How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 1 of 20

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How to protect and unprotect Excel sheet with or without password

Feb by Svetlana Cheusheva Excel, Excel tips, Excel tutorials 93 Comments

10

The tutorial shows how to protect Excel sheet with or without passwords. It also explains how to unlock Excel Custom Search
spreadsheet without password if you forgot or misplaced it.

When sharing your worksheets with other people or sending your Excel files outside of your
organization, you may want to prevent other users from changing cells that shouldn't be changed, Excel: featured articles
and also from moving or deleting important data in your worksheet or workbook.
Сompare 2 columns in Excel for
Luckily, Excel provides a quick and easy way to lock a sheet or password protect an entire matches and differences
workbook to prevent accidental or deliberate changes in their contents. Compare 2 Excel files/sheets for
differences
Excel worksheet protection - the basics
Merge multiple sheets into one
How to password protect an Excel sheet
Merge Excel rows without losing
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data
How to unlock Excel sheet with password
Merge 2 columns in Excel
How to unprotect Excel sheet without password
Excel DATEDIF - calculating date
How to protect a workbook in Excel difference in days, weeks, years

Unlock a protected workbook How to use Find and Replace in

Excel most efficiently
Password protect an Excel file from opening
Compare two columns and
Password protect a workbook from modifying
remove duplicates

Change text case to UPPERCASE,

What you need to know about Excel worksheet lowercase, Proper Case

protection Count distinct and unique values

in Excel
Worksheet protection in Excel is not a security feature. It's is not actually intended to prevent
Сreate calendar in Excel (drop-
people from accessing data in a password-protected worksheet. Why? Because Microsoft Excel
down and printable)
uses a very simple encryption algorithm for worksheet protection. Even when you protect your
Excel worksheet with a password, that password is very easy to break. Excel INDEX / MATCH functions
instead of VLOOKUP
In older versions (below Microsoft Excel 2010), it doesn't even matter how long and complex your
password is. Anyone who has at least some basic knowledge of VBA can crack it in minutes (here's COUNTIF in Excel - count if not
an example of the VBA code that easily cracks passwords in Excel 2010 and lower versions). blank, greater than, duplicate or
unique
The recent versions of Excel 2013 and 2016 use more sophisticated methods of sheet protection,
but they are also vulnerable and can be unlocked without knowing a password. In other words, if
Outlook: featured articles
someone really wants to get access to a protected sheet, they will.
Configure Outlook Junk Mail Filter
So, does this mean that Excel worksheet protection is absolutely pointless? Not at all! It makes to stop spam email
sense to lock Excel sheets to avoid accidental changes in the sheet contents. A common example is
Merge duplicate contacts in
Locking formula cells to prevent inadvertent erasure or modification of formulas.
Outlook
The bottom line is - lock an Excel spreadsheet to prevent other users from accidentally tampering Write persuasive request letters:
with your data, but never store sensitive information in your Excel sheets. letter format, samples and tips

If you strive to ensure the maximum security protection for your Excel files, be sure to do all of Remove duplicate emails in
the following: Outlook quickly and safely

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 2 of 20

1. Use the modern versions of Excel 2010, Excel 2013, and 2016 with enhanced data encryption Сreate and use e-mail templates
mechanisms. in Outlook

2. Protect your sheets with strong passwords that include different types of alpha numeric
characters and special symbols. At that, try to make passwords as random as possible, for
example by using our password generating tool.
Excel formulas
3. Protect the workbook structure to prevent other people from adding, moving, renaming,
deleting or unhiding your sheets. Excel functions
4. For workbook-level security, encrypt the workbook with different passwords from opening and Excel PivotTables Excel charts
modifying. Excel Vlookup
5. If possible, store your Excel files with sensitive information in a secure location, e.g. on an Excel duplicates
encrypted hard drive. Merge data in Excel
Excel formatting

How to protect Excel sheet Excel consolidation Excel date

Excel time Excel tutorials
To protect a sheet in Excel 2016, 2013 and 2010, perform the following steps.
Excel tips Google Sheets
1. Right click a worksheet tab at the bottom of your screen and select Protect Sheet… from the
Google Docs Outlook duplicates
context menu.
Outlook templates Video
Or, click the Protect Sheet button on the Review tab, in the Changes group.

