How to Remove Password From Excel?

While passwords in Excel are intended to protect our data, sometimes we may need to remove them to facilitate required operations such as changing the workbook’s structure or modifying data.

This tutorial shows you six methods for removing passwords from Excel files.

Most of these methods require that you know the password so that you can remove it by first unlocking the workbook/worksheet and then removing the password.

I’ve also covered a method (method #6) that can be used to remove a password from a worksheet in case you have forgotten the password (or you want to remove the password from a worksheet that has been shared by someone else who has not shared the password with you)

Note: You can only remove the file-level (workbook-level) passwords you know or remember from Excel. If you forget the passwords, you won’t be able to remove them.

Method #1: Using the Encrypt Document Feature to Remove a Workbook-level Password  

A file-level password is added to a workbook to prevent unauthorized people from opening the workbook. 

We can remove such a file-level password using the “Encrypt Document” feature accessible via the File tab.

We use the below steps to remove a file-level password from a workbook:

1. Double-click the password-protected Excel file to open it. The Password dialog box that appears prompts you to supply the password needed to open the file. Type in the password and click OK. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive, so you must enter the same password applied to encrypt the workbook.

2. Click the File tab to open the Backstage window.

3. Click Info on the left sidebar of the Backstage window, open the Protect Workbook drop-down on the panel on the right, and choose the Encrypt with Password option.

Notice the information next to the Protect Workbook drop-down indicating that a password is required to open the workbook.

4. Delete the password on the Encrypt Document dialog box that appears and click OK.

The password is deleted from the Excel file.

Notice that the message indicating that a password is required to open the workbook no longer appears next to the Protect Workbook drop-down.

5. Click Save on the left sidebar to save the changes made to the workbook.

Next time you open this workbook, the Password dialog box prompting you to supply a password to open the workbook will not appear. 

Method #2: Remove Workbook-level Password Using the Save As Feature

In Method #1, we used the “Encrypt Document” feature to remove a file-level password in Excel.

This method uses the Save As feature to remove a workbook-level password. 

We use the following steps:

1. Double-click the password-protected workbook to open it.
2. In the Password dialog box that opens, enter the password that is needed to open the file. Type in the password and click OK. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive, so you must enter the same password that was used while protecting the workbook.

2. Click the File tab to open the Backstage window.

3. On the Backstage window, click Save As on the left sidebar and Browse on the panel on the right:

4. Move to the folder where you want to save the workbook copy.

5. Open the Tools drop-down at the bottom of the Save As feature and select General Options.

6. On the General Options dialog box that appears, delete the password in the Password to open box, leave the Password to modify box blank, and click OK.

7. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Save As feature.

The workbook opens minus the password that was required to open the file.

You can confirm this by opening the backstage window and noticing that the message indicating that a password is needed to open the workbook does not appear next to the Protect Workbook drop-down.

Method #3: Remove the Password From a Workbook Via the Review Tab

One can password-protect a workbook to prevent others from making structural changes to the workbook, such as deleting, moving, or adding sheets.

We can remove the password added for this purpose by using the steps below:

1. Open the password-protected workbook.
2. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click the Protect Workbook button. 

Notice that the Protect Workbook button has a dark grey background meaning that workbook is protected. 

3. Type the needed password in the Unprotect Workbook dialog box that appears and click OK.

The workbook becomes unprotected. Notice that the Protect Workbook button has a transparent background indicating that the workbook is now unprotected. 

4. Press Ctrl + S or click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar to save the changes.

With password protection out of the way, you can now make structural changes to the workbook, such as adding worksheets, deleting worksheets, and so on.

Method #4: Remove a Password From a Worksheet Via the Review Tab

We can password-protect a worksheet to prevent or limit the ability of others to make unwanted changes to the worksheet.

For example, once the password in the dialog box below is applied by clicking OK, the only operation others will be able to do in the worksheet is to select cells:

The other users will be unable to format cells, columns, rows, and so on.

