An Excel password remover takes the editing locks off a workbook (sheet protection, workbook structure, protected ranges and the password to modify) without asking for any of their passwords, and this one does it in your browser on .xlsx and .xlsm files. The usual reason someone lands here is a file they're allowed to change but can't: last year's budget template that a finance colleague locked before leaving, or a supplier price list where every cell answers "The cell or chart you're trying to change is on a protected sheet."
How to use the Excel password remover
- Drop one or more .xlsx or .xlsm files on the box, or click to browse. Each file can be up to 50MB. The file is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
- Wait for the download. It starts by itself:
budget.xlsx comes back as budget-unprotected (xlsx.com).xlsx, and an .xlsm stays an .xlsm. Several files arrive together as unprotected-workbooks (xlsx.com).zip.
- Read the result. For one file you get a line for each lock removed, such as
Sheet protection on "Q1" or Workbook structure and window lock, with the hashing scheme beside it when the lock had a password. For several files you get one line per file: "Removed 2 locks", "No locks found (unchanged copy)" or "Needs a password to open".
- If the file needs a password to open, the page says so and asks for it. Type it and click Open and remove locks. A wrong one gets "That password doesn't open this file. Passwords are case-sensitive." If you don't know it, the page explains what to try instead.
Open the downloaded copy in Excel and edit it as normal. Keep the original until you've checked it.
Which Excel password do you have?
Excel uses the word "password" for six unrelated things, and the fix for each is different. Match what you see on screen to the row:
| What you see | What it is | Removed here? |
|---|
| Typing in a cell gives "The cell or chart you're trying to change is on a protected sheet" | Sheet protection | Yes, on every protected worksheet and chart sheet in one pass |
| Sheet tabs can't be added, renamed, moved or unhidden; Unhide is greyed out | Workbook structure (and window) protection | Yes. A hidden sheet can then be shown again in Excel (right-click a tab > Unhide), though a very hidden sheet never appears in that list |
| On a protected sheet, certain cells ask "Enter password to change this cell" | Protected ranges (Review > Allow Edit Ranges) | Yes, each range's password with it |
| On opening: "Enter password for write access, or open read only" | Password to modify (write reservation), plus the read-only recommendation | Yes |
| A password box before any of the workbook appears | Encryption, the password to open | Only with the password: type it and the download comes back without it |
| The Visual Basic Editor asks for a password to view the code | VBA project protection | No, the VBA project is left as it was |
| A yellow bar saying the workbook is Marked as Final | Not a password at all | No. Click Edit Anyway in Excel |
The four that come off without a password have one thing in common: none of them scrambles your data. Each is a flag in the workbook, and Excel never stores the password behind it, only a hash of it so it can check what you type, so deleting the setting removes the lock and leaves the data as it was. The tool doesn't find or recover the password. It doesn't need to.
If you drop a file and get "No editing locks found", the page hands back an unchanged copy. A file that still won't let you edit is then most likely open read-only or marked Final rather than protected.
Why the VBA unprotect macro didn't work on your file
The macro passed around Microsoft forums for years exploits the old 16-bit password hash. That hash has so few possible values that thousands of short strings match any password, and the macro loops through combinations of A and B until one is accepted. On a sheet protected in Excel 2010 or earlier, it often works in seconds.
Excel 2013 and later write a different hash: SHA-512, with a random salt, run 100,000 times over. No short string collides with that, so the macro runs until you stop it.
This page doesn't guess. It deletes the protection element, which works the same on both. The result shows which scheme each lock used, legacy 16-bit or SHA-512, so if a macro failed you'll see why. A lock with no algorithm beside it had no password at all; Excel lets you protect a sheet with a blank one.
Removing protection in Excel without this page
When you know the password, Excel removes each lock in a few clicks:
- Sheet: Review > Unprotect Sheet, then type the password.
- Workbook structure: Review > Protect Workbook, then type the password to switch it off.
- Password to modify: File > Save As > Browse, then Tools > General Options, clear the box and save.
- Password to open: File > Info > Protect Workbook > Encrypt with Password, delete the dots, OK, then save.
When you don't, the manual route is the same surgery this tool performs, done by hand. Copy the file, rename the copy from .xlsx to .zip, and open xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml in a text editor. Delete the whole <sheetProtection ... /> tag, save, put the file back in the archive and rename it to .xlsx. Three things catch people out:
- Every protected sheet has its own tag in its own file (
sheet2.xml, sheet3.xml and so on), and the file numbers don't always follow the tab order.
- Workbook structure protection is a separate
<workbookProtection> tag in xl/workbook.xml.