Sign in
Register

Log in

2. In the Protect Sheet dialog window, do the following:

To password protect your Excel sheet, type a password in the corresponding field. Be sure
to remember the password or store it in a safe location because you will need it later to
unprotect the sheet.

If the worksheet protection is nothing more than a precaution against accidental modification
of the sheet contents by yourself or by the members of your local team, you may not want to
bother about memorizing the password and leave the password field empty. In this case,
unprotecting the sheet takes just a single click on the Unprotect Sheet button on the ribbon or
in the sheet tab's right-click menu.

Select the actions you allow the users to perform.

By default, the following 2 options are selected: Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells. If
you leave only these two options selected, the users of your sheet, including yourself, will
be able only to select cells (both locked and unlocked).

To allow some other actions such as sorting, filtering, formatting cells, deleting or inserting
rows and columns, check the corresponding boxes.

If you don't check any action, users will only be able to view the contents of your Excel
sheet.

Click the OK button.

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 3 of 20

3. The Confirm Password dialog box will pop-up prompting you to retype the password so that an
accidental misprint won't lock your Excel sheet forever. Retype the password and click OK.
Done!

How to unprotect Excel sheet

As you have just seen, it's very easy to password protect a sheet in Excel. Unprotecting a
spreadsheet is even easier, provided that you know the password. Though, unlocking an Excel
spreadsheet without password is no big deal either :)

How to unprotect Excel sheet with password

If you know the password for the protected sheet, removing protection is a matter of seconds. Just
do any of the following:

Right-click the sheet tab, and select Unprotect Sheet… from the context menu.

On the Review tab, in the Changes group, click Unprotect Sheet.

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 4 of 20

On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format, and select Unprotect Sheet from the drop-
down menu.

If you are dealing with a password-protected worksheet, Excel will ask you to enter the
password. Type the password and click OK.

If the worksheet was not protected with password, clicking the Unprotect Sheet button is all it
takes to unlock the sheet.

How to unprotect Excel sheet without password

As mentioned in the beginning of this tutorial, Excel worksheet protection is quite weak even in the
recent versions of Excel 2013 and Excel 2016. If you need to edit a password protected sheet but
you cannot remember the password, try to unlock that Excel spreadsheet by using one of the
following methods.

Unlock Excel spreadsheet with VBA code (for Excel 2010 and lower)
If you are using Excel 2010 or older version, you can unlock a password-protected sheet with the
following macro.

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor.

2. Right-click the workbook name on the left pane (Project-VBAProject pane) and select Insert >
Module from the context menu.

3. In the window that appears, paste in the following code:

Sub PasswordBreaker() ?
'Breaks worksheet password protection.

Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer

Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer

On Error Resume Next

For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66

For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126

ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _

Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)

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If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then

MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _ 
Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)

Exit Sub

End If

Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next

Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next 
End Sub
 

4. Press F5 or click the Run button on the toolbar and wait a couple of minutes. The macro will
report a cracked password, which is not the original one (always some combination of A's and
B's), but nevertheless it works.

If you are not very comfortable with VBA, you can find the detailed guidance in the following
tutorial: How to insert and run VBA code in Excel.

If you need to unprotect Excel sheet without password in the modern versions of Excel 2013 and
Excel 2016, try one of free tools, for example Password Protection Remover add-in for Excel.

Copy the protected sheet contents to another worksheet

Another way (or rather a workaround) to unlock an Excel sheet that was protected with password
is to copy its entire contents to a new sheet. Here's how:

1. Open the password-protected sheet.

2. With the cursor positioned in cell A1, press Shift + Ctrl + End to select all used cells in the
worksheet.

3. Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected cells.

4. Create a new sheet in the current workbook or in a different workbook (to create a new Excel
file, simply press Ctrl + N ).

5. In the new blank worksheet, place the cursor in A1 and press Ctrl + V to paste the contents of
the password-protected sheet.

Notes:

This method works only if the Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells actions are allowed in
the protected spreadsheet.

