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How to protect and unprotect Excel sheet with or without password

Feb

by Svetlana Cheusheva

Excel, Excel tips

9 Comments

10
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 it.
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.
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Luckily, Excel provides a quick and easy way to lock a sheet or password protect an entire
workbook to prevent accidental or deliberate changes in their contents.

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What you need to know about Excel worksheet

protection
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 code that 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.

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So, does this mean that Excel worksheet protection is absolutely pointless? Not at all! It makes
sense to lock Excel sheets to avoid accidental changes in the sheet contents. A common example
is Locking formula cells to prevent inadvertent erasure or modication of formulas.

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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.

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If you strive to ensure the maximum security protection for your Excel les, be sure to do all of
the following:
1. Use the modern versions of Excel 2010, Excel 2013, and 2016 with enhanced data encryption
mechanisms.
2. Protect your sheets with 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.
3. Protect the workbook structure to prevent other people from adding, moving, renaming,
deleting or unhiding your sheets.
4. For workbook-level security, encrypt the workbook with dierent passwords from opening and

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modifying.
5. If possible, store your Excel les with sensitive information in a secure location, e.g. on an
encrypted hard drive.

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How to protect Excel sheet

To protect a sheet in Excel 2016, 2013 and 2010, perform the following steps.
1. Right click a worksheet tab at the bottom of your screen and select Protect Sheet from the
context menu.
Or, clickthe Protect Sheet button on theReviewtab, in the Changesgroup.

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2. In the Protect Sheetdialog window, do the following:

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

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to remember the password or store it in a safe location because you will need it later to
unprotect the sheet.

Video

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 actions you allow the users to perform.
By default, the following 2 options are selected: Select locked cells and 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.

3. The Conrm Password dialog 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!

How to unprotect Excel sheet

As 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 :)

How to unprotect Excel sheet with password

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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 Sheet from the context menu.

On theReviewtab, in theChangesgroup, clickUnprotect Sheet.

On theHometab, in the Cellsgroup, click Format, and selectUnprotect Sheetfrom the dropdown 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.

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

2. Right-click the workbook name on the left pane (Project-VBAProject pane) and select Insert >
Module from the context menu.
3. In the window that appears, paste in the following code:

SubPasswordBreaker()
'Breaksworksheetpasswordprotection.

DimiAsInteger,jAsInteger,kAsInteger
DimlAsInteger,mAsInteger,nAsInteger
Dimi1AsInteger,i2AsInteger,i3AsInteger
Dimi4AsInteger,i5AsInteger,i6AsInteger

OnErrorResumeNext

Fori=65To66:Forj=65To66:Fork=65To66
Forl=65To66:Form=65To66:Fori1=65To66
Fori2=65To66:Fori3=65To66:Fori4=65To66
Fori5=65To66:Fori6=65To66:Forn=32To126

ActiveSheet.UnprotectChr(i)&Chr(j)&Chr(k)&_
Chr(l)&Chr(m)&Chr(i1)&Chr(i2)&Chr(i3)&_
Chr(i4)&Chr(i5)&Chr(i6)&Chr(n)

IfActiveSheet.ProtectContents=FalseThen
MsgBox"Oneusablepasswordis"&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:Next
EndSub

4. Press F5 or click the Run button 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.
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 and
Excel 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:
1. Open the password-protected sheet.
2. With the cursor positioned in cell A1, press Shift + Ctrl + End to select all used cells in the
worksheet.
3. Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected cells.
4. Create a new sheet in the current workbook or in a dierent workbook (to create a new Excel
le, simply press Ctrl + N ).
5. In the new blank worksheet, place the cursor in A1 and press Ctrl + V to paste the contents of
the password-protected sheet.
Notes:
This method works only if the Select locked cells and 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 Special to copy / paste the column widths so you won't need to adjust them in
the new sheet manually.

How to protect a workbook in Excel

Apart 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.

To protect the workbook, perform the following steps:

1. On theReviewtab, in theChangesgroup, clickthe Protect Workbook button.

2. UnderProtect workbook for, select one of the two options, or both:

Check theStructure box 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 Windows option 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.
3. In the Password box, type a password, and click the OK button.
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.
4. Retype the password in the Conrm Password window and click OK. That's it!

How to unlock a protected workbook in Excel

To remove the workbook protection, do the following:
1. Click the Protect Workbook button again (in a locked workbook, it is highlighted in green like
in the screenshot below):

2. Type the password if prompted.

3. Save the workbook.

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

password that won't even let other people open it.

1. In the workbook you want to encrypt, click File > Info, click the Protect Workbook button, and
select Encrypt with Password in the drop-down menu.

2. The Encrypt Document window will appear, you enter a password in the Password box, and
click OK.
.

By default, Microsoft Excel uses AES 128-bit advanced encryption, and you can supply a
password up to 255 characters.
3. Retype the password in the Reenter password box, and click OK.
4. Save your workbook.
To remove the workbook encryption, repeat the above steps, delete the password from the
Password box, 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 making
any changes to your workbook, perform the following steps.
1. In your Excel workbook, click the Save As button, and then click the Tools button at the bottom
of the window.
2. In the Tools drop-down menu, select General Options.

3. In the General Options dialog window, type a password in the Password to modify box.
Additionally, you can select the Read-only option, which is recommended.

Tip. If you want to protect your Excel le both from modifying and opening, type the
passwords in the Password to open and Password to modify boxes. It can be the same
password of two dierent ones.
4. Retype the password in the Conrm Password dialog, and click OK. If you've entered 2
passwords in the previous step, you will be asked to conrm both.
5. Finally, click the Save button in the Save As dialog.
To remove the password protection, repeat the above steps, and delete the password(s) from
the Password to open and Password to modify boxes. Then click the Save button 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.

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9 Responses to "How to protect and unprotect Excel sheet

with or without password"
1

A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 25, 2016 at 1:02 pm
how to unprotected the work book without any password, if password is forget
Reply

A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 26, 2016 at 5:48 am
how to unprotected the work book if password is forget.
Reply
Svetlana Cheusheva says:
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

A CHUMAN KUMAR PATRO says:

April 27, 2016 at 4:19 am
without any software can we have unprotected workbook
thanks for cooperate with me
Reply

chisom israel onah. says:

May 2, 2016 at 8:04 am
its awesome..... it worked perfectly well
Reply

Rajesh says:
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

Anonymous says:
May 19, 2016 at 9:37 am
How can prevent other from copying a protected worksheet
Reply

John Giesen says:

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

wami says:
June 7, 2016 at 10:05 pm
worked like charm,
saved many hours of trouble.
Very much appreciated.
Reply

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