how to protect worksheets and unprotect excel sheet without password

7/26/2019 How to Protect Worksheets and Unprotect Excel Sheet Without Password

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How to protect and unprotect Excel sheet with or without password

by Svetlana Cheusheva Excel, Excel tips 9 Comments

The tutorial shows how to protect Excel sheet with or without passwords. It also explains how to unlock

Excel spreadsheet without password if you forgot or misplaced i t.

When sharing your worksheets with other people or sending your Excel les outside of your

organization, you may want to prevent other users from changing cells that shouldn't be changed,

and also from moving or deleting important data in your worksheet or workbook.

Luckily, Excel provides a quick and easy way to lock a sheet or password protect anentire

workbook to prevent accidental or deliberate changes in their contents.

Excel worksheet protection - the basics

How to password protect an Excel sheetHow to unlock Excel spreadsheet

How to unlock Excel sheet with password

How to unprotect Excel sheet without password

How to protect a workbook in Excel

Unlock a protected workbook

Password protect an Excel le from opening

Password protect a workbook from modifying

What you need to know about Excel worksheetprotection

Worksheet protection in Excel is not a security feature. It's is not actually intended to prevent

people from accessing data in a password-protected worksheet. Why? Because Microsoft Excel

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.

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

an example of the VBA codethat easily cracks passwords in Excel 2010 and lower versions).

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

someone really wants to get access to a protected sheet, they will.

So, does this mean that Excel worksheet protection is absolutelypointless? Not atall! It makes

sense to lock Excel sheets to avoid accidental changes in the sheet contents. A common example

is Locking formula cellsto prevent inadvertent erasure or modication of formulas.

The bottom line is - lock an Excel spreadsheet to prevent other users from accidentally tampering

with your data, but never store sensitive information in your Excel sheets.

If you strive to ensure the maximum security protectionfor your Excel les, be sure to do all of

the following:

Use the modern versions of Excel 2010, Excel 2013, and 2016 with enhanced data encryption

mechanisms.

1.

Protect your sheetswith strong passwords that include dierent 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.

2.

Protect the workbook structureto prevent other people from adding, moving, renaming,

deleting or unhiding your sheets.

3.

For workbook-level security, encrypt the workbook with dierent passwords from openingand4.

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How to protect Excel sheetTo protect a sheet in Excel 2016, 2013 and 2010, perform the following steps.

How to unprotect Excel sheetAs 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 :)

modifying.

If possible, store your Excel les with sensitive information in a secure location, e.g. on an

encrypted hard drive.

5.

Right click a worksheet tab at the bottom of your screen and select Protect Sheetfrom the

context menu.

Or, click the Protect Sheetbutton on the Reviewtab, in the Changesgroup.

1.

In the Protect Sheetdialog window, do the following:

To password protect your Excel sheet, type a password in the corresponding eld. 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

modication 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 eld

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 actionsyou allow the users to perform.

By default, the following 2 options are selected: Select locked cellsand 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, ltering, 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.

2.

The Conrm Passworddialog 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!

3.
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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 Sheetfrom the context menu.

On the Reviewtab, in the Changesgroup, click Unprotect Sheet.

On the Hometab, in the Cellsgroup, click Format, and select Unprotect Sheetfrom 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 Sheetbutton 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.


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If you are not very comfortable with VBA, you can nd 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 andExcel 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:

Notes:

This method works only if the Select locked cellsand 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 Specialto copy / paste the column widths so you won't need to adjust them in

the new sheet manually.

How to protect a workbook in ExcelApart 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.

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

Right-click the workbook name on the left pane (Project-VBAProjectpane) and select Insert>

Modulefrom the context menu.

2.

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

Sub PasswordBreaker() 'Breaks worksheet password protection.

Dim i AsInteger, j AsInteger, k AsInteger Dim l AsInteger, m AsInteger, n AsInteger Dim i1 AsInteger, i2 AsInteger, i3 AsInteger

Dim i4 AsInteger, i5 AsInteger, i6 AsInteger

OnErrorResumeNext

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)

If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = FalseThen 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)

ExitSub

EndIf

Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next

Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: NextEndSub

Press F5 or click the Runbutton 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.

