How to Open Password Protected Excel File

This is an article on how to remove the password of a protected Excel sheet and how to crack the password of an encrypted Excel file. In most cases, deleting the password of an edit-locked worksheet in an Excel file is quick and simple! However, if you need a password to open the file, the operation will be more complicated. There is no official way to decrypt Excel files without using a password cracker – often a resource-intensive process depending on the complexity of the password. Even so, you should still give it a try!

Table of Contents

Remove password protect sheet

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Find out what is required to do this. If the worksheet in the Excel file is protected (meaning you can still open the Excel file and view the contents but cannot edit it), you can apply this method to remove the password protection on your Windows computer. and Mac.

If the Excel file is encrypted and requires a password to view the content, this method will not work. You can try using a password cracker, but this is not a sure way.
This method may not work if the file is protected with Microsoft 365 version of Excel ^{. [1] X Research Source}

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Check if the Excel file is encrypted or not. The simplest way to do this is to double-click the Excel file. If the file opens and you can click Read Only to view it, or if it opens normally after you double-click it, it means the file is not encrypted.

If you are prompted for a password as soon as you double-click on the file and don’t see an option to open it in read-only mode, the file is encrypted and you cannot use this method to open it.

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Make a copy of the Excel file. In the Finder or File Explorer of Windows, you would click on the Excel file containing the sheet to be protected, then press Ctrl + C (Windows) or Command + C (Mac) and paste in another folder by pressing Ctrl + V (Windows) or Command + V (Mac).

This is necessary in case you accidentally damage the original file in the process.

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Enable file extensions. Skip this step on Mac. If you’re on a Windows computer, make sure you can view and change the file extension by doing the following:

Open File Explorer by pressing Windows key + E .
Click View .
Check the “File name extensions” box.

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Convert the Excel file into a ZIP folder. The operation is as follows:

Windows — Right-click the Excel file, click Rename , delete the “xlsx” extension of the filename, and enter zip . Make sure you keep the dot between the filename and “zip”. Press Enter and click Yes when asked.
Mac — Select the Excel file, click File , select Get Info , remove the “xlsx” extension from the filename, and enter zip . Make sure you keep the dot between the filename and “zip”. Press Return and click Use .zip when prompted.

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Extract the ZIP folder. This procedure will vary depending on your computer’s operating system:

Windows — Right-click the ZIP folder, click Extract All … in the menu that appears, and click Extract when prompted. The unzipped folder is immediately displayed.
Mac — Double-click the ZIP folder, then wait for the extracted folder to open.

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Double click the xl folder. This is the operation to open the folder. ^{[2] X Research Source}

If the extracted folder does not open, you need to first double-click the regular folder with the same name as the ZIP folder.

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Double-click the worksheets folder. You should see it near the top of the “xl” folder.

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Open the sheet in a word processor program. Depending on your computer’s operating system, you need to do one of two things:

Windows — Right-click the sheet you want to unlock (such as “Sheet1”), select Open with in the menu, and click Notepad in the menu that appears.
Mac — Click the page you want to unlock (such as “Sheet1”), click File , select Open With , and click TextEdit .

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Remove the password-protected code. Find the “sheetProtection” section in brackets “< >”, and then remove everything from “<sheetProtection” to the closing bracket (“/>”) on the other side of the sheet protection algorithm.

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Save changes and close the word processor program. Press Ctrl + S (on Windows) or Command + S (on Mac), and then click the X (or red circle on Mac) in a corner of a text editor.

If the worksheets in the Excel file are protected, you need to unlock the protection of each sheet. Open the protected sheet in a word processor and delete the same line, and save each page in the process.

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Copy the “worksheets” folder. Click the “Back” button to return to the “xl” folder, then select the “worksheets” folder and press Ctrl + C (Windows) or Command + C (Mac) to copy.

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Open the ZIP file (on Windows) or a new folder (on Mac). This is the file that you renamed and unzipped earlier (the .zip file, if you use Windows). If you’re on a Mac, double-click the new folder with the same name as the ZIP file.

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Replace the “worksheets” folder with the copied folder. Access the “worksheets” folder by double clicking on the “xl” folder, and delete the “worksheets” folder. Next, right-click an empty area in the window and select Paste to paste the copied version.

If using Windows, you have now added the copied folder to the existing ZIP file.
If using Mac, you have added the copied folder to the extracted folder.

