How to Unprotect Excel Sheets and Workbooks

Sometimes, we need to protect our Excel sheets or workbooks containing important data or calculations for security issues. If you remember the password then it’s quite easy to unprotect them but if you forget then it becomes a headache.

In this Excel tutorial, we’ll show how to unprotect an Excel sheet or workbook with or without a password.

Here’s an overview of unprotecting an Excel sheet.

How to Unprotect Excel Sheets?

You can unprotect an Excel sheet with or without a password, here’s how:

Case 1: When You Know the Password

To unprotect an Excel sheet with a password follow the steps below:

Right-click on the sheet name and select the “Unprotect Sheet” option from the context menu.
Then type the password and press OK.

Alternatively, you can get the “Unprotect Sheet” option by clicking: Review > Protect > Unprotect Sheet.

Or, by clicking: Home > Cells > Format > Unprotect Sheet.

Case 2: When You Don’t Know the Password

You can unprotect an Excel worksheet without knowing the password in the following 2 ways:

i. Converting the XLSX File to a ZIP File

Right-click on the file and select Rename from the context menu.
Rename the extension from xlsx to zip and press Enter.
Open the zip file using any data compression tool, we used WinRAR.
Double-click on the xl folder to open it.
Then open the worksheets folder by double-clicking on it.Here you will get the sheet list.
Copy the sheet that is protected by pressing Ctrl + C.
Paste it in any outside folder by pressing Ctrl + V and open it with Notepad.
Press Ctrl + F to open the Find dialog box and find the text “Protect”.
Now start to select from that line’s starting tag(<) which contains the text “Protect”.
Select till that line’s ending tag (/>).
Press the Backspace key or the Enter key to delete the selection.
Then save the file by clicking: File > Save or pressing Ctrl + S.
Delete the existing protected sheet from the zip Explorer’s “worksheets” folder.
Drag the edited XML file from the outside folder to the zip Explorer’s “worksheets” folder.
Change the extension from zip to xlsx and press Enter.

Now see the sheet is unprotected.

ii. Using a VBA Code

You can only unprotect an Excel sheet without a password using VBA in Excel 2013 or earlier versions. That’s why, first, save the file in “Excel 97-2003 workbook (*.xls)” format if you are using any version after Excel 2013.

Here are the steps to unprotect an Excel sheet without using a password:

Save the Excel file in “Excel 97-2003 workbook (*.xls)” format if you are using any version after Excel 2013. If not then skip this step.
Open the xls file by double-clicking on it.
Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA window.
Click Insert > Module to open a new module.
Paste the following code in the module and run it by clicking the Run icon. Or press F5.

Sub Password_Cracker()
Dim x As Integer, y As Integer, z As Integer
Dim a As Integer, b As Integer, c As Integer
Dim x1 As Integer, x2 As Integer, x3 As Integer
Dim x4 As Integer, x5 As Integer, x6 As Integer
On Error Resume Next
For x = 65 To 66: For y = 65 To 66: For z = 65 To 66
For a = 65 To 66: For b = 65 To 66: For x1 = 65 To 66
For x2 = 65 To 66: For x3 = 65 To 66: For x4 = 65 To 66
For x5 = 65 To 66: For x6 = 65 To 66: For c = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(y) & Chr(z) & _
Chr(a) & Chr(b) & Chr(x1) & Chr(x2) & Chr(x3) & _
Chr(x4) & Chr(x5) & Chr(x6) & Chr(c)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "New Password Is: " & Chr(i) & Chr(y) & _
Chr(z) & Chr(a) & Chr(b) & Chr(x1) & Chr(x2) & _
Chr(x3) & Chr(x4) & Chr(x5) & Chr(x6) & Chr(c)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

Now see, the edit mode is enabled means the sheet is unprotected.