A password added to protect the sheet can be removed via the Review tab using the below steps:

1. Open the Excel workbook containing the protected worksheet.
2. On the Review tab, click the Unprotect Sheet button in the Protect group.

3. Type the same password used to protect the worksheet on the Unprotect Sheet dialog box that appears and click OK.

4. Press Ctrl + S or click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar to save the changes.

The worksheet becomes unprotected, and you or others can now perform changes to the worksheet that they were not able to do before. 

Method #5: Remove a Password From a Worksheet Via the Home Tab

In Method #3, we saw how to remove a worksheet-level password via the Review tab.

This method shows how we can remove a worksheet-level password via the Home tab. 

We use the below steps:

1. Open the workbook that has the password-protected worksheet.
2. On the Home tab, in the Cells group, open the Format drop-down and click the Unprotect Sheet option.

3. Type the same password used to protect the worksheet on the Unprotect Sheet dialog box that appears and click OK.

4. Press Ctrl + S or click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar to save the changes.

The worksheet becomes unprotected, and you or others can now make changes to the worksheet that they were not able to do before. 

Method #6: Remove the Password From a Worksheet (Using ZIP and XML method)

So far, the methods that I’ve covered require you to know the password so that you can manually remove it from your excel file or worksheet.

But what if you do not remember the password, and you want to unprotect the worksheet?

Or maybe you got an Excel file from someone else who has protected the sheet but has not shared the password with you.

In this method, there is a way to unlock an Excel worksheet that has been protected using a password without knowing the password.

Note: This method would only work when a worksheet has been protected using a password. It would not work when the encryption has been applied at a file level (workbook level)

You can remove the password from the worksheet by following the steps below:

1. Determine which worksheet in the workbook is password-protected. In this case, the password-protected worksheet is the second worksheet called “Branches.”

Note: If you insert worksheets and later rearrange them, they will not be in the sheet tab order, so to determine the “Branches” worksheet number, do the following:

• Right-click the “Branches” worksheet and select View Code on the shortcut menu that pops up.

Notice in the Project window that the “Branches” worksheet is Sheet2.

2. Close the workbook and make a backup of the workbook to revert to in case something goes wrong, and you cannot retrieve your data.
3. Change the extension of the copy of the workbook to .zip.

Note: If you do not see the .xlsx extension of the Excel file, click the View tab on the File Explorer window and select the File name extensions option.

4. Click Yes on the Rename warning message box to confirm the file extension change.

Notice that the icon of the file has changed to a zipped folder icon:

5. Double-click the zipped folder, choose your system’s default file archiving software on the dialog box that appears, and click OK to open the folder.

The zipped folder is opened. Notice the xl subfolder.

6. Navigate to the Sheet2.xml file by opening the xl subfolder and then the worksheets subfolder.

7. Copy the sheet2.xml file and paste it into a different location on the computer.
8. Right-click the sheet2.xml file in a different location, hover the cursor over the Open with option on the shortcut menu that appears, and click Notepad on the submenu.

9. Scan the opened text file and locate the tag that begins with the text sheetProtection and select everything in between the <> tags, including the tags themselves, and delete.

10.  Close the text file and save the changes.
11.  Right-click in the folder containing the original sheet2.xml file and select Add files to archive on the shortcut menu that appears.

12.  Navigate to the folder containing the modified sheet2.xml file, select the file and click OK.

The modified sheet2.xml file replaces the original sheet2.xml file.

13.  Closed the zipped folder.
14.  Change the .zip file extension back to .xlsx and click Yes on the Rename warning message box that appears.

Now you can open the workbook and notice that the password protection on the “Branches” worksheet has been removed. 

This tutorial explained six techniques for removing passwords from Excel. We hope that you found the tutorial helpful. 

Other Excel articles you may also like:

• How to Mark an Excel Workbook as Final?
• Lock Cells in Excel (Shortcut)
• How To Hide Formulas In Excel Without Protecting the Sheet?
• How to Delete Defined Name in Excel? (Name Manager + VBA)
• How to Lock Cells in Excel [Mac, Windows]