Microsoft Excel is an application that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. It's a database-supporting sheets or spreadsheets software. It analyses and visualizes data using macro coding in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). The great thing about this application is how many functions it provides to its customers.

Mathematical data can be represented in various ways, including mathematical computations, maps, infographics, and statistics. Excel also protects spreadsheets, so the benefits are far from done. Anyone who wishes to secure their material may simply secure the document using a password. The password prevents unauthorized access to that information, and it can only be opened by those who know the password. 

But for some reason, you may need to remove the password from Excel. This article shows you how to remove password from Excel whether you remember the password or not.

How to Remove Password from Excel with Password

Here are two ways to help you remove password from Excel if you know the password. In this case, it's easy to do. 

Method 1. Using Info Feature to Delete Excel Password

Removing passwords from Excel is like a walk in a park if you know the password. Here is how you can do it: 

Step 1. First of all, open the file whose password you want to remove.

Step 2. Input the existing password and click ok to get access to the file

Step 3. At the top left corner of the screen, click on the "File" tab to access the settings.

Step 4. Now, in the left pane, open "Info" and then click on "Protect Workbook". 

excel password protect

Step 5. On the next screen, click on "Encrypted with Password" and remove the password which is shown in the password field.

encrypt excel with password

Your password has been successfully removed. Just close and save the file to have direct access to the file.

Method 2. Use The Save As Option

Step 1. Enter the password-protected Excel file that you wish to decrypt. Select OK after entering the Excel password.

Step 2. Choose "Save as" from the File tab in the upper left corner of the opening Excel worksheet.

Step 3. A pop-up box will display when you select a folder.

Step 4. In the bottom right corner of the window, select "Tools". Choose "General Options" from the drop-down box.

 excel save as tools

Step 5. The General Options dialogue box appears, displaying the usernames and passwords for opening and editing the Excel document. Click "OK" after removing the credentials from both text areas.

 excel egeneral options

Step 6. Close and save the file to save the changes you have made.

How to Remove Password from Excel Without Password

How to remove password from Excel if you've forgotten it? Don't worry, try the following two possible solutions to figure out this issue.

Method 1. Convert Excel Sheet to Zip File

Well, there is not any direct way of removing the password of an excel file if you don't know the password. However, there are multiple tricks to it that can come in handy. For instance, you can use third-party software or convert the excel file into a Zip file. Here is how you can convert an excel file into a Zip file:

Step 1. Right-click on the Excel file in the destination folder and rename the extension from ".xlsx" to ".zip" in the context menu.

Step 2. A notice will appear, questioning if you wish to modify it. You should click on "Yes".

Step 3. Then, right-click on the zip file and click on "Extract All" to retrieve the data in the file.

Step 4. A popup will open, displaying the location of the retrieved files. Select "Extract" from the menu.

Step 5. Click the "XL" folder in the retrieved file. Enter the "worksheets" folder under the "xl" folder.

Step 6. Inside your password-protected file of MS Excel, you'll find a list of XML files that include all of your Excel data and algorithms. Sheet1.xml, sheet2.xml, etc., are the names of the sheets.

Step 7. To alter an XML file, edit it in notepad and look for a section that contains the term "protection."

Step 8.  Remove anything in between, even including these " and ">" letters. Then, save and close the notepad. 

Step 9. Repeat steps 1–11 for each XML file in the "worksheets" folder of your Excel spreadsheet. Ensure that all XML files have been updated.

Step 10. Return to the retrieved file and select all of the files to re-insert your changed Data file into your zip file.

Step 11. Choose "Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder" from the context menu. A fresh zip file will be created. The file extension should be changed from "zip" to ".xlsx."

A notification will appear, questioning if you wish to update it. Right-click on "Yes". Launch the Excel spreadsheet. Without entering a password, you will now be able to see and change the Excel data saved in your spreadsheets.

Method 2. Use Online Excel Password Remover

If nothing seems to work and you are now out of ideas on how you can access the excel file without a password. There are special excel password changing or removing tools online that can make your day. Here is how Password-Find, an online password remover, works: 

online password remover

Step 1. First, go to the password-find website. 

Step 2. Browse to find the Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document you want to unprotect from your local device.

Step 3. Wait for the tool to remove password from your Excel files. 

Step 4. Check the pay for the service. 

How to Remove Password from an ExcelSheet On Mac

The MacBook is pretty different from a normal windows laptop. It works on a different operating system and completely different algorithms. Likewise, changing or removing the password of an excel file is also different on both Mac and Windows. Removing the password on Mac is easy as compared to Windows.

If you own a Mac, here is how you can remove the password:

Step 1. Launch your protected Excel file on your Macbook first.

Step 2. In your toolbar at the top right of the screen, select "File."

Step 3. Select "Password" from the drop-down menu. You'll be taken to the exact page where you choose your password. Clear the text boxes in the section and hit OK.

Step 4. Remove the password protection from your Excel document.

How to Recover and Repair Corrupted Excel Files 

While removing the password from MS Excel files, data loss or file corruption is a considerable risk. Just suppose you are applying different methods to remove the password, and suddenly the file goes corrupt. It could be a hectic situation if your file has some critical data.

However, you don't have to worry because the EaseUS Fixo Document Repair - an all-in-one file recovery and repair tool is there for you. It can quickly repair corrupted files efficiently, including documents, videos, and photos.

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Here is the video tutorial for you:

  • 00:14 - Method 1. Insert to a new Word document
  • 00:38 - Method 2. Use open and repair
  • 00:55 - Method 3. Default settings
  • 01:30 - Method 4. EaseUS Fixo Document Repair

Free download this file recovery software to repair corrupted Excel files

Step 1. Download and launch Fixo on your PC or laptop. Choose "File Repair" to repair corrupted Office documents, including Word, Excel, PDF, and others. Click "Add Files" to select corrupted documents.

add files to repair documents with Fixo

Step 2. To repair multiple files at once, click the "Repair All" button. If you want to repair a single document, move your pointer to the target file and choose "Repair". You can also preview the documents by clicking the eye icon.

select documents to repair

Step 3. Click "Save" to save a selected document. Select "Save All" to save all the repaired files. Choose "View Repaired" to locate the repaired folder.

save repaired documents in Fixo

You may also be interested in this post if you try to open an encrypted Zip file:

open password protected zip file

Open Password Protected Zip File [100% Working]

This post will look at the methods that help you open password protected Zip file (using 7-Zip, WinRAR, WinZip) with or without a password. Read more >>

Conclusion

It is always good to protect your Excel files with a password. However, it can become a hassle sometimes if you forget the password of an important file. We discussed some of the easiest ways to recover and remove Excel passwords in such scenarios.

However, if you have mistakenly deleted or corrupted an Excel file, it can be difficult to recover or repair. Let the EaseUS Fixo do this task for you to skip all the complex steps. It is a quick method to recover and fix all your Excel files.

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Updated by Finley

Finley is interested in reading and writing articles about technical knowledge. Her articles mainly focus on file repair and data recovery.

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Written by Cedric

Cedric Grantham is a senior editor and data recovery specialist of EaseUS. He mainly writes articles and how-to tips about data recovery on PC and Mac. He has handled 10,000+ data recovery cases and is good at data recovery of NTFS, FAT (FAT32 and ExFAT) file systems, and RAID structure reorganization.

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