How to Open Password Protected Excel Worksheet for Editing

When you lost password to your password protected Excel file, how to open it for editing? Firstly, make sure that if you can open the Excel file. If you lost the password for opening, you have to get the lost password first then you can open the worksheet for editing. There are about three methods for opening password protected Excel file when forgot the password.

Method 1: Open Password Protected Excel File without Knowing the Password.

Method 2: Open Password Protected Excel Worksheet by Recovering the Lost Password.

Method 3: Open Password Protected Excel File by Modifying the File Extension.

If you can open your Excel worksheet but cannot edit any workbook/cell in it, try the following methods.

Tip 1: Use Your Password to Unprotect the Sheets or Cells.

Tip 2: Use VBA Code to Open Password Protected Excel Worksheet for Editing.

Tip 3: Copy the Contents into a New Excel File.

Method 1: Open Password Protected Excel File without Knowing the Password.

Use Excel Password Eraser to instantly remove password protection from your protected Excel file. This is currently the fastest way to open an encrypted Excel file which is protected with an unknown password. If you have forgotten password and are unable to open your Excel file for editing, follow this guide to resolve the issue. Note: this method only work for xls file which was encrypted in Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP and 2003.

Step 1: Click “Buy Now” button to purchase Excel Password Eraser full version. You will receive a register code from email in seconds. After that, download Excel Password Eraser here and install it on a computer with internet access. Launch Excel Password Eraser and then register it with your received code.

Step 2: On the friendly interface, click “Open” icon.

Step 3: Navigate to the path of your password protected Excel file. Select it and then click “Open” button.

Step 4: Click “Remove” button to clear the opening password of the Excel file. A moment later, the program will open the password protected Excel file without password. Now you can edit anything in this worksheet without entering password.

 

Method 2: Open Password Protected Excel Worksheet by Recovering the Lost Password.

Another easy and safe way to open password protected Excel file is using Office Password Rescuer to recover the lost password. This is a powerful Office documents or files password recovery tool which can help recover password for almost all versions of Excel file such as Microsoft Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2000, 97, etc. You also can use it to recover lost opening password for Word document, Access database file, PowerPoint presentation, etc. Have a look at key features of the software.

  • Optimization for multiprocessor systems make it has high recovery speed and 100% recovery rate.
  • Patent-pending GPU acceleration technology with NVIDIA or ATI video cards.
  • User-friendly interface that any new user can use it.
  • Four powerful password recovery types to recover password in the shortest time.
  • Automatically save the recovery process and proceed it when you run the program next time.
  • Shut down your computer automatically when the password is recovered.

To use Office Password Rescuer to open password protected Excel file for editing, complete the following steps.

Step 1: Download and install Office Password Rescuer on your computer.

1. Click “Buy Now” button to purchase Office Password Rescuer full version. A moment later, you will receive a license code from email.

2. Launch the software you just installed, click “Help” from menu bar and select “Register”. Enter your received code.

Step 2: Use Office Password Rescuer to recover opening password for your Excel file.

1. Click “Open” icon under menu bar.

2. When a dialog pops up, navigate to your password protected Excel worksheet. Select it and then click open button.

3. Office Password Rescuer provides four powerful password recovery types for you to recover lost password fast. Drop down the list and then select an appropriate option. In this guide, I choose the default selection “Normal”.

4. If you still remembering character type of the lost password, great, select the character range.

5. When finish configuration, click “Start” icon to start recovering Excel password.

6. When the password is successfully recovered, copy it.

7. Now, double-click your password protected Excel worksheet and enter the password to open it for editing.

 

Method 3: Open Password Protected Excel File by Modifying the File Extension.

Another trick for opening password protected Excel file is modifying the file extension. This method works perfectly for Microsoft Office 2010 and previous versions. This means you can’t use it to unlock Excel file which was encrypted in Microsoft Excel 2013 and beyond versions. Now let’s see how to accomplish this task.

Step 1: Make a copy of your password protected Excel file. Then change the extension to .zip.

Step 2: Unzip content in the zip file to a new folder. After unzipping, search for the file that ends with .xlm extension in the new folder.

Step 3: Open the XLM File with XLM editor on your computer.

Step 4: In the opened xlm file, press the CTRL+F keys. Search box pops up. Type word “SheetProtection” in the box and then click “Next” button to find out the word in this file. Once you find this word, delete it and then save the file.

Step 5: Change the file extension from zip back to xls. Now you are able to open the Excel file without password.

 

If you can open your Excel worksheet, but the workbooks or cells in it has been locked with password, you can use the following tips to unlock them easily.

 

Tip 1: Use Your Password to Unprotect the Sheets or Cells.

If you have the password, it is very easy to unprotect the workbooks, sheets or cells.

1. Open your Excel worksheet and then select “Review” on the menu bar.

2. Click “Protect” and then select unprotect sheet or protect workbook option.

3. When it asks you to enter the password, type your password and then click “OK”. Save changes and now you are able to edit the workbooks or sheets.

 

Tip 2: Use VBA Code to Open Password Protected Excel Worksheet for Editing.

This is an easy and free way to unprotect Excel workbook or sheet without using any software, but it cannot help open a password protected Excel worksheet which is encrypted with an opening password. So you just can use this to help unprotect workbook, sheet and cells in Excel file. Here is how.

Step 1: Open your Excel file that you want to unprotect for editing.

Step 2: Press Alt+F11 keys at the same time to open the VBA Editor.

Step 3: Now, select “Insert” from menu bar and then click “Module”. Once you do this, a window requesting for code will pop up. Copy and paste the following lines of code into the window:

Sub UnprotectWorkbook()
'Unprotect Excel workbook password protection.
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
On Error Resume Next
For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

Step 4: Hit “Save” button, and your Excel file will be saved as a macro-enabled workbook. Click “Run” button to unprotect workbook and then you can edit the contents in your Excel file.

 

Tip 3: Copy the Contents into a New Excel File.

If you just need to unprotect Excel sheet which is protected with password, the easiest way is to copying the whole password-protected content saved in the Excel sheet and paste them to a new sheet. Ensure that the options of 'Select locked cells' and 'Select unlocked cells' are enabled before the sheet is protected, or this tip will not work for you.

Step 1. Run the Excel whose sheets are protected from modifying.

Step 2. Select all the cells in the Excel sheet by pressing “Ctrl + A” or just click the corner at the left-top of the sheet, then copy these cells by pressing “Ctrl + C” or right-click any cell and then select “Copy”.

Step 3. Create a new Excel file and open it.

Step 4: Then paste these copied cells in the new sheet by pressing “Ctrl + V” and save it. Now you are able to add or remove these cells in this sheet.

Note: All the external links may be removed after pasting the protected sheet to the new Excel sheet.

 

Office Password Rescuer

Price: $ 24.95

Support File Type:
  • Microsoft Word 97-2016 (.doc & .docx)
  • Microsoft Excel 97-2016 (.xls & .xlsx)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2016 (.ppt & .pptx)
  • Microsoft Outlook 97-2016 (.pst)
  • Microsoft Access 97-2016 (.mdb & .accdb)
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  • Windows Server 2012/2008/2003 (x86/64)
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