EASILY UNLOCK Protected Excel Sheets WITHOUT Password

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Did you ever forget a password for one of your protected Excel sheets? In this video I'll show you how you can crack your protected Excel sheet. Easily remove Excel sheet protection without using any password recovery software. All you need is a ZIP program like WinZIP, WinRAR or 7-zip.
Important: Before using this trick always make a copy of the workbook that you're going to unlock.
00:00 How to Unprotect Excel Sheets
01:27 Remove Password from .XML File
05:07 Wrap Up
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Опубликовано:

1 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 2,5 тыс.

@LeilaGharani 9 месяцев назад

Sign up to our free newsletter and start your week with Excel hacks, Office tips, and the latest AI updates.: link.xelplus.com/yt-c-newsletter

@lolaken12345 9 месяцев назад

Is this method applicable to unlocking the VBA password?

@MrAliurrehman 6 месяцев назад

Hey Leila. How to open an Excel Sheet which is password protected and you don't know the password?

@pierrepl1272 6 месяцев назад

Will this work on a XLSM file?

@Aestdyfyfydyyetryuoiyfghcvb Месяц назад

@@pierrepl1272 XLSM works too but I must do that for all sheets, not only one.

@binilabraham8943 Месяц назад

Thank you soo much.. this was so helpful

@Tianablue1 3 года назад

I found this exact method a few years back on RU-vid when I forgot the password of one of my own sheets, but this video explained it much better and always great to have a reminder! :)

@seapacificdesign 2 года назад

Excellent work Leila! A quick note to say that you have to follow the steps EXACTLY as Leila mentions otherwise your file will get corrupted. If your file is on a Sharepoint site you will need to download it to your computer first, make a copy, rename it and when the task is complete you can upload it back to Sharepoint and it will not conflict with the previous file.

@stephenkaras1523 2 года назад

Leila you are the best!!! I was just handed a ton of work to repair in an XL spread sheet and the sheet with all the work was password protected. Just came to your RU-vid page and found this clip. You continually save the day!!

@davidnetusil2695 2 года назад

This video is absolutely wonderful. I had a file created by a recently retired colleague who could not remember the password they used. This tip saved me HOURS of work having to recreate a multi-tab workbook. Thank you so much for making and sharing.

@russraimer736 3 года назад

Leila, Fantastic presentation! Short and sweet! Been watching a number of your videos - thought I knew a lot about Excel - finding out there is SO MUCH more to learn! Curious how you became so knowledgeable about Excel.

@Ensavoirmoins Год назад

Thank you Leila for this great channel. Compared to similar YT channel, you have a great sense of organization, you pay attention to the smallest details, and the way you present the toughest subject makes it easy to everyone to understand regardless of his/her level of mastery, and this is what I like about the channel. All the best.

@howardnemerov1849 Год назад

Thank you Leila! Great step-by-step walkthrough. Fortunately, Windows 10 now handles zip natively, so I was able to edit without an extra utility. Also, a warning to those with multi-tab workbooks: You have to search every "zipped" XL file. I found some that had "protect" and some that didn't. To unlock the workbook, I had to search them all and edited about half before I could access all cells.

@kathyloveless4570 Год назад

Great job of explaining! I was frustrated by receiving a necessary file at a large corporation that had been locked and no one seemed to know how to unlock it. I spent days going round and round looking for the password to no avail. Your fix had me up and working within the hour (there were a lot of sheets in my file). Great job!

@lathikapreethi9276 3 года назад

You always stand out from other Excel experts and Trainers! Amazingly inspiring video!

@EKUTAN1 2 года назад

Learning with Leila is fun. Seriously, I told my employer that l am expert in all MS suite. Well l am not, this is where I come to learn. You have been a life saver for me. Thanks again sweet lady.

@carolynklaus4047 Год назад

Leila Gharani I love you! This is the third time I have forgotten the password for a worksheet--and the other times were long enough ago that I had forgotten what to do. But this time I knew right where to go--your RU-vid video! Very quickly, I'm back in business. Thank you ever so much!!!!!