4.

Open the password-protected sheet.1.

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

worksheet.

2.

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

Create a new sheet in the current workbook or in a dierent workbook (to create a new Excel

le, simply press Ctrl + N ).

4.

In the new blank worksheet, place the cursor in A1 and press Ctrl + V to paste the contents of

the password-protected sheet.

5.

?
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To protect the workbook, perform the following steps:

How to unlock a protected workbook in Excel

To remove the workbook protection, do the following:

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.

Password protect Excel workbook from opening

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 les, you can encrypt your workbook with

On the Reviewtab, in the Changesgroup, click the Protect Workbook button.1.

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

Check the Structurebox 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 Windowsbox to retain the size and position of workbook windows. This will

prevent users from moving, resizing, minimizing, or closing the workbook windows.

Note.The Windowsoption 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.

2.

In the Passwordbox, type a password, and click the OKbutton.

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.

3.

Retype the password in the Conrm Passwordwindow and click OK. That's it!4.

Click the Protect Workbookbutton again (in a locked workbook, it is highlighted in green like

in the screenshot below):

1.

Type the password if prompted.2.

Save the workbook.3.
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password that won't even let other people open it.

To remove the workbook encryption, repeat the above steps, delete the password from the

Passwordbox, click OK, and then save your workbook.

Tip.In addition to password-protection, you can secure your Excel les further by using the

BitLocker Drive Encryption, which is available in the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of

Windows Vista and Windows.

Password protect Excel workbook from modifying

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

In the workbook you want to encrypt, click File> Info, click the Protect Workbook button, and

select Encrypt with Passwordin the drop-down menu.

1.

The Encrypt Documentwindow will appear, you enter a password in the Passwordbox, and

click OK.

.

By default, Microsoft Excel uses AES 128-bit advanced encryption, and you can supply a

password up to 255 characters.

2.

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

Save your workbook.4.

In your Excel workbook, click the Save Asbutton, and then click the Toolsbutton at the bottom

of the window.

1.

In the Toolsdrop-down menu, select General Options.2.
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To remove the password protection, repeat the above steps, and delete the password(s) from

the Password to openand Password to modifyboxes. Then click the Savebutton 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.

You may also be interested in:

How to create formulas in Excel

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

In the General Optionsdialog window, type a password in the Password to modifybox.

Additionally, you can select the Read-onlyoption, which is recommended.

Tip.If you want to protect your Excel le both from modifying and opening, type the

passwords in the Password to openand Password to modifyboxes. It can be the same

password of two dierent ones.

3.

Retype the password in the Conrm Passworddialog, and click OK. If you've entered 2

passwords in the previous step, you will be asked to conrm both.

4.

Finally, click the Savebutton in the Save Asdialog.5.
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9 Responses to "How to protect and unprotect Excel sheetwith or without password"

A CHUMAN KUMAR PATROsays:

April 25, 2016 at 1:02 pm

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

Reply

1


April 26, 2016 at 5:48 am

how to unprotected the work book if password is forget.

Reply

Svetlana Cheushevasays:

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-oce-excel-add-in.html

Reply

2


April 27, 2016 at 4:19 am

without any software can we have unprotected workbook

thanks for cooperate with me

Reply

3

chisom israel onah.says:

May 2, 2016 at 8:04 am

its awesome..... it worked perfectly well

Reply

4

Rajeshsays:

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

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

5

Anonymoussays:

May 19, 2016 at 9:37 am

How can prevent other from copying a protected worksheet

Reply

6

John Giesensays:

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 rst line won't allow me to put in a password, after I go to "save as" and

select the le.

John

Reply

7
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wamisays:

June 7, 2016 at 10:05 pm

worked like charm,

saved many hours of trouble.

Very much appreciated.

Reply

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