If the password-protected worksheet has external links to other sheets or workbooks, you
may need to re-create those links manually.

You can use Paste Special to copy / paste the column widths so you won't need to adjust them
in the new sheet manually.

How to protect a workbook in Excel

Apart from protecting the sheet contents, you may also want lock the entire workbook to prevent
users from adding, moving, renaming or deleting worksheets, and viewing hidden sheets.

To protect the workbook, perform the following steps:

1. On the Review tab, in the Changes group, click the Protect Workbook button.

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 6 of 20

2. Under Protect workbook for, select one of the two options, or both:

Check the Structure box to protect the structure of a workbook. This will prevent the
following actions:

Viewing hidden worksheets.

Renaming, moving, hiding or deleting sheets.

Inserting new sheets and chart sheets. However, users will be able to insert a chart in an
existing worksheet.

Moving or copying sheets to another workbook.

Check the Windows box to retain the size and position of workbook windows. This will
prevent users from moving, resizing, minimizing, or closing the workbook windows.

Note. The Windows option is not available (greyed out) in Excel 2013 and Excel 2016, as
shown in the screenshot above. It is because Microsoft introduced the Single Document
Interface in Excel 2013, where each workbook has its own top-level window that can be
minimized, restored, and closed.

3. In the Password box, type a password, and click the OK button.

As indicated on the dialog window, a password is optional. However, if you do not enter a
password, then anybody will be able to unlock your workbook with a button click.

4. Retype the password in the Confirm Password window and click OK. That's it!

To remove the workbook protection, do the following:

1. Click the Protect Workbook button again (in a locked workbook, it is highlighted in green like in
the screenshot below):

2. Type the password if prompted.

3. Save the workbook.

Important note! Protecting the workbook structure should not be confused with workbook-
level password encryption that can prevent other users from opening or/and modifying your
workbook. If you are interested in this level of workbook protection, check out the next sections
of this tutorial.

If you store your workbooks in a shared location such as a company local network, and you want
to prevent other users from viewing your Excel files, you can encrypt your workbook with
password that won't even let other people open it.

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 7 of 20

1. In the workbook you want to encrypt, click File > Info, click the Protect Workbook button, and
select Encrypt with Password in the drop-down menu.

2. The Encrypt Document window will appear, you enter a password in the Password box, and click
OK.
.

By default, Microsoft Excel uses AES 128-bit advanced encryption, and you can supply a
password up to 255 characters.

3. Retype the password in the Reenter password box, and click OK.

4. Save your workbook.

To remove the workbook encryption, repeat the above steps, delete the password from the
Password box, click OK, and then save your workbook.

Tip. In addition to password-protection, you can secure your Excel files further by using the
BitLocker Drive Encryption, which is available in the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of
Windows Vista and Windows.

If you don't mind other users opening your Excel file but you want to prevent them from making
any changes to your workbook, perform the following steps.

1. In your Excel workbook, click the Save As button, and then click the Tools button at the bottom
of the window.

2.

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In the Tools drop-down menu, select General Options.

3. In the General Options dialog window, type a password in the Password to modify box.
Additionally, you can select the Read-only option, which is recommended.

Tip. If you want to protect your Excel file both from modifying and opening, type the
passwords in the Password to open and Password to modify boxes. It can be the same
password of two different ones.

4. Retype the password in the Confirm Password dialog, and click OK. If you've entered 2 passwords
in the previous step, you will be asked to confirm both.

5. Finally, click the Save button in the Save As dialog.

To remove the password protection, repeat the above steps, and delete the password(s) from
the Password to open and Password to modify boxes. Then click the Save button to save your
workbook.

This is how you can protect an Excel sheet and lock the entire workbook from changing or
opening. However, sometimes you may not want to go that far and rather lock only certain cells in
your sheet. And this is exactly what we are going to discuss in the next article. I thank you for
reading and hope to see you on our blog next week.