@syedazher6316 Год назад

I had made a excel sheet about a year and half ago. and of course I had forgotten the protection password. I had to make some minor changes to the sheet as per my colleague request, and I was not able to do it. I googled it and your video was on TOP. and after getting the job done in 3-4 minutes , I know now why your spot was on the top :) 😊. Great work Leila, Thanx

@SreenikethanI 2 года назад

Damn, from an Excel point of view, this "Sheet protection" concept seems to be useless for proper security, unless we just want it to restrict and guide the user in general! Amazing video!

@knldgispwr 2 года назад

I can’t begin to tell you how many hours you have saved me. I asked the coworker for an unprotected workbook of his so that I can begin making updates for Fiscal Year 2023. His response was “not my sheet, don’t have a blank unprotected one, sorry”. I knew that I could do this but I couldn’t remember what to do after the zip portion. I am subscribing to your channel in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Thank you so much. 😁

@bladehenge63 7 месяцев назад

An absolute lifesaver. Inherited a password protected file from a coworker who retired w/o leaving their notes and this saved me from having to remake the whole workbook from scratch!

@Salam_Damai431 6 месяцев назад

Greetings from Indonesia, Sister. This video was made two years ago, but keeps on giving. You saved me a lot of time today. Thank you. Peace be with you, Sis. Now and always.

@IvanSrb 3 года назад

I forget my coworkers passwords all the time. Thanks!

@Vandalfoe 2 года назад

I lolled. 👍

@tdmap2241 2 года назад

😂

@nattravel 2 года назад

😊😊😊

@Meekomix 2 года назад

Hahaha!

@Maazazad 2 года назад

I literally cried laughing! Good one!

@penelopechiu4171 2 года назад

This was so helpful and easy to follow! Straight to the point and worked! Very well done. Thank you so much!!!

@kaustubh488 Год назад

Beautiful, I had been struggling to unlock one of my worksheet for last 4 months and was hesitant to pay money to random sites for it.. this video was a game changer..

@derleichtglaubige4415 2 года назад

That was ridiculously helpfull. When that happens it's a real pain because we all usually use that for finished tables that will be in use for a while without editing. So when the problem pops up it is quite likely the creator of the table has long since forgotten the protection password. Being able to avoid using hacking tools is a major relief. I do hope Microsoft will never take this possibility away from "practionners" like me. Thank you so much for sharing!

@dragonwario23 3 года назад

You're amazing. I've been needing this for weeks and you just solved it in a couple of minutes. Thank you so much. Keep it up with the great content.

@MKRM27 2 года назад

Google?

@AtlanticZealot 3 года назад

I learned some things here, thanks! It looks like the sheet file sizes are also displayed when opening the file as a zip file - I might try that to troubleshoot huge excel files to see which sheets could use some cleaning

@richardcarter445 2 года назад

Wow thank you! I cant believe this actually works. I remember ages ago googling for ages to try and unlock a file but could only find apps to try and brute force the password. This solution is great!

@Mepjc Год назад

Great talk through once again Leila - tried to follow this through on a webpage but failed, nailed it first time following this through!

@fozman1959 3 года назад

Brilliant - just helped me solve a problem with a client's spreadsheet

@khanshahnawaz3775 3 года назад

Great work Leila ❤️... I think excel protect function is made primarily to ensure unintentional editing of data. So no harm in showing way to unprotect your excel file if you have forgot your password. For security purpose, you have laptop/ pc login password.

@theyippikiyo Год назад

i received an excel workbook that was beautifully designed and way above my abilities. i wanted to see the formulas and how the creator made it work but it was locked up tight. thanks to your video, i was able to unlock it and admire the handiwork. i am definitely adding some of these formulas to my toolbox!

