How To Remove Password From Excel In 2 Minute – Super Easy Way 2024

Remove Password From Excel

Why Do You want To Remove Password?

Excel is a well-known piece of software nowadays. It is continuously used by people for work purposes. You might need to spend several days working nonstop on one tab. It is crucial to password-protect and saves your work. Passwords should always be kept secure to prevent mistakes like unauthorized deleting edits. However, if you lose track of that password once more, the problem will never stop. You are unable to write or update anything without this password. This is a serious issue. Therefore, in order to access your files, you must erase your password. In this article, today I will teach you how you can remove it.

Why You Should Protect Your Excel Sheet?

It’s mandatory to protect your excel sheet because you don’t want your sheet to have some changes without your concern. It is important to protect your sheet to prevent any unwanted deletions and edits. You shouldn’t worry about losing your password because in this article you’ll learn how to remove forgotten passwords from Excel.

How To Remove Password

  • How To Know Whether Excel Is Protected Or Not
  • Remove Password Using Your PC In Just 2 Minutes

1

How To Know Excel Protected Or Not

how to remove password from excel
remove password from excel

Although this is irrelevant, how do you know if your Excel sheet is password protected?
To know this, you have to follow the instructions in the above picture.

  • Open your Excel sheet
  • Go to the “Review” tab
  • If you see the marked red box with the text “Unprotect Sheet“, Then you’ll understand it’s a password-protected sheet. ( Example in Picture 1 )
  • And if you see the marked red box with the text “Protect Sheet“, Then you’ll understand it’s a Non-password encrypted sheet. ( Example in Picture 2 )
how to remove a password from excel

You will notice an error warning if you attempt to write in any tab of a sheet or edit anything. You’ll know that your sheet is password-protected if you don’t fill it out or make any edits.

See the error message in the aforementioned picture.

2

Remove A Password From Excel Using PC

remove password protection from excel

Let’s remove password from the Excel.

Let’s think our sheet name is “Make Me Skilled“. In this Excel, we will remove the password of the “Sheet 1” tab. As we already saw in picture no 3, the “Sheet 1” tab is protected by password, and the “Sheet 2” tab is not protected. So we will remove password from “Sheet 1“.

  • First, make a copy of your sheet. To do that select your file and click on copy and paste it to the same folder.
  • As you can see in picture 4, we have made a copy. Now select the file and click on “Rename“. You will need to change the extension type. 
  • Remove the word called “xlsx
  • Then type “zip

For example please see picture 5 below.

how to remove password from excel file
  • After typing “zip” press Enter. Now see you have changed the extension type. ( make sure you haven’t deleted the { . }, Just change the word xlsx > zip )
  • The file name was “Make Me Skilled – Copy.xlsx
  • Now the file name is “Make Me Skilled – Copy.zip

If you can’t see your file type that means you haven’t enabled to see file name extension. ( Only showing “Make Me Skilled” after you enable file type extension you can see “Make Me Skilled.xlsx” ) To enable file type

  • Click on “View” on the top
  • Then click on “Show
  • And then click on “File Name Extensions

Now you can see the file type.

how to enable file extension in windows 11
how to enable file extension in windows
how to remove password protection from excel

After you change the “xlsx” file type to “zip” you’ll need a zip file opener software to open this file. You can use Winrar or 7Zip. Click here to download Winrar And 7Zip.

  • After downloading and installing the zip opener software, now open the zip file called “Make Me Skilled – Copy.zip
  • After opening the file click on the folder called “xl
remove password from excel file
  • Then open the file called “worksheets
how to remove passwords from excel

Now you’ll see all the tab list that is saved in your Excel. As we mentioned we will remove password from sheet 1.

  • So, Select the file And right click then click on “Copy files to clipboard
  • Then “Paste” it where your previous files are. You can see the example in picture 9 below
remove a password from excel

After you paste the copied file,

  • Right-click on the file 
  • Then click on “Open with
  • Then click on “Notepad

Note: You can use any text editor. using notepad isn’t mandatory.

how to remove password from excel file without knowing password
  • After opening the file press “Ctrl + F” on your keyboard. A popup will open
  • Now type “protect” on the popup box. 
  • you’ll see a text that is “<sheetProtection

See the example in picture 10

remove password from excel workbook vba
remove password from excel workbook

As you can see in pictures 11 and 12

  • Select all text that started from “<sheetProtection” and end from “/>” 
  • Please carefully select these texts. After selecting these texts,
  • Press “BackSpace” from your keyboard.

Now you’ll see your selected texts have been removed. Let’s go to the next step.

remove password from excel workbook office 365
  • Now click on ‘File” and then click on “Save
  • You can also press “Ctrl + S” to save this file.

You have removed the password protection code and saved the file. Let’s jump into the last step.

how to remove a password from an excel file

You have the edited file in the folder. Now 

  • Open the zip file called “Make Me Skilled – Copy.zip”, and delete the tab from the tab list. Because you have already copied it and edited it. So it’s no longer needed. 
Note: Don’t delete any other tab that isn’t need a password or you haven’t edited yet or you haven’t a copy of this file.
remove password from excel spreadsheet
can't remove password from excel
  • Now the next job is, Just Copy the file that you edited earlier and paste it to the zip folder where you deleted the old file in the previous step.
  • When you will attempt to paste the file you will see a popup, Just press “Enter” or click “Ok
how to remove password from excel workbook

If you look, you will notice that your zip file is still the same as it was before, with the exception that you have just deleted a line of code of the password security for a certain tab.

Wow! You are a Programmer! haha I am joking

how to remove password from excel worksheet
how do i remove a password from excel

You have removed password from Excel. Now you just need to reverse back the file type “zip” to “xlsx“. to do that,

  • Select the Zip file and click on “Rename
  • Remove the word called “Zip
  • Then type “xlsx
  • After typing “xlsx” press Enter. Now see you have changed the extension type. ( make sure you haven’t deleted the { . }, Just change the word zip > xlsx )
  • The file name was “Make Me Skilled – Copy.zip
  • Now the file name was “Make Me Skilled – Copy.xlsx

Now your file is ready to use without a password. you have removed the password from Excel.

removing password from excel

Hey programmer! Congratulations!

You have made it. Now you can see the box “Protect Sheet“, which means it’s not protected, you have removed it. And you can write or edit anything from the tab.

Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs )

  • Is this a complex method?

No! Definitely not. It’s one of the easy methods.

  • Do I need to download Zip opener software?

Yes! Otherwise, you can’t open the zip file. you must need this.

  • What if I delete the ( . )?

No worry, If you mistakenly delete the ( . ) then again rename it and insert a ( . ) again.

  • Whice Zip opener I should use?

It’s your decision. But we recommended using Winrar Or 7Zip because it’s very user-friendly.

  • Is there any other way to remove forgotten password from Excel?

Yes. you can find a lot. But it’s the simplest and easiest. 

Hossain Rifat
Hossain Rifat

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Articles: 20

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