook is not responding could you please help

    1. I'm having the same issue. I converted my file to .xls and it hasn't stopped running.

  35. Thank you very much madam

  36. Great article! if you have a version that is newer than 2010 you can try "save as" as a 2003-2007 workbook, then run the macro to unlock and then "save as" back to version you want. Worked for me.

    1. This worked perfectly! I had a 2016 workbook, so saved as "2003-2007 Workbook", ran the macro on all the sheets, then saved as the original version, overwriting it. I then made sure that I noted the password that I used for the sheets, before re-protecting it!

      Thank you very much, Reddcliffe :)

  37. Works like a charm for me. Thank you!

  38. I am trying to crack password but process is not completed .Not found any password or error. process is stuck.

  39. Very helpful blog.. Thank you so much Guys

  40. It works, thanks for this very useful and educative information.

  41. how setting protection of excel sheet

  42. how setting unprotected of excel sheet

  43. Hi, I am trying to unprotect an excel document without knowing the password. It has been saved in excel 2010 and I have tried copying and pasting your password breaker code but I get an compile error - sub or function not defined.

    Any ideas why this is happening?

    1. what was the answer.... were you able to get past that error? I have the same

    2. i already try, and no need to type the password. after run (password was remove too, but only one sheet. so we need to do same thing many time for all sheet)

  44. I have run the above code for unlocking excel sheet, its work for 1 file but its not working for another file. Please help to unblock the same.

    1. Go back to the open Excel workbook, and switch to the next sheet before running the next code. This worked for me.

  45. Great job!! Thumbsup

  46. super super..very useful one.

  47. Worked like a charm - thanks

  48. You rock man!

  49. Good

  50. Even if "select locked cells" is not allowed , you can still copy and paste the sheet contents by selecting all desired columns and holding down SHIFT while you right click and select COPY from the context menu

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