@luiscb69 Год назад

This worked for me really well, on a complex workbook with 20 plus worksheets, all of them protected, after the 3rd sheet I memorized all the steps on a keyboard. It saved me many many hours of work. Thank you very much. Liked and Suscribed

@TylerStanczak 3 года назад

I forgot all the time. Thanks for this helpful tutorial :)

@jeanlucfcn6876 3 года назад

J’adore !!! Fin des prises de tête parce que le lot de passe est oublié ou mal orthographié !!! Pleins de grands mercis. J’ai déjà plusieurs cas sur lesquels je vais pouvoir me faire la main !!! Toujours aussi efficace. Bravo.

@josephtsesay7279 2 года назад

Oh!! Leila this video is self explanatory thanks for saving me a lot to redo a work that would have cost another another 5hours to redo everything but in less than 15minutes I was able recover all I needed. Bravo!!!

@jayadevgyani Год назад

Excellent tip for many who forget password for protected sheets! Kudos!

@jaehyi2009 2 года назад

Wow, I didn't know how easy it was to override the protection set at Workbook and Worksheet levels... Thank you for the video!

@vd9570 2 года назад

overriding console apps is quite easy as they have a single password thread

@dimiargo Год назад

This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing

@fanmurk4408 2 года назад

I applied the same on some protected word document.It worked like a charm. Cheers leila!!

@briancornwell5854 2 года назад

My spreadsheet was an .xls and this didn't work at first but I saved it as an .xlsx and it worked perfectly! Thank you so much. You gained a subscriber today 🙂

@renetherock1 3 года назад

I mainly use sheet protection to prevent somebody to break formulas so it's far from a bad thing to be able to remove sheet protection if we end up forgetting the password. Sometimes I protect the sheet without keying a password. The cells that I want to protect from being erased are still protected but you don't need password that you will probably forget in the future :) The main goal of protecting a sheet (or specific cells in a sheet) is mainly usefull to prevent some random co-worker to break things by clicking everywhere :)

@romulusmilea2747 3 года назад

This is great, I have done that some time ago, it worked perfectly. One suggestion for Notepad (when you found and deleted the protection): it could be useful to use Format menu, then Word Wrap, text will be re-arranged within the page width, it could be easier to see. To be honest, the way you presented it is better, because that protection start tag, and end tag are on the same line (word wrapping might move end tag to another line). One more thing: it would be useful to create another video with removing the protection for the workbook (structure). Do you agree ? Thank you.

@andreslopez180 2 года назад

Wow love this. As a project manager I use excel all the time, I don’t lock them but now I know how to unlock if I need to.

@jonskinkis8106 Год назад

Excellent video and explanation. Keep it up Leila. Just used your method and it works 100%.

@surajnirankari7623 3 года назад

Another amazing content 🔥

@anoopsabnani1380 2 года назад

Hi Leila, this was SUPER !! We had a team member who left and refused to give us the worksheet password....this method worked amazingly well.....

@themissinfowar6629 2 года назад

Nope. Not gonna do it.... still not going to give you the password.

@rlalthantluanga 2 года назад

Anoop, send him a copy of the unprotected file. 😆

@nathanielaboagye2259 Год назад

@@rlalthantluanga or a copy with a different password 😂😂

@carolynklaus4047 2 года назад

Leila, you are a lifesaver! I have now forgotten my password twice, but the second time I remembered that you had helped me out of a jam the first time. Much less panic and remorse. Thank you ever so much!!!!

@LeilaGharani 2 года назад

You are so welcome, Carolyn!

@harrydoroba4699 2 месяца назад

Leila@@LeilaGharani

@jamesmason4420 2 года назад

Oh my goodness... this video was a total life saver... I had a document used for our companies scheduling system for over 800 employees... I needed to make a change to the formula sheet and couldn't remember the password as the document was a couple years old... Crazy grateful!!!

@LeilaGharani 2 года назад

Super happy to hear that!

@itorres008 2 года назад

Something that may help is using an editor that handles XML files instead of notepad or other plain text editor. It will present the file formatted nicely with line breaks and indentations and it will be easier to select just what you want to delete.

