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RuthDelbert's avatar
RuthDelbert
Copper Contributor
Jul 01, 2024

How to unprotect Excel sheet if forgot the password

I recently encountered a problem and hope to get your help. I set a protection password for an Excel file before. Now I want to modify some data, but I found that I forgot Excel password. I wonder if...
excel
ToddSumrall's avatar
ToddSumrall
Iron Contributor
Jul 01, 2024

RuthDelbert For Excel 2007 and later versions, files are saved in an XML-based format. This means you can unzip the file and manually edit the XML files to remove the protection. This method requires some technical knowledge and careful handling of XML files.

 

How to unprotect Excel sheet without password by editing the internal xml file:

 

  1. Change the file extension of the Excel workbook from .xlsx to .zip.
  2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file to a folder.
  3. Navigate to the folder and open the xl subfolder.
  4. Locate the worksheets subfolder and find the XML file corresponding to the protected sheet (e.g., sheet1.xml).
  5. Open the XML file in a text editor (e.g., Notepad++).
  6. Search for the tag <sheetProtection> and delete it along with its attributes.
  7. Save the XML file and close the text editor.
  8. Compress the folder back into a ZIP file.
  9. Change the file extension from .zip back to .xlsx.
  10. Open the modified Excel file, and the sheet should be unprotected.
Dimitrios_HSC's avatar
Dimitrios_HSC
Copper Contributor
Oct 21, 2024

ToddSumrall Does the process work only for Windows or also MAC OS? 

In my case (Mac OS) I see the following .xml file, so I am not sure which fields to delete.

 

Thanks in advance for your input, 

Dimitrios


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<encryption xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/encryption" xmlns:p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/keyEncryptor/password" xmlns:c="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/keyEncryptor/certificate"><keyData saltSize="16" blockSize="16" keyBits="256" hashSize="64" cipherAlgorithm="AES" cipherChaining="ChainingModeCBC" hashAlgorithm="SHA512" saltValue="9p/eXy9YwQzD1WNXL7BZSQ=="/><dataIntegrity encryptedHmacKey="wD8+C4tULXQMSBhSBAgM9xnsFrxN++QpTb/lKwmpltsZnPW2vgfD2eY96pLFTP2Qfa4RW1UTqoELrveCAezTGg==" encryptedHmacValue="v6ibUo/F769r9Pn0OPbqctfXvUObE7eXGmWrnYM+RIPQDU1h49OnRp3PFtHljLTFw051V3Ph/+oTnxziBqtCQQ=="/><keyEncryptors><keyEncryptor uri="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/keyEncryptor/password"><p:encryptedKey spinCount="100000" saltSize="16" blockSize="16" keyBits="256" hashSize="64" cipherAlgorithm="AES" cipherChaining="ChainingModeCBC" hashAlgorithm="SHA512" saltValue="VmtFChBOLtVyZIO0PKpWYQ==" encryptedVerifierHashInput="4iCxfYahy+Rzjlt2SSoRuA==" encryptedVerifierHashValue="R8V4IrM4UfARuaLemcsLpxfIajl3vqtEiD4KHkqzBvgTfJLDv42HN7dB/9Xy1YhfETRFJOeSQCN3QDfoN6wPMg==" encryptedKeyValue="vDeqqIywPyca5i+JX9xvPXnzeP/kjx6fThMZFipNjtY="/></keyEncryptor></keyEncryptors></encryption>

  • rhinotek1's avatar
    rhinotek1
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 08, 2024

    It does!  I use Excel for Mac.   See my BBEdit (app) suggestion above.

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