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How To Remove A Password From A Protected Excel Worksheet

1) Make a backup copy of the Excel spreadsheet. 2) Rename the spreadsheet file extension from .xlsx to .zip to expose the internal file structure. 3) Open the zip file and navigate to the worksheets folder containing the individual worksheet files with .xml extensions. 4) Open each worksheet file in Notepad, find and delete the <sheetProtection> line to remove password protection, and save the modified files.

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63 views

How To Remove A Password From A Protected Excel Worksheet

1) Make a backup copy of the Excel spreadsheet. 2) Rename the spreadsheet file extension from .xlsx to .zip to expose the internal file structure. 3) Open the zip file and navigate to the worksheets folder containing the individual worksheet files with .xml extensions. 4) Open each worksheet file in Notepad, find and delete the <sheetProtection> line to remove password protection, and save the modified files.

Uploaded by

anilks3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to remove a password from a protected Excel

worksheet.

How to Remove a Password From a Protected Spreadsheet


BEFORE you start Always make a backup copy of your spreadsheet. While the following steps will
do nothing to the data in your spreadsheet, it NEVER hurts to be cautious and have a copy of your
original document – “just in case…”.
Make a BACKUP copy of your spreadsheet BEFORE trying to remove the password

Step 1 Rename the extension of your spreadsheet from *.xlsx to *.zip.

Rename your spreadsheet from *.xlsx to *.zip


Step 2 Open the “ZIP” file in any File Compression software. There are many free versions available –
we personally like using 7-Zip (click here to download a free copy of 7-Zip).
Open the ZIP file in 7-Zip
Step 3 Locate the “xl” folder and then the “worksheets” folder. Inside the “worksheets” folder you
will see a list of all your worksheets within your spreadsheet. They will be listed as sheet1.xml,
sheet2.xml and so on.

Locate the xl folder then worksheets folder

All your worksheets will be listed with xml file extensions

Step 4 If you have a lot of worksheets within your spreadsheet, then this next step can get a little
tedious… Starting at sheet1.xml – open the file in Notepad and search for the line that begins with
“<sheetProtection algorithmName=”SHA-512″ hashValue=“.
It will look something like:
<sheetProtection algorithmName=”SHA-512″
hashValue=”x9RyFM+j9H4J3IFFhsHo3q1kQkuLydpJlLh2mdvfvk15He/Yps8xizWt/XkAJ//
g+TyqgcU+8o1QBjQvKDqIzg==” saltValue=”57YXDPnVjawU5s1nGyT8fQ==”
spinCount=”100000″ sheet=”1″ objects=”1″ scenarios=”1″/>
Nb: the hashvalue and saltvalue WILL be different in your file than what is shown here.
Select this entire line – everything between and including the “<” and “>” characters and delete
it.

Find and delete the <Sheet Protection line


Step 5 Save your modified xml file. Repeat this process for every xml file in your
spreadsheet. Once complete, you simply need to add your modified xml files back into
your “zip” file, overwriting all existing original xml files.
(To add your modified files back into your Zip file – ensure you have 7-Zip still open and
navigate your way through to where the xml files are stored – i.e. go to the xl folder
and then the worksheets folder. Then from your desktop (or wherever you have the
modified xml files stored), select ALL your xml files and left click (and hold) and drag
and drop the files from the desktop over into the 7-Zip folder.)

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