How to Remove Password from Excel Workbook & Sheet (4 Easy Tricks)

If you are sharing your workbooks with individuals outside your group (when you don’t want recipients to alter them), you may want to protect them from any modifications.

Excel offers easy ways to protect your workbooks using passwords or worksheet passwords.

If you’ve locked your workbook, or you want to remove password from Excel sheet and open it, how to unprotect Excel? One option is to enter the password to unlock it. What if you don’t have the password?

Do not worry about it – you can unlock it.

In this blog, I will show you how to access Excel worksheets and workbooks with and without passwords. This will be fascinating, so get into it now!

When Should You Remove Password From Excel Worksheet?

There are several situations where remove Excel sheet protection, such as:

• You’re the owner and no longer need protection
• The file is used frequently and unlocking it is inconvenient
• You’re sharing the file with trusted colleagues
• You want to simplify access for automation or integrations

⚠️ Important: Only remove passwords from files you own or have permission to modify.

Also read: Advanced File Transfers: A Smarter Way to Share Data

How to Remove Password from Excel Workbook (Password Known)

Have you password-protected your Excel workbook? Would you like to remove passwords from Excel workbook right now?

Steps to follow

• Open the password-protected workbook
• Click on the Review tab > Protect Workbook button.
• After clicking the Protect Workbook button, the Unprotect Workbook dialog box will appear in the following manner:
• Enter the Excel login password for the Excel workbook (that you used to protect your workbook).
  Click Okay.
• Save the workbook by pressing the Control key + S.

Relaunch the same workbook, but this time, you will not require an account password to access it. The password is gone

How to Remove Password from Excel Sheet (Password Known)

If you know the password for the protected Excel sheet, getting it removed is an easy task

Find out more here for yourself.

• Go to the sheet tab.
• Right-click on the relevant sheet > Unprotect Sheet.
• Enter the worksheet password in the dialog box
• Just click OK, and that’s all there is to it.
• Another way to do this is to go through Review Tab > Unprotect Sheet. review tab and then unprotecting the sheet.
• Enter the password, and the sheet will be unlocked.
• You can do it via your home tab > format.
• In the menu context, choose Unprotect Sheet.

You’ll again be asked to enter your password in the dialog box. After you enter your password, the worksheet will become unlocked.

How to Remove Password from Excel Sheet (Password Unknown)

This part is likely to be the most fascinating. It is common to protect specific sheets from your workbook with passwords.

What happens if you forget your password? But don’t fret – you’ll unlock excel file without password.

Method 1: Copy Data to a New Sheet (Excel 2013 & Later)

If you’re subscribed to Excel 2013 or the latest version of Excel, follow these steps to remove password from Excel sheet, even if you don’t have the password.

• Open password-protected sheet.
• Select cell A1 and then press Control Key + A to select the entire sheet.
• Open a new sheet.
• Select Cell A1 in the new sheet, and then press Control key + V to paste the contents of the locked sheet.
• The entire content of the password-protected sheet will be copied onto the new sheet (an unlocked sheet)

In fact, you aren’t remove password from Excel sheet. However, we’ve created a second duplicate of the same sheet.

Also read: Top 10 Data Entry Software for Faster and Accurate Work

Method 2: Use VBA Macro (Excel 2010 & Older)

If you’re using Excel 2010 or an older version, you can remove password from Excel sheet by running an Excel macro. How to do it

• Open the password-protected sheet.
• Press Alt Key + F11 to start Visual Basic Editor.
• In your VBA editor, go to the Insert tab >Module.
• Copy and paste the code below into the following window.

VBA Code:

Sub UnprotectSheet()

Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
Dim l As Integer, m 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

ActiveSheet.Unprotect _
Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & _
Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & _
Chr(i5) & Chr(i6)

If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox “Sheet Unprotected Successfully!”, vbInformation
Exit Sub
End If

Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next

End Sub

• Press the F5 key to run the Macro.
• It generates a duplicate password that you can use to open the unprotect excel sheet.

Bottom Line

Once you know how to remove password from Excel, whether with or without a password, you’re ready to start creating sensitive documents. Be aware that a password is intended to prevent access to the document. So, create an easy password, or keep it in a safe place in case it is lost. Losing it could result in losing accessibility to your document.

FAQs: Remove Password From Excel