HELP stop password prompt from popping up?

[ExcelNewbie617]

Hi, I have a workbook that will be shared with over 100 people. I don't want anyone changing the cells or formulas so protected each tab and I set a password on them (previously I distributed it with no password and a bunch of people messed with the formulas). 

My issue is that now every time I open the file, a prompt pops up asking me to enter the password. I have to click cancel once for each tab that has a password (11 total). 

Is there ANY way to get this to stop popping up? The people I will be sending this to are not very excel savvy and I worry they wont understand what to do (plus it's just annoying). 

To be clear, I am not clicking "unprotect" to make this pop up, it just happens whenever I open the file. Any help greatly appreciated! 

[#2]

I was waiting to see if anyone else had any ideas but noone else answered yet so here is my 2 cents:
It shouldn't be doing this. I couldn't get this behavior to happen. Is this a macro-enabled worksheet (.xlsm or .xlsb)? Do you have an example without confidential/private/personal info you can share that is doing this?

[#3]

I assume some VBA code runs when the file is opened which tries to unprotect the sheets, but the unprotect method is not provided with the password. If you add the password as an argument to the unprotect statement(s), Excel will stop asking for the passwords.

[#4]

@ExcelNewbie617 

Try unlocking the worksheet...here are some links to do it yourself.

1 Link:Password Options

2 Link:How to unprotect the excel sheet if forgot the password

[#5]

@ExcelNewbie617 Hi, I know this is an old thread, but I have a similar problem and it is driving me mad. it is a .xlsm, but there are no macros or VBA code. Worse still this is only happening for some users and seemingly out of the blue. How can the exact same excel file act differently across users? 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help

[#6]

@OscarDowning 

If I may recommend, open a new thread and add information in addition to your concerns.

Welcome to your Excel discussion space!