How to Remove Password from Excel File (3 Easy Ways)

There are many reasons you can use a password to protect a file or a spreadsheet limiting accessibility or editability of the file. And in many cases, you may also need to remove them. Maybe you need to edit the worksheet further. Or simply because you don’t need the restriction anymore. Either way, In this article, you will learn how to remove a password from an Excel file that is encrypted with a password or contains a password-protected worksheet.

How to Remove Password from Excel File: 3 Easy Ways

If your whole file is password protected and you need to insert a password every time you open the file, these methods will help you to remove the password from the Excel file. For example, the first file from the download section. To remove the password from the file, follow one of these methods.

1. Remove Password from Excel File Using Info Option

This method will focus on removing passwords from the Excel files encrypted with passwords. To do that, first, we will be using the Info panel. Follow these steps to see how.

Steps:

• First, open the file.
• Then insert the password (“exceldemy” for the file in the download section) and click on OK. The spreadsheets will open up.

• Now, click on the File tab from your ribbon.

• After that, click on Info from the panel on the left-hand side.

• Next, select Protect Workbook from the right.
• Then click on Encrypt with Password from the drop-down menu.

• Now remove the password from the Password field.

• Finally, click on OK.

Now you can reopen the file without any password. As long as the password field is empty you can access it without any password from this point on. This is one way to remove the password from an Excel file.

Read More: How to Recover Excel File Password

2. Using Save As Option to Remove Password from Excel File

In addition to the previous method, there is another one you can use to remove a password from an Excel file encrypted with one. In this method, we will be using the Save As option to save the file by removing the password.

Steps:

• First, open the file.
• Then insert the password and click on OK. (The password is “exceldemy” for the file from the download section)

• Now, click on the File tab from the ribbon.

• Then, click on the Save As option from the panel on the left-hand side.

• Now in the Save As box, navigate the file to where you want to save it. Then click on Tools from the bottom as shown in the figure below.
• After that, click on General Options from the drop-down menu.

• As a result, the General Options box will appear. Here, remove texts(passwords) from Password to open and Password to modify fields.

• After that click on OK and then Save.

Henceforth, you can open the saved file without any passwords.

Read More: How to Unprotect Excel Workbook without Password

3. Zipping Excel File to Remove Password from Protected Worksheet

If you have forgotten the password used to protect an Excel worksheet or workbook, you can unprotect it using this method. Here you only need to have software that can extract .zip files (eg: WinRAR). Remember to back up the file in case it gets corrupted.

Steps:

• First, go to the View tab in your file explorer and make sure the File name extensions option is checked.

• Now change the file extension to .zip from .xlsx format.

• At this instant, windows will show you a warning box for changing the file extension. Click on Yes.

• Now, open the .zip file. Then enter the file named xl.

• Now, if the protection is on the workbook level, open the workbook.xml file in NotePad. Alternatively, if the protection is on the worksheet level, double-click on the worksheets file.

• After that, select the password-protected worksheet. Our workbook here has only one spreadsheet. I am selecting the one as shown in the figure.

• Now, click and drag the file to copy it to the file explorer. Then open the copied file as a Notepad.

• After that open up the search tool in Notepad by pressing ‘Ctrl+F’ on your keyboard.
• Now in the Find what field type protection and click on Find Next.

• As a result, Notepad will find the line where the word is written.

• Now select the entire line starting with the less than sign (<) and ending with the greater than sign (>). Include the signs in the selection.

It should start from here.

And end here.

• Now press on Backspace or Delete on your keyboard to remove the selection.
• After that save and close the notepad.
• Copy the edited Notepad file into the .zip file where we took it from. (xl>worksheets>). Click on OK if an Archive name and parameter box appear.

• Now close the .zip file.
• After all of it is done, change the file extension back to .xlsx.

• At this instant, the warning box will appear again. Click Yes on it.

As a result, these steps will remove the password from the desired Excel file. Now, open the file and you will find yourself able to edit the spreadsheet again if you have all the steps done right.

Read More: How to Unprotect Excel Workbook with Password

Remove Password from Protected Worksheet in Excel

For some files like the second one in the download section, you don’t need any password to access the file. But these are password-protected from editing a spreadsheet further or creating or editing sheets in a workbook. To remove a password from protected spreadsheets in an Excel file, follow one of these methods. One can be used only if you know the password. And other can be used even if you forgot your password.

To use this method, you need to remember the password. To remove a password from an Excel file in a protected spreadsheet, follow these steps.

Steps:

• First, go to the Review tab in your ribbon.
• Now, from the Protect group, select Unprotect Sheet.

• As a result, a box named Unprotect Sheet will appear. Now put in the password of your spreadsheet (“exceldemy” if you are using the one from the download section).

• After that, click on Ok.

This will remove the password from the spreadsheet in the Excel file. You can now edit the spreadsheet again to your liking.

Things to Remember

• Using the Save As feature method will save a different copy of the file without any password. The original file will stay password protected.
• For all the methods, except the last one, you need to remember the password.
• The conversion method only works if spreadsheets are password-protected, not the files.
• Always back up your file before changing the extension of your files, in case the files get corrupteAlways be careful while selecting the line during removing it from the text file in the last method. Selecting extra portions or lesser ones may corrupt the file.

Download Practice Workbook

You can download the workbook used for demonstration here and practice yourself while you go through the steps described in each process. Use “exceldemy” as a password.

Conclusion

These are all the methods you can use to remove the password from the Excel file. Hope you have found this guide detailed enough to be helpful and informative. If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know below.