Forum Discussion
Unprotect Excel sheet
My Excel unprotect sheet password no longer works now that I am using Microsoft Office 365. How to unprotect my sheet please?
This is directly from my post in an older discussion:
Removing sheet protection from an Excel workbook (.xlsx, .xlsm - any xml encoded format)
1. Close the workbook and make a copy of it
2. Re-name the workbook to change the extension from .xlsx to .zip
3. Double click the .zip to open it in File Explorer
4. Open the 'xl' folder then open the 'worksheets folder'.
5. Locate the protected sheet. In this view, the sheets have numbers like sheet1.xml, sheet2.xml, etc. (going from left-to-right in the workbook). Copy the sheet and paste it to another location outside of the zip folder.
6. Open the Sheet XML file in notepad.
7. Go to Edit find and locate "protect"
You'll find something like this:
<sheetProtection algorithmName="SHA-512" hashValue="tA2qu3vhTMsDjp5+2E4xAlqXgULwYoz9mj3G0VjCho/IWtTdOEl1aISGihlgjdvOpkJqcH/LCBHFUqI8k9qWHg==" saltValue="oy3jTRSzOLeoACJrs/V+/Q==" spinCount="100000" sheet="1" objects="1" scenarios="1"/>
Remove it and nothing more. Notice how the tag begins with "<" and ends with ">".
8. Save and close the XML file.
9. Drag the edited XML file back into the worksheets folder and opt to Replace when prompted.
10. Re-name the .zip back to the format you had it in such as .xlsx. When the workbook opens you may receive a notice saying Excel found a problem with content in the workbook. Click through the prompts. Your sheet is unprotected.
11. Enjoy
5 Replies
This is directly from my post in an older discussion:
Removing sheet protection from an Excel workbook (.xlsx, .xlsm - any xml encoded format)
1. Close the workbook and make a copy of it
2. Re-name the workbook to change the extension from .xlsx to .zip
3. Double click the .zip to open it in File Explorer
4. Open the 'xl' folder then open the 'worksheets folder'.
5. Locate the protected sheet. In this view, the sheets have numbers like sheet1.xml, sheet2.xml, etc. (going from left-to-right in the workbook). Copy the sheet and paste it to another location outside of the zip folder.
6. Open the Sheet XML file in notepad.
7. Go to Edit find and locate "protect"
You'll find something like this:
<sheetProtection algorithmName="SHA-512" hashValue="tA2qu3vhTMsDjp5+2E4xAlqXgULwYoz9mj3G0VjCho/IWtTdOEl1aISGihlgjdvOpkJqcH/LCBHFUqI8k9qWHg==" saltValue="oy3jTRSzOLeoACJrs/V+/Q==" spinCount="100000" sheet="1" objects="1" scenarios="1"/>
Remove it and nothing more. Notice how the tag begins with "<" and ends with ">".
8. Save and close the XML file.
9. Drag the edited XML file back into the worksheets folder and opt to Replace when prompted.
10. Re-name the .zip back to the format you had it in such as .xlsx. When the workbook opens you may receive a notice saying Excel found a problem with content in the workbook. Click through the prompts. Your sheet is unprotected.
11. Enjoy
- hi is there away to unprotect a colleagues sheet that has left?
- Yes, you'll find a solution in this discussion.
Patrick2788 Hi Patrick. Thank you so much for your help. I also found a video on YouTube which showed exactly what you described and I was able to open my spreadsheet!
- You're welcome!
