How to Open a Password Protected Excel File

Removing Password Protection from a Sheet

1. Understand the conditions under which you can do this. If only the Excel sheet is protected—that is, if you can open the Excel file and view its contents but not edit it—then you can use this method to remove the password protection on both Windows and Mac computers.

   1. If the Excel file itself is encrypted, you cannot use this method to remove the password.

2. Check to see if the Excel file is encrypted. The easiest way to do this is by double-clicking the Excel file; if the file opens like usual when you double-click it, the sheet is protected but the file is not.

   1. You should see a pop-up warning appear if you attempt to edit the Excel sheet.
   2. If you're immediately prompted for a password upon double-clicking the file, the file is encrypted and you cannot use this method to open it—try the next method.

3. Make a copy of the protected sheet. Click the Excel file that contains the sheet you want to unprotect, then press Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘ Command+C (Mac) and paste it elsewhere by pressing Ctrl+V (Windows) or ⌘ Command+V (Mac).

   1. This is necessary in case you accidentally corrupt the original version of the file in the process.

4. Enable file extensions. Skip this step on a Mac. If you're using a Windows computer, you'll need to make sure you can view and change file extension names by doing the following:

   1. Open
      File Explorer (or press ⊞ Win+E).
   2. Click View
   3. Check the "File name extensions" box.

5. Change the Excel file into a ZIP folder. To do so:

   1. Windows — Right-click the Excel file, click Rename, delete the "xlsx" text at the end of the file's name, and type in zip. Make sure that you keep the period between the file's name and "zip". Press ↵ Enter, then click Yes when prompted.
   2. Mac — Click the Excel file, click File, click Get Info, delete the "xlsx" text at the end of the file's name, and type in zip. Make sure that you keep the period between the file's name and "zip". Press ⏎ Return, then click Use .zip when prompted.

6. Extract the ZIP folder. This process will vary depending on your computer's operating system:

   1. Windows — Right-click the ZIP folder, click Extract All... in the drop-down menu, and click Extract when prompted. The extracted folder should open.
   2. Mac — Double-click the ZIP folder, then wait for the extracted folder to open.

7. Open the "xl" folder. Double-click this folder in the extracted folder to do so.

   1. If the extracted folder didn't open for some reason, first double-click the regular folder with the same name as your ZIP folder.

8. Open the "worksheets" folder. It's near the top of the "xl" folder.

9. Open the sheet in a text editor. Depending on your computer's operating system, do one of the following:

   1. Windows — Right-click the sheet you want to unlock (e.g., "Sheet1"), select Open with in the drop-down menu, and click Notepad in the resulting pop-out menu.
   2. Mac — Click the sheet you want to unlock (e.g., "Sheet1"), click File, select Open With, and click TextEdit.

10. Remove the password protection code. Find the "sheetProtection" section that's inside the "< >" brackets, then delete everything from "") on the other side of the sheet protection algorithm.

11. Save your changes and close the text editor. Press either Ctrl+S (Windows) or ⌘ Command+S (Mac), then click the X (or red circle on a Mac) in the corner of the text editor.

12. Copy the "worksheets" folder. Click the "Back" button to go back to the "xl" folder, then click the "worksheets" folder and press either Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘ Command+C (Mac).

13. Open the ZIP folder. Double-click the ZIP folder that you created earlier.

14. Replace the ZIP folder's "worksheets" folder with your copied one. Navigate to the ZIP folder's "worksheets" location by double-clicking the "xl" folder, then delete the "worksheets" folder, click a blank space in the current folder, and press either Ctrl+V (Windows) or ⌘ Command+V (Mac). This will paste the copied "worksheets" folder into the ZIP folder.

15. Change the ZIP folder back into an Excel file. Close the ZIP folder, then do one of the following:

    1. Windows — Right-click the ZIP folder, click Rename, replace the "zip" text with "xlsx", and press ↵ Enter. Click Yes when prompted.
    2. Mac — Click the ZIP folder, click File, click Get Info, replace the "zip" text in the title with "xlsx", and press ⏎ Return. Click Use .xlsx when prompted.

16. Open your Excel sheet. Double-click the Excel sheet, then edit it as needed.

    1. If you receive an error that the Excel sheet is damaged, you probably removed extra code when you were attempting to remove the password protection algorithm. Repeat the above steps, making sure to only remove the text between the brackets () and the brackets themselves.