There are many attractive features that MS Excel offers that make work simple. Excel also has the potential to protect and unprotect the worksheet. Let us see how to unprotect the Excel sheet. Do check Lio App for android
- The first step is to open the protected excel spreadsheet and select Review, then select the unprotected sheet. You could even right-click in the protected spreadsheet and select the unprotected sheet.
- Now type the password that is used to protect the spreadsheet and then click on ok, now the spreadsheet becomes unprotected and can even be modified.
How to unprotect Excel workbook without a password
When you have plenty of files in Excel and forget the password of any excel worksheet that you want to modify, here is how you can unprotect the Excel workbook without a password.
- The first step is to open the protected spreadsheet
- Select the Developer for opening the Visual Basic code editor and choose View code. You can also press ALT+F11 for opening the Visual Basic code editor
- You must enter the following code in the code window
Sub PasswordBreaker()
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
- Press F5 or Select Run to execute the command, it will take some time to operate, and once it is done you will see a pop-up with a password. Click on OK to unprotect your spreadsheet.
How to unprotect Excel sheets using VBA?
Unprotecting excel sheet using VBA:
- Save as an older excel file. Click on the file and select Save As, from the list of dropdowns select Excel 97-2003(*.xls)
- The next step is to create and run the VBA code. To set up a VBA module, select the Developer menu in your ribbon, you could select file options, and then Customize Ribbon. You must change the Choose commands from to All commands. The Developer menu must be moved from left to right and then click on OK.
- Select View Code from the Controls section of the ribbon from the Developer menu and right click on MS Excel objects, go to Insert, and select Module. Now the code must be copied and pasted into the module.
Sub PasswordBreaker()
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 “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
- Click on Run to execute the command. The password will be displayed which is arbitrary, finally, click on ok to unprotect the spreadsheet.