How to create formulas in Excel

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 9 of 20

Microsoft Excel formulas with examples

How to display formulas in Excel

How to copy formulas in Excel

How to hide and lock formulas in Excel

How to edit, evaluate and debug formulas in Excel

Excel formulas not working, not updating, not calculating

1 A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 25, 2016 at 1:02 pm

how to unprotected the work book without any password, if password is forget

Reply

2 A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 26, 2016 at 5:48 am

how to unprotected the work book if password is forget.

Reply

Svetlana Cheusheva says:

April 26, 2016 at 9:34 am

Hi!

If yo are using Excel 2010 or earlier, you can unprotected the workbook without password
by using this script.

For Excel 2013 or 2016, you can use one of free password protection removers, for example
this one:
http://www.spreadsheet1.com/password-protection-remover-free-office-excel-add-in.html

Reply

Yogesh Garg says:

July 29, 2016 at 9:52 am

how to unprotected the work book which is in a format made by others.

Reply

3 A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 27, 2016 at 4:19 am

without any software can we have unprotected workbook

thanks for cooperate with me

Reply

4 chisom israel onah. says:

May 2, 2016 at 8:04 am

its awesome..... it worked perfectly well

Reply

5 Rajesh says:
May 18, 2016 at 4:40 pm

hi
one help please
i have one excel sheet i want give that to one of my friend but i want set limit the for copying

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 10 of 20

sheet
such as if i set limit for one time copy then after pasting it no more copy can be made or it
should ask for password please help as early as possible or is there any other way to solve my
problem

Reply

6 Anonymous says:
May 19, 2016 at 9:37 am

How can prevent other from copying a protected worksheet

Reply

7 John Giesen says:

May 19, 2016 at 12:46 pm

When I follow your instructions, which are very good, when i click on protect workbook, the
drop down window opens but nothing is clickable? Any thoughts as to why these options
won't work for me? Also, on the tools drop down, the only line that can be completed is the
second line, the first line won't allow me to put in a password, after I go to "save as" and select
the file.
John

Reply

8 wami says:
June 7, 2016 at 10:05 pm

worked like charm,

saved many hours of trouble.
Very much appreciated.

Reply

9 Nath says:
June 29, 2016 at 11:28 pm

can you save the password as text in the VBA code so if you forget you can easily find without
running your scipt above?

Reply

Amit says:
August 4, 2016 at 6:45 pm

yes, write it in the comments :)

'Password goes here

Reply

10 Azazel says:
July 3, 2016 at 8:14 am

Awesome. It works perfectly!

Reply

11 dave haine says:

July 7, 2016 at 10:49 pm

Doesn't work in excel 2016, despite them saying it does

Reply

12 Rachel says:
July 11, 2016 at 8:59 am

I have not forgotten my password, but all unprotect sheet access is not highlighted therefore
can not click on to enter my password.

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 11 of 20

I have also tried entering your VBA code, but when right click a box appears stating "Project is
unviewable"

Please help

Reply

Nikki says:
March 1, 2017 at 11:47 pm

I am having the same issue and would love to find resolution. I have several worksheets
that are now greyed out from allowing me to highlight and release the protection. Help!

Reply

Vanessa says:
April 17, 2017 at 12:47 pm

Same thing happened to me... check if the workbook is shared, I think that is the
problem, you have to un-share it. Go to the Review tab and under the Changes group,
click Share Workbook. Clear the ‘Allow changes by more than one user at the same time’
option. Once you remove that option, it should allow you to enter the password. Hope it
works for you ;)

Reply

13 Rahul Bhoye says:

July 27, 2016 at 10:41 am

Thanks!!!!!

Reply

14 Hitesh Pandav says:

July 28, 2016 at 11:32 am

Thamks.
I have Solve my problem to guide me.

Reply

15 wayne says:
August 5, 2016 at 1:33 pm

Hi How to protect certain rows/columns only in excel (where my formula will not be editable).

Thanks

Reply

16 John Alves says:

August 8, 2016 at 6:56 am

hi,

do you have a solution for 2016 please

thanks

Reply

17 pratik says:
August 17, 2016 at 11:59 am

thanks for this it's really work properly. Fantastic

Reply

18 jacksonlimboz says:
August 23, 2016 at 12:27 pm

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Excel file password breaker tool is available to remove lost password from Excel file. This
application enables to open locked Word and Access file password also without any
obstruction.