- If you extract the archive and re-zip the folder rather than its contents, Excel refuses the result as an invalid file format. Editing inside the archive with 7-Zip avoids that.
Opening the file in Google Sheets also drops sheet protection, but Google converts the workbook rather than editing it: VBA macros don't survive the round trip, and a confidential file ends up in your Google Drive.
When the file asks for a password to open
A password to open is the one lock that only comes off with the password itself. It encrypts the workbook's contents, so without it there is no XML to edit, only scrambled bytes. The page recognises an encrypted file (a different container from the usual zip) and asks for the password.
If you know it, type it and the page decrypts the file in your browser, takes its editing locks off in the same pass, and hands back a download with no password to open. Expect a couple of seconds: Excel runs the password through 100,000 rounds of hashing (SHA-512 since Excel 2013) to make the AES key, so each check takes time. The result lists Password to open (the download isn't encrypted). In Excel for Mac the decrypted copies opened with no password or repair prompt and formulas intact.
Several encrypted files dropped together share one password box, and the password is tried on each. Every file it opens downloads; the rest stay listed as "Wrong password to open".
Without the password, nothing can remove it. The page's suggestions: ask whoever sent the file, search your password manager, and search the email thread the file came in, since a separate "here's the password" message is common.
One more place worth a look, if the file lives in OneDrive or SharePoint: version history may hold a copy saved before the password went on.
Limits
- .xlsx and .xlsm only. A legacy .xls is refused with a note to open it in Excel and save it as .xlsx first. .xlsb and .ods aren't accepted.
- 50MB per file. A batch takes up to 20 files and 200MB in all; anything past that is listed with the reason.
- A password to open needs the password. It can't recover or guess one. Excel 2007's older encryption isn't opened (the page suggests re-saving in Excel with the password), nor is a file encrypted with a certificate.
- VBA project protection stays. The macro code's password is left exactly as it was.
- Marked as Final stays. It isn't a password; Edit Anyway in Excel clears it.
The tool is free, with no usage limit and no sign-up, and the page asks you to use it only on files you own or have permission to modify.
If the workbook is going to someone else once it's editable, run it through Remove Excel Metadata last. It removes the document properties (author, company and the rest, custom ones included) and the folder path Excel saved, which often includes a Windows user name. The sheets, formulas and formatting keep their exact bytes. For a file you inherited, Workbook Audit is the next stop.
Questions
How do I remove a password from Excel if I forgot it?
If it's a password that stops editing, drop the file on this page and download the copy with it removed; you never need the old password. That covers sheet protection, workbook structure, protected ranges and the password to modify. If Excel asks for a password before it shows anything, the file is encrypted, and no tool can remove that without the password.
Can you remove the password to open an Excel file without knowing it?
No. A password to open encrypts the workbook's contents, so without it there is nothing readable to edit, and recovery programs that promise otherwise are guessing passwords one after another. Ask whoever sent the file, search your password manager and the email thread, or check OneDrive or SharePoint version history for a copy saved before the password was added. If you do know the password, type it when this page asks and the download comes back with no password to open and its editing locks removed.
How do I make a read-only Excel file editable?
If Excel asks you to enter a password for write access, or open read only, that is a password to modify, and dropping the file on this page removes it. Other kinds of read-only have their own fixes. A yellow Marked as Final bar has an Edit Anyway button. A file opened from an email attachment sits in Protected View until you click Enable Editing, and a file with the Windows read-only attribute needs that box cleared in its Properties.
Why doesn't the VBA code to unprotect a sheet work?
Because the sheet was most likely protected in Excel 2013 or later, which stores the password as a salted SHA-512 hash. The macro that circulates on forums tries short strings against the old 16-bit hash, where thousands of strings pass the check; against SHA-512 none of them do. This page deletes the protection instead of guessing, so the hash type doesn't matter, and the result shows which one each lock used.
Does the Excel password remover work on .xls and .xlsm files?
It takes .xlsx and .xlsm. An .xlsm comes back as an .xlsm with its VBA project untouched. A legacy .xls file is refused: open it in Excel, save it as .xlsx, and drop that copy instead.
Will removing the password change anything else in my workbook?
No. Only the elements that record each lock are deleted. Values, formulas, formatting, charts, pivot tables and macros come back as they went in, because the workbook is never rebuilt.
Is it legal to remove a password from an Excel file?
On a file you own or have permission to modify, removing the protection is the ordinary, legitimate case, and the page asks you to use it only on files like that. Think of a template a former colleague locked, or a model whose password was never written down. Microsoft's own guidance says sheet protection isn't a security feature. The protection doesn't encrypt anything in the sheet either: Excel keeps only a hash of the password.