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
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 )
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
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.
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.
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“
Then open the file called “worksheets“
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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“
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
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.
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.