Reply

19 Evan says:
August 23, 2016 at 8:28 pm

Looking for how to set a workbook to unProtected mode due to untrusted from a network
site.

Reply

20 Angel says:
September 9, 2016 at 3:34 am

Amazing! Thank you! Though I dont have a password to a worksheet, I unlocked the
worksheet.

Reply

21 godfrey says:
September 13, 2016 at 11:52 am

how can i un protect my 2007 excel sheet

Reply

22 Ivan says:
September 14, 2016 at 9:04 am

Thanks very much! It worked for me!

Reply

23 gandhi marule says:

September 19, 2016 at 10:12 am

hello,
i have hyperlinks to different sheets in my excel workbook, but i want to password protect
them i.e. people cannot click and go to that particular sheet...how do i do it? or alternatively a
way of hiding sheet only if you have a password can you open the sheet...how do i do it ?

Reply

24 SPORK says:
September 20, 2016 at 2:25 pm

VBA is also passoword protected so cannot insert module.

Reply

25 dan says:
September 21, 2016 at 3:43 pm

Dear sir,

I have protected shared Excel doc. I do not know the password, how can I remove the
protection?.

Thanks

Reply

26 Mr D says:
September 29, 2016 at 8:54 am

Try the instructions above it works

Reply

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27 Boke says:
October 7, 2016 at 5:06 am

Hi,
i have set Excel file(.xlsm) Password protection from modifying (!!) and allowed to open the file
as read-only. How i can use VBA macros to determine that passord protection from modifying
is set or not before the file saving.
And how i can write in VBA macros to unprotect and protect again exactly for modifying only ?

Reply

28 arif bhati says:

October 14, 2016 at 6:17 pm

Thanks a lot its working

Reply

29 Nitin says:
October 15, 2016 at 3:21 pm

Thankx so much. i forget my password if you don't help me my data will be loss
thankx again sir

Reply

30 NIRANJAN says:
October 18, 2016 at 5:24 pm

Awesome!! It worked! Never knew we could unprotect excel sheets so easily.

Reply

31 Philip says:
October 22, 2016 at 11:46 am

I don't think the VBA script works to unlock a password protected workbook in Windows 10
with Excel 2010. Pressing Alt-F11 doesn't access a list of workbook files.

Reply

32 RJ says:
October 25, 2016 at 8:30 pm

I have tried this several times with great luck. I now have an old workbook from last year. The
code works on some sheets but not all of them.

It also looks like there are some sheets I cannot see

This is in windows 7 with Excel 2013.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Reply

33 dagmid says:
October 28, 2016 at 8:02 am

Hi there,

thank you for your advice. if VBAProject has protected how can i remove password.

Name is not XLSX. XLSM

How to remove VBAProject password?

Thank you.

Reply

34 Abik says:
November 5, 2016 at 11:39 am

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good job guys

Reply

35 G says:
November 11, 2016 at 4:26 pm

If the file is on a server that has a rights management system you can also select people from
the address book to have read only access

Reply

36 Yganesh Thaker says:

November 16, 2016 at 6:01 am

its working tx guys

Reply

37 reza says:
November 20, 2016 at 3:35 pm

like a lot

Reply

38 Umesh says:
November 21, 2016 at 8:11 am

Its Working..............

Thank you very Much

Reply

39 Rijo says:
November 26, 2016 at 10:39 am

Dear friend,
while iam trying RUN...getting the error message of

Compile error:
Invalid outside procedure

pls help

Reply

40 Kelly says:
December 1, 2016 at 12:26 pm

it didnt work... when I clicked run, it shows

"Compile error:"
Expected: New or type name

pls Help!

Reply

41 Vasanth KS says:
December 1, 2016 at 12:52 pm

Hi,

It's really helpful on this regards!

Thank you so much!

Reply

42 Bobby says:
December 7, 2016 at 10:14 am

man, i like your PasswordBreaker. very great! thanks a lot.

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Reply

43 James says:
December 12, 2016 at 3:08 pm

Very good articles. It works very well. Thank you very much.

