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 9. Total comments: 391

  1. i m forget the password Excel-10 version and can't change the content what are the protected. how can i unprotect this file without password.pls help to advise on this.

  2. i m forget the password Excel-10 version and can't change the content what are the protected. how can i unprotect this file without password.

  3. Hey i got all the steps correctly & got the password also but when i press "okay" it goes back to the VBA page & doesn't open - please help.

  4. very good its help and i re generate the password

  5. Just to say, this tip was a life saver today, thanks so much!

  6. Thanks a lot, so very helpful

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

  8. now i have my meal, paid work for 1 minute work, thanks very helpful article.

  9. I have an excel file but i forget the password and i am unable to open this file. can anyone help me?????

  10. It works! Thanks!

  11. Very helpfull guide
    Thanks

  12. So simple and easy to break the password work college put on sheets to be clever, clever and play Mr Important over us. Except he left the company without giving us the passwords. Now that IS clever, clever!

  13. thanks, I have a question. If I forgot password which any sheet hidden, What should I do ?

  14. thanks a lot, so helpful

  15. I forgot the pw and my Excel in Version Microsoft 2013

  16. I have forgot my excel sheet password so how to remove the same?

  17. Hi
    Excellent Information, :)
    Thanks a ton !

  18. Ablebits, Thank you so much for this article. Extremely helpful.

  19. Thank you! worked like a charm!!!

  20. I am trying to unlock a password protected workbook. I saved in 97-2003 excel, then went to view code. A pop-up saying, VBAProject Password. I clicked cancel, received a system error, clicked ok. Module is greyed out. I tried to copy the code referenced and paste but it will not allow me to paste. Please help

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

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

  22. 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.

  23. 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..

  24. thank you it was very easy and perfect

  25. Hi

    it is very worth for me

    thanks

  26. This is helpful, thanks for the post!

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

  28. i forgot my pass what should i do?

  29. Thanks a lot...

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

    Kindly help

  31. thank you

  32. It really worked. Thanks a lot

  33. This is awesome. Thanks a ton!!

  34. 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.

  35. Very informative
    thanks

  36. thank you!

  37. 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

  38. Will this work for a word document?
    thanks

  39. How to unlock excel

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

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

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

  43. 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.

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

  45. THANKU

  46. Awesome! Thank you.

  47. 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

  48. 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

  49. Genius !!
    Thanks.

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

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