@kadirawadjr652 3 года назад

thanks for sharing 🤘

@randylilko 7 месяцев назад

Leila, Life saver for last minute corrections on a locked excel sheet. Thanks!!

@rightuppercut1426 2 года назад

As always you’re worth your weight in gold, Leila. You really helped me out with this one. 😉👏🏼

@KnightsMultiMediaCapeTown 3 года назад

you have exposed a secret Microsoft has hidden for a long time. the xlsx file is just a renamed zip file. nicely done. there is actually more that can be done while till in xlm format.

@GanonTEK 3 года назад

I found out about this a few weeks ago as there was a link to another Excel file I couldn't remove and I couldn't find where it was. Turns out a range I copied over had a defined name and it linked the defined name to the original Excel file. The original file name in the formula for the defined name doesn't get removed it you try to break link or set the current Excel file as the target. One of the xml files showed all the links and I figured it out from that. It's kind of funny thinking it's a .zip

@rashigupta8029 Год назад

It gives me error that windows can't open the file...it is invalid. What should I do now?

@jaswantbabra 2 года назад

Amazing Lelia you make it so simple. Thank you always for your invaluable insights

@cheryltovizi9213 Год назад

OMG, thank you so much. I had this same situation where forgot my password and had to recreate a complex spreadsheet from scratch as I couldn't find any solution even on Microsoft site. This would have saved me hours and a lot of tears along the way. Thank you

@marielbuenaventura0211 Год назад

Hello, please help. When i double clicked the zipped file, it says "The Archive Is Either In Unknown Format or Damaged Error" :( however the original file is not corrupted. I can't proceed from there. Please help.

@gaad7938 2 года назад

Note that you may have to save the original spreadsheet in "xlsx" format first. I had an old spreadsheet in "xls" format that would not open when changed to "zip". Doing a "Save As..." to .xlsx worked. Thanks for a great tip, Leila!

@LeilaGharani 2 года назад

👍

@zbigniewgrodzicki6076 Год назад

Does it works for xlsb as well? I'm afraid a file can lose some functionalities while converting from xlsb to xlsx but I may be wrong.

@BENHARARVIND Год назад

Thank you

@faizsarfraz3782 Год назад

Same problem with me. Mine xls file but how to save as file in xlsx without file opening as it is password protected and not opening

@markrodgers4615 Год назад

Holy COW!!! I've had a locked spreadsheet that I've used for EIGHT YEARS!!! The person who created it disappeared and NO ONE in my organization knows the password. BUT I JUST UNLOCKED IT WITH YOUR VIDEO LEILA!!!! Omg everyone is going to be blown away that I figured this out and all i did was follow these steps. Not hard at all.

@LeilaGharani Год назад

Good job, Mark! Glad the video was helpful.

@kylemacarthur9863 3 года назад

I hope you are working for the "good guys" because that was powerful.

@LeilaGharani 3 года назад

Only for the good guys 😊

@hhattingh 3 года назад

Lolz! True

@andor888 2 года назад

Do you actually think there are hackers out there wanting to change values in your excel sheets or something? Like, who are the bad guys she could work for in this scenario?

@knownsensesocialmedia7618 2 года назад

She only works for me lol

@SW-qr8qe 2 года назад

That was too easy

@nischalsingh438 3 года назад

Hi Leila, anything for protected workbooks?

@byronstutorialspage2134 3 года назад

if you used the file protection within Excel FILE>INFO>PROTECT WORKBOOK>ENCRYPT WITH PASSWORD then there is no way to bypass that since it is 256bit encryption. (well, you might break it with a ton of supercomputers and a few years of brute-forcing it!)

@martinsrensen5049 3 года назад

Do the same with the workbook.xml in the xl folder

@JeanPierreWhite 3 года назад

@@byronstutorialspage2134 There are 3rd party tools that are pretty decent at hacking your way back in. They use lists of common passwords.