Reply

44 Nalini says:
December 16, 2016 at 3:12 pm

This link really helps! Thank you so much..

Reply

45 Andy says:
December 27, 2016 at 8:02 pm

OMG, you saved me hours and hours of work. This VBI script worked like a charm ....thanks so
much.

Reply

46 Tom Stewart says:

January 1, 2017 at 10:10 pm

I've been working on a workbook with several tabs with worksheets. I was trying to protect
columns and cells on on the various worksheets. The protection did not seem to be working
on a couple of the worksheets and I was experimenting trying to get it to work. Now I have
several functions(Protect & unprotect worksheet, protect & unprotect workbook, allow users
to edit ranges) highlighted in red and not functioning a all. How do I correct this?

Reply

47 Ade says:
January 2, 2017 at 10:27 pm

I have a protected worksheet and for got the password. The VB script is not responding when
i run the script on my excel 2010. it hangs and i have to go into window task manager to end
the run. Help

Reply

48 Sharma says:
January 3, 2017 at 5:15 am

How to permanently protect an excel sheet so that others cant look at the VBA functions? Is
there a way? I would like the hours of work put into my sheet to be protect from others
forever!

Seems the password protection can be easily broken. Please let me know.
Help!!

Reply

49 Emma Jaks says:

January 9, 2017 at 12:09 am

Thanks for this information.

Reply

50 Derek K says:
January 9, 2017 at 12:37 am

Thanks for the info. It helped me a lot.

Reply

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51 Wojciech Marusiak says:

January 10, 2017 at 10:23 am

It worked like a charm. Thanks a lot.

Reply

52 Anne says:
January 11, 2017 at 11:54 am

HI,

I am working on a template that is workbook protected. I can't recall the password and i need
to change the name of a sheet. Please assist. Excel 2016

Thanks.

Reply

53 Joey A. says:
January 13, 2017 at 11:19 pm

I have to say, this is totally awesome! I RARELY leave comments like this, but I would
recommend this to anyone wanting to protect or unprotect excel sheets! Thank you guys so
much! :)

Reply

54 Maxwell says:
January 15, 2017 at 2:04 am

It worked, Awesome , Thanks a lot.

Reply

55 Raj says:
January 15, 2017 at 6:04 am

I tried the above steps but the excel is not responding even after waiting for 30 mins.

Reply

56 Nisar says:
January 15, 2017 at 7:20 am

Wow!VB is working , You made my work easy, God bless you.

Thank you so much.

Reply

57 Aaron De Jesus says:

January 26, 2017 at 4:02 am

THAAAANKKKKKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU SOOOOOOOO MUUUUUUCHHHHHHHHHH

I'M REALLY THANKFUL THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE WHOEVER WROTE THIS INFORMATION,
WILLIN TO HELP OTHER SHARING THEIR KNOWLEDGE!!!

Reply

58 ZAMEER says:
January 30, 2017 at 7:05 pm

Really It is Great . You are really awesome. Thank you soo much.

Reply

59 Joseph says:
February 7, 2017 at 3:59 pm

I have attendance sheet which is not allowing me to edit may be password protected and
don't have the password please help

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 17 of 20

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60 Ambrica J says:
February 8, 2017 at 1:52 am

Frickin lifesaver! Thank you!

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61 ratish says:
February 11, 2017 at 7:29 am

i forget password of my excel sheet reply as soon as posible

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62 Rex says:
February 20, 2017 at 10:22 pm

Awesome. worked like a treat.Thanks

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63 Jeff says:
February 25, 2017 at 6:15 am

We use Excel 2010 at work for schedules. The worksheets containing work schedules are
protected from changes by employees with only managers having password access. Our issue
is that occasionally when employees go in to view the spreadsheet the file becomes "locked
for editing" by the employee. Managers can't get in to make changes. Even if the employee
signs in again, they often get the same message (that the file is locked for editing by
THEMSELF). We are interested in preventing employees from being able to place the file in
read only status at all, and secondly how do we get around the read only status when an
employee (who doesn't have the password) some how locks the file for editing. Thank you

