How To Remove Password from Excel

Passwords are often necessary to ensure safety. However there are times when will have to remove the passwords. Even more exasperating is when your memory plays games and you forget the password. In such situations, how will you change password? Worry not. We have got you covered. Given below are the different methods to remove password from excel. Whether you remember the password or not, you can easily remove it by following a few simple steps. Read along to know more.

How To Remove Password When You Know The Password

Given below are the steps to be followed to remove password from an excel file if you are the one who set the password.

Removing Password From The Info Panel

1.  Open the encrypted excel while
2. Click OK after entering the password
3.  Click the File tab located on the upper left corner of the opened excel sheet
4.  In order to open the drop-down menu, tap on the Info and Protect Workbook in the left-hand panel
5.  From the drop-down list, choose Encrypt with password. After this delete the password in the text field.
6.  Click OK after deleting the existing password, and you are good to go.

Removing Password From The Review Tab

1. Open the encrypted excel file
2. Click OK after entering the excel password
3. Click the Review tab on the main ribbon menu of the opened Excel spreadsheet
4. After clicking the Unprotect Sheet, enter the password
5.  Without entering a new password, select Protect Sheet and then click OK. This will let you remove the password while ensuring that the workbook is locked from editing
6.  Go to File>Save

Removing Password When You Don’t Know The Password

There are times when you want to access an excel file but your memory fails you or you just don’t know the password. In such situations, you can follow the steps given below. However don’t forget to create a backup copy of your excel file before trying to remove the password. Because as the saying goes, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Converting An Excel File Into A Zip File

1.  Right click on your document. In order to convert the file, rename the extension from “.xlsx.” to “.zip”.
2. Click Yes if you get a warning enquiring if you want to go through with changing the password.
3. Right click on the file and click Yes to extract the contents of the Zip file
4.  Now you will see a window that shows the folder where the files will be extracted. Select Extract All.
5. Open the “XL” folder in the extracted file
6. Open the “worksheets” folder inside the “XL” folder
7.  A set of XML files will appear. These are all the excel worksheets within the spreadsheet that is password protected.
8. If you want to modify the XML file, all you have to do is open one XML file in the notepad. Then search for a line with ‘protection.”
9. Now, select everything between and including “<“and”>” characters. Then delete it.
10. After clicking the File menu in the notepad, clcik Save.
11. Repeat the same process with every XML file. Ensure that the files are modified.
12. If you want to add the modified XML file into the zip file, just select all the files from the extracted files.
13. Now right click and then select Send to>Compressed folder
14.  Rename the newly created zip file extension from “.zip” to “.xlsx”.
15. Click Yes when you get a warning asking whether you want to change it
16. Now you can open the Excel file.