@MirceaD28 2 года назад

You can enter the Visual Basic Editor and protect the entire workbook. There is a menu with proprieties and has the Password field where you can add a password. After you save the VBA and the Excel file when it's opened again, nothing works in Excel and is all blue and it will prompt you the enter the password. After that all is activated.

@blueribbons5701 8 месяцев назад

Excellent mam......... it works...... thank you....... Vazhga valamudan

@peterpackiaraj Год назад

Super! really wonderful trick. i just got mad by losing a password for a sheet. tried so many methods but failed. your trick is simple and wonderful. thank you

@celestinhirwandame5191 3 года назад

it's amazing. Thanks Leila. what about the workbook?

@mcmielnik 3 года назад

use google and you'll find plenty of examples for workbook

@lmata4246 Год назад

Hi Leila why is that in my part it doesn't work. after i turn it to zip file and double click it it says corrupted file ot not a valid zip file.

@rialzito Год назад

same here

@Koshka42 2 года назад

Thank you so much! A bit of a complex procedure but you explained how to do this so well it was easy!

@mirrrvelll5164 2 года назад

Amazing, it happened like 1h ago :D I searched everywhere....but finally with this video I am one step smarter =) Thanks Leila!

@mariostudio7 3 года назад

This is next level tutorials! But tbh, I don't feel like my protected files are safe anymore

@tamaradissanayake5552 3 года назад

Hahahah, this is such a good tutorial.. Nothing is safe anymore..

@GeertDelmulle 3 года назад

They never were…

@andrewmoss6449 3 года назад

They were never safe. Excel's security is not military standard.

@Tom_baz 3 года назад

This doesnt work for password protected FILES, only password protected SHEETS. File are still safe, they cannot be cracked easily.

@mariostudio7 3 года назад

@@Tom_baz if that's true, it's relieving indeed. Even though deep down, now I am sure Leila knows a work around for that as well 😂

@navjotsingh2251 2 года назад

Leila, now that you have shown a core vulnerability in excel. You should make a follow up video, the correct way/tools too use in order to protect excel so peoole cant just view the xml and get your data!

@thomasmarti76 2 года назад

the most secure way to protect your Excel-file ist to protect it with the password to open it. simply save as... your file with the extended option with password. and use a save password with uppercase/lowercase, special characters and numbers.

@carolynwillis4500 2 года назад

Thanks this was very helpful. I forgot my password and was going crazy until I found your video and followed your instructions. Big up!

@mihaibadita3531 2 года назад

It worked like a charm! Thank you Leila!

@shankaradi3195 3 года назад

can you please explain Tips, if we have forgot the password for the workbook instead of sheets? I am not able to open the excel file itself :-( Thanks in advance

@lindalor9284 3 года назад

Read the top, pinned comment.

@Chifield 3 года назад

How about if whole file/workbook is protected?

@kiranvootori8101 3 года назад

Idk. But you can extract files from the zip file and search for 'protect' in all the files. I am almost sure, you will find it somewhere.

@byronstutorialspage2134 3 года назад

@kiranvootori8101 3 года назад

@@byronstutorialspage2134 This video is not about decryption. Just bypassing it.

@Nhurgle 3 года назад

@@kiranvootori8101 It's the workbook.xml file. Do the exact same thing as Leila said, go to "xl" folder and you will find the file. You do the search for "protect" and delete what you need.

@hassanafeez9334 2 года назад

You are the best Leila. GOD BLESS YOU!

@akifmohd5071 2 года назад

Woow wonderful leila.....

@volkerm2418 3 года назад

I knew that Excel-protection was not that hard to get around. But I didn't expect it to be that easy. Ouch.

@JeanPierreWhite 3 года назад

Microsoft security at its zenith. Sigh.

@Raison_d-etre 3 года назад

Wait till you find out how to disable Windows login passwords. It's not as easy as it used to be, mainly due to boot changes, but still.

@JeanPierreWhite 3 года назад

@@Raison_d-etre I have such a boot CD lol

@MrHappyZorro 3 года назад

This will come in handy when employees leave bricked worksheets after they move on.