Reply

64 PREMAL JOSHI says:

March 5, 2017 at 10:26 am

THANKS A LOT

IT WORKS IT SAVE MY LOTS OF TIME

THANKS AGAIN

PREMAL JOSHI

Reply

65 jayeshkumar says:
March 7, 2017 at 7:37 pm

good and better imformation

i proud to use it software
very very nice

Reply

66 nur says:
March 15, 2017 at 7:03 am

your information is realy helpfull..I faced problem with my own excell..as i am inserting data,
excel stoped working and restart.. suddenly it become protected sheet and cannot do
anything to edit it..i am at my end because what to do, I do not protect the sheet and even
have the password to start with!!!!
Luckily I found out ways to unprotect sheet even without password..Now can smile happily!!!

Thank you Author.

Reply

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67 Rameshkumar says:
March 19, 2017 at 5:52 am

Its awesome.

but i have protected 1 file. to open that file i need to give password.
Readonly option is not there, at that time what i need to do.
how to open that excell file ???????

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68 Shreepad M Gandhi says:

March 30, 2017 at 8:53 am

Thanks.
It worked just as expected.

Reply

69 Monciar Rosima says:

April 6, 2017 at 8:48 am

Thanks for the guide, easy to understand and do, works perfectly.

Reply

70 Mike says:
April 6, 2017 at 12:00 pm

To unprotect sheet in Excel 2013 file (.xlsx) just save the file as excel 200-2003 (.xls). Then you
can brake the sheet with VBA code. Works great! :)

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71 steve says:
April 20, 2017 at 2:23 pm

What a thoroughly fantastic piece of coding!

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72 Emma says:
April 21, 2017 at 12:44 pm

Thank you! Just saved me from a very awkward conversation!

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73 Bob says:
April 28, 2017 at 2:13 pm

Is there a way to unlock a file which is protect with password? (I mean when the entire file is
protected). I tried using the VBA code and it only worked when part of the workbook is
protected.
Thank you!

Reply

74 RAFIQ ABDUL says:

May 15, 2017 at 6:50 pm

Svetlana,

Thank you very much for the VB editor instruction, I was able to follow and remove the PW. I
will bookmark this site for future use.

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75 shawn says:
May 20, 2017 at 8:20 am

https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2016/02/10/protect-unprotect-excel-sheet-pas... 8/15/2017
How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 19 of 20

THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH....

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76 Fahad says:
May 23, 2017 at 7:56 am

Hi, I tried the code on excel 2013.

Everything seemed ok but when I press "f5" it starts working and within seconds it says not
responding and I can't do anything on excel.
Please help.

Reply

77 Veeresh says:
May 26, 2017 at 4:49 pm

Thanks a lot

Reply

78 Meriam says:
June 19, 2017 at 4:13 pm

Amazing! thank you so much

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79 Saurabh says:
June 21, 2017 at 6:35 am

This is simply amazing... I am awestruck with the vba code that it unprotected the sheet. I
want to master vba but need a perfect training program and how can I write complex codes to
make my work more simpler... Please advise. Once again Thank you very much.

Reply

Natalia Sharashova (Ablebits.com Team) says:

June 21, 2017 at 2:09 pm

Hello, Saurabh,

Thanks for your feedback!

I can advise you to check out MrExcel forum, where you can ask (or even find right away)
everything you want to know about VBA codes.

Hope their forum helps!

Reply

80 Ajay Kumar says:

July 5, 2017 at 3:54 pm

This is Amazing. really help full, your are x-man. Once again Thank you very much.

Reply

81 Lahiru says:
July 26, 2017 at 2:47 am

Thankxxx This is working...!!!!!

Reply

82 Antony Shaji says:

August 5, 2017 at 12:41 pm

Hi, insert module in greyed out.

Reply

83

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How to protect worksheets and unprotect Excel sheet without password Page 20 of 20

Dwayn says:
August 8, 2017 at 2:39 pm

Thanks for this excellent write up. Thank you for sharing.

Reply

84 Sharmila says:
August 10, 2017 at 2:04 pm

Thanks much.. It helped.. Much appreciated.

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