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(Mac only) Convert the folder to a ZIP file. If you’re on a Mac, press Contrp while clicking on the previously unzipped folder – the folder with the same name as the Excel file. Next, select Compress in the menu. Now the folder has become a ZIP file. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Convert the ZIP folder to an Excel file. Close the ZIP file, and then do the following:

Windows — Right-click the ZIP folder, then click Rename , replace “zip” with “xlsx”, and press Enter . Click Yes when asked.
Mac — Click the ZIP folder, click File , click Get Info , change the “zip” in the title to “xlsx”, and press Return . Click Use .xlsx when asked.

Crack the password of the Excel file

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Understand that sometimes you can’t crack a password. New versions of Excel, such as Excel 2019 and Microsoft 365, use advanced encryption techniques that render the methods used by password cracking programs useless due to the effect of the time it takes to crack. password lock. You should have no trouble cracking short passwords without special characters, and still be able to crack complex passwords with the right application.

You cannot crack an Excel file without purchasing a password cracking program, as the free versions of popular programs usually only handle Excel 2010 versions.
If your Excel file is encrypted, double-clicking on the Excel file will prompt you to enter your password before you can view the file’s contents. In this case (and you don’t know the password), you need a password cracking program to see the contents.

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Download and install PassFab for Excel. You can download the program from https://www.passfab.com/products/excel-password-recovery.html. While many apps claim to be able to unencrypt password-protected Excel files, PassFab is said to be safe and easy to use. ^{[4] X Research Source} This program also decrypts Excel files created with all versions of Excel, including 2019 and Microsoft 365. However, you should be aware of the following two drawbacks:

One is that the app only works on Windows, so Mac users need access to a Windows computer. ^{[5] X Research Sources} There are other Mac options available, but none have been proven reliable. If you can’t access your Windows computer, try looking for another Excel password cracker. You just need to carefully study the application before downloading and installing, because there are many amateur applications.
Second, the software is not completely free – some basic features in the trial version help you crack passwords, but you need to pay a license fee when you want to handle complex passwords. If you only need to jailbreak one file, you can choose a month option for 15.95 USD (about 370 thousand VND). ^{[6] X Research Resources} Remember to cancel your subscription before the one-month period expires so you won’t be charged extra.

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Open PassFab. After installing the application, you will find it in the Windows Start menu.

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Click Recover Excel Open Password . This is the first of the two options displayed. You will choose this option if asked for a password when opening the Excel file.

If you only need to remove the password of the protected worksheet in the Excel file and it is not possible to do so by editing the XML file, you can select Remove Excel Restriction Password and execute follow the instructions on the screen.

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Click + and select the Excel file. This tells PassFab which files need to be cracked. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

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Select password recovery mode. Note, whichever method you choose, cracking the password takes time. The application must try all combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to several months! There are three options available to you:

Dictionary Attack is a good choice when you think the password is just a simple word in the dictionary. You can also provide your own word lists in addition to using a dictionary, such as common passwords used by your organization. Add only potential passwords to the text file, save it, click Settings next to “Dictionary Attack” and select the file.
- This is the only free option, and only includes a limited number of words. ^{[8] X Research Source} If you want to access another option, click Upgrade Now to pay the license fee.
Brute Force with Mask Attack is the right choice when you know part of the password, or want to add letters, numbers or special characters when trying to crack the password. If you choose this option, click Settings next to it to customize the password length to try, the characters to use, and the prefix and/or suffix. Depending on the length and complexity of the password, this selection can take a long time – hours, days, even weeks!
Brute Force Attack is similar to the previous option, but applies even if you can’t guess the password. This option will try all possible combinations until a password can be found, which is often time consuming depending on the length of the password.

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Click the Recover button. The password cracking process starts right away! PassFab tries any combination of your choice. The application continuously tries many combinations until it guesses the password or runs out of options to try.

This will take a while, and can consume a lot of resources on the computer. If you need to pause the jailbreak process, click the stop button (square) until you are ready to continue, and click the play button to start over. ^{[9] X Research Source}
When PassFab finds the password, the information is displayed as plain text – you can copy or type the password into Excel when you open the file to view the contents.
Depending on the contents of the Excel file, you should give up if you can’t find the password within a reasonable time.

Advice

Use these methods only when you are the file owner or authorized user. Cracking the password in someone else’s file is not only wrong but also illegal, depending on the contents of the file and where you live.
In most cases, you can crack the password on an encrypted Excel file.
Microsoft cannot help you recover a lost password. ^{[10] X Research Source}

Steps

Remove password protect sheet

Crack the password of the Excel file

Advice

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