How to Unprotect Excel Sheet without Password 2016

3 Easy Ways to Unprotect Excel 2016 without Password

August 28, 2019 02:31:47 / Posted by Michael Eric to Office Tricks
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Whether you use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel, you have the password protection feature to protect your confidential documents from unauthorized users. When you turn on password protection, your documents will require a password to be entered each time you open them on your machine. While that is all great, sometimes the creators of those documents end-up forgetting the password. If you are in such a situation, you might want to learn how to unprotect Excel sheet without password 2016.

By unprotecting your Microsoft Excel sheets, you will be able to access the contents of your Excel sheets without a password. Or in some cases, you will recover the password and then use it to get access to your spreadsheets.

Regardless, here is how to unprotect Excel 2016 without password using multiple ways.

Part 1. Unprotect Excel 2016 without Password Using Excel Password Recovery (For Opening Password)

While there are several ways to unprotect Excel 2016 on your computer, not all methods are equally easy. Some require more effort than the others. If you would like to go for the method that requires minimal efforts and gets the job done for you, choose none other than the software mentioned here.

Enter Excel Password Recovery, a software that allows users to recover the password for your Excel spreadsheets. Once you have installed the software, all you need to do is give it your Excel file and it will recover the spreadsheet password for you. Here are some of the features the software offers:

  • Easily remove encryption from password protected Excel files
  • Multiple attack options to increase chances of password recovery.
  • CPU and GPU acceleration for faster password recovery
  • Supports all the versions of the Microsoft Excel software.
  • Safe and secure.

If you like the software for what it offers and you would like to proceed with it, here is how you unprotect Excel 2016 without password using the aforementioned software.

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  • Download and install the software on your computer. Launch the software when it is installed and click on Add to add your password protected Excel file to the software.

    import file
  • Select an attack type from the three attacks shown on your screen. Feel free to choose the one that you think will work for you.

    dictionary attack
  • Hit Start when you have chosen an attack type to start cracking the password for your Excel file. Soon as the software has finished cracking password, you will see the password on your screen.

    recover password

You may now launch the password protected Excel file on your computer and use the newly found password to unlock it.

Part 2. Unprotect Excel 2016 Using VBA Code (Remove Restrictions)

VBA is a function built into the Excel software on your computer and it allows you to run various scripts on your spreadsheets. Using this ability, someone created a code that cracks the password of your Excel file and shows it on the screen.

  • Launch the password protected spreadsheet in the MS Excel software on your computer.

    import file
  • Copy the following code and paste it into the box that appears on your screen.
  • Sub PasswordBreaker()
    'Breaks worksheet 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
    vba code

The password for the protected Excel spreadsheet will be shown on your screen.

Part 3. Unprotect Sheet Excel 2016 Using ZIP (Remove Restrictions)

What protects your spreadsheets with a password is actually a file sitting in the inner system of your spreadsheet. While you cannot directly access this file in the spreadsheet, you can do by changing the extension of the file.

If you change the Excel extension to .zip, you can access the inner contents of your spreadsheet. You can then find and get rid of the file that adds password protection to the spreadsheet.

  • Right-click on your Excel spreadsheet and select Rename. Change the extension of the file to .zip.
  • Open the zip file, navigate to the xl > worksheets folder, and double-click on the sheet1.xml file. It will let you unprotect the first worksheet in the spreadsheet. You may also right-click on it and select Edit.

    edit excel sheet
  • When the file opens in Notepad, remove the tag that says sheetProtection to remove protection from the file.

    remove protection code

Save the file. Open the file in MS Excel and it will let you access it without needing a password. That is how you unprotect sheet Excel 2016.

Part 4. Unprotect Excel Sheet 2016 Online Via Google Docs (Remove Restrictions)

Google Docs is actually an alternative to Microsoft Office suite but it does help you remove password protection from your files.

You can upload your Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs and it will remove the protection for you. Here is how it works.

  • Head over to the Google Drive website and click on New followed by File upload. Upload your password protected Excel sheet.

    upload google drive
  • Double-click on the uploaded file to open it with Google Docs. When it opens, click on the File menu and select Download as followed by Microsoft Excel.

    download excel file

Your spreadsheet will be downloaded in the MS Excel format and this time it will not have a password protection attached to it.

The task of Excel 2016 unprotect sheet is pretty easy to do provided you know where to do what. Our guide above should point you in the right direction so you can unprotect your MS Excel files.

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