How can I unprotect excel sheet as I forgot the password

You can often remove an Excel sheet protection (not the “open file” password) by treating the .xlsx file as a ZIP archive and deleting the protection entry from the sheet XML as modern .xlsx files are ZIP archives of XML files.

Steps to unlock Excel worksheet protection:

1. Rename MyWorkbook.xlsx → MyWorkbook.zip (or just open it with 7-Zip / WinRAR / Archive Utility).
2. Open the ZIP and navigate to xl/worksheets/.
3. Extract the relevant sheet file(s) — e.g. sheet1.xml (or open directly in 7-Zip and Edit if supported).
4. Open sheet1.xml in a plain text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, VS Code, TextEdit in plain text mode).
5. Find the <sheetProtection .../> element.
6. Delete the entire <sheetProtection .../> element (or remove the attributes that define password).
7. Save the edited sheet1.xml.
8. Put the edited file back into the ZIP (replace the original). If you used a rename to .zip, change it back to .xlsx.
9. Open the .xlsx in Excel — the sheet should be unprotected.

If you've forgotten the password to your Excel file, there are a few methods you can try to regain access. Some online services claim to unprotect Excel sheet. Use these cautiously, especially with sensitive data, and verify their reputation before uploading files.

When you forgot Excel password, there is a good news that you can try the password without limitation. The file won't be locked even for two many failed attempts.

It's common to forget Excel password, especially if the file was created a long time ago or by someone else in your team. Before moving on to advanced methods like editing the file XML or using third-party excel password recovery tools, you might want to try some of the most popular and commonly used passwords. Many people set simple, easy-to-remember passwords, and these guesses often work surprisingly well.

Here’s a list of the most frequently used passwords that you can test first:

• 1234, 12345, 123456, 123456789
• 0000, 1111, 2222, 9999
• password, Password, Password1
• admin, administrator
• qwerty, asdf, zxcvbn
• letmein, welcome, login
• excel, office, microsoft
• test, guest, default
• Dates (e.g., 2023, 2024, birthdays like 1990, 01012000)
• Names (your own name, company name, or common first names like john, mike, james)

Tip: Start with passwords related to your own habits—birthdays, pet names, or company project names. People often pick personal but simple ones.

How to unprotect Excel sheet? This is the most common protection and, fortunately, the easiest to remove for free. Since the password is stored in the file in a weak way, specialized free software can break it almost instantly, regardless of complexity.

Recommended Free Tool: VBA Code

You don't even need to download a program for this. You can use Excel's built-in VBA editor.

Open your password-protected Excel file.

Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor.

In the editor, click Insert > Module to create a new code module.

Copy and paste the following code.

Press F5 to run the code, or click the "Run" button (looks like a small green play button).

A message box will pop up almost instantly with a "usable password." It will be a long, garbled string. That's normal.

Click OK.

To unprotect Excel worksheet. You will find that the protection has been removed! You don't even need to type the garbled password.

There is no native method in Windows to access a password protected Excel file, and because this is a Microsoft forum, it is against the code of conduct on this forum for us to provide a method to bypass the password, I hope you understand.