@welm98 3 года назад

I do not believe you can unprotect a file you did not create, unless you have overall admin rights to that employee's computer.

@MrHappyZorro 3 года назад

@@welm98 if the spreadsheet is protected against changes it seems practical. Not such for open privileges. I like the method shown here. Quicker than throwing the formulas into a VB array.

@romanperez26 7 месяцев назад

You saved my day today.... YOU ARE THE BEST Ms. Gharani!!!

@AW.RelaxingMusic Год назад

You are the best Leila !!! Congrats, you saved me...

@johngreene6783 3 года назад

Nothing better than a gorgeous woman, who is also very intelligent

@miraclequirino5596 2 месяца назад

Thank you, Ms. Leila! God bless you more!

@kevinmckeown7972 2 года назад

Worked perfectly - many thanks!

@slyh 3 года назад

So basically a protected excel sheet doesn’t exist 😂

@songokussj4cz 3 года назад

The same with protected MACRO (can be the next video). Excel is not safe and it should be known...

@mrmusicloverable 3 года назад

@@songokussj4cz Not just excel. Most software out there can be hacked. You just need to know how.

@Rice8520 3 года назад

xlsb

@johnlangford7032 3 года назад

There is is no such thing as 100% security and MS word is similar

@Rice8520 3 года назад

@@johnlangford7032 read my commemt.

@riteshpuley2891 3 года назад

You actually found a bug in security.

@johngreene6783 3 года назад

That is what I was thinking

@superlbc 3 года назад

She didn't find it, this has been known since the start of the xlsx use back in 2007

@foxbox7929 3 года назад

Microsoft "security" has been a joke since 1990.

@christoslefkimiotis9889 3 года назад

exactly and now I fell that my files are not protected anymore. Still it was a good video.

@riteshpuley2891 3 года назад

Start using libreoffice suite for more security

@vidhatadeshpande Год назад

This was super-cool Leila! Thanks.

@rezazamani6384 Год назад

it works... thank you dear Leila

@jasonluong3862 3 года назад

So basically, Excel sheets are protected by a method known as security by obscurity. It’s not true encryption.

@robertthomas5906 3 года назад

It didn't say it was encrypted. It said it was protected. For most people that's good enough.

@user-mma173 3 года назад

There is a way to encrypt the workbooks and it is very difficult to break.

@robertthomas5906 3 года назад

@@user-mma173 If you want to encrypt the data then use a real encryption program such as pgp or better yet the free gnupg (gpg). Set the encryption to 4096. Otherwise you're just fooling yourself. Gpg will integrate right into outlook. It's awesome!

@byronstutorialspage2134 3 года назад

Excel FILE>INFO>PROTECT WORKBOOK>ENCRYPT WITH PASSWORD then there is no way to bypass that since it is 256bit encryption.

@robertcorwen4820 3 года назад

@@byronstutorialspage2134 Never say never.

@superlbc 3 года назад

Next: how to force the lock of your own door if you forgot the keys inside...

@kaljalavaofficial 3 года назад

For that we have the LockPickingLawyer

@BobTheTrueCactus 3 года назад

I'm sure she has a makro for this

@SpyroTek 3 года назад

Use the brick through window extension.

@robertthomas5906 3 года назад

@@kaljalavaofficial LOL, He's probably already picked it.

@willemkossen 3 года назад

clearly you have to unzip your house first. Duh!

@pedroramos9413 Год назад

Awesome tip. Many thanks Leila.

@NickthaBinga Год назад

Aha! It really works...!! Thanks Leila. Great work 😀

@junaidbrey5124 3 года назад

Does this work on a protected workbook or excel file?

@palomarodriguez3308 3 года назад

The comments on here sound like people had a lot more faith in Excel's security than they ever should have had. Excel has always been vulnerable to hacking, guys. If someone really wants to get in to your file, I promise you they will.

@LeilaGharani 3 года назад

Very true, Paloma!