How to Remove Password from Excel File

With a password, you can easily protect whatever file you have. Password protection allows you to manage who can approach your files. Nobody else can access the files except the ones you have shared the password with. At times, you may have to edit the data in the workbook and share it with other people using a different password. Or it might be possible that you need to remove password from Excel file.

Let’s have a look at how you can quickly remove passwords from Excel files.

How to Remove Password Protection in Excel Manually with Info Feature

Below you will find some useful steps to remove password in Excel:

1. Launch the Microsoft Excel from the Suit.
2. Go to the Excel spreadsheet file that is encrypted and you want to remove the password from it. If you have a preset opening password protection, it simply shows that the file is locked. You just need to enter the password and click OK to open it.

3. Click on the File tab given on the top-left corner of the opened worksheet. Now, click on the “Info” tab.  

4. Clicking on the “Protect Workbook” will open up a drop-down menu from which you have to choose the type of password protection you had to remove.

For the Encrypt with Password option, you need to clear the password by clicking OK to remove Excel password. This step is typically used for Excel versions 2010 to 2019.

For Excel 2007 and older versions, you may have to follow the step given below:

“Protect Current Sheet” and “Protect Workbook Structure options,” you can have an Unprotect Sheet window and add the password. Click OK the remove the encryption.  

Remove Password With the Save As Option

By using this method, you can also remove passwords from Excel files. For this, you need to follow the steps given below:

1. Go to the encrypted Excel file for which you need to remove password Excel.

2. Enter the password and click OK.
3. On the top-left side of the Excel spreadsheet, simply go to the File tab and choose Save As option.
4. Choose a folder and you will see a new window open.   
5. Select the Tools option given at the bottom right side of the window. By clicking on the drop-down menu, you will be needing to choose General Options.  

6. In the General Options dialog box, you will see an option that shows encrypted passwords to open and edit the file. You have to remove password protection from Excel file for both text fields. Now, click the OK option.

7. Click on the File menu and choose the Save option.  

For Mac Users

1. Go to the Excel file for which you need to remove the password.
2. It is time to enter the password and click OK.
3. See on the top-left side of the Excel spreadsheet in front of you, click the File tab and choose Passwords from the list.
4. You will see a dialog box File Passwords that shows the password protection to open and edit the excel file. Now, delete the passwords for both text fields and press OK.
5. In the menu bar, choose the File tab and select the Save option.  

Remove Password from the Panel

Follow the steps given below:

1. Open the file for which you want to remove password.
2. Enter the password and click OK.

3. Click on the File tab given on the top-left side of the Excel spreadsheet opened in front of you.

4. Next, you need to click Info and choose Protect Workbook given in the left-side panel. It will open up a new drop-down menu.

5. From the drop-down menu, you have to choose Encrypt with a password and delete the password that appears in the text field.

6. Once you delete the existing password, click the OK button on the screen.

7. Open the File menu and click on the Save option to save the procedure.

Remove Protection Password from the Review Tab

1. Go to the encrypted Excel file for which you need to remove the password.

2. Enter the Excel password and choose OK.
3. Click on the Review tab given on the main ribbon menu of the spreadsheet.

4. Now, choose the Unprotect Sheet option and enter the password.

5. Choose the Protect Sheet option to remove password from Excel file. Click OK and you don’t need to enter a new password.

6. Open the File menu and choose Save.

That way you can unprotect the sheet and remove the password from the Home tab with the Format option.

How to Remove Password from Excel File with the Home Tab

1. Open the Excel worksheet for which you need to remove the encryption.
2. Go to the Home tab placed on the main ribbon menu.
3. Click on the drop-down arrow of Format placed under the Cells group. Choose Unprotect Sheet from the list.

4. Type the password and hit OK to clear the password.

Converting an Excel File into a Zip file

If the above-mentioned methods are not useful to you and you don’t want to use any third-party software for encrypting an Excel file, you may use this trick easily.

Note that this method is not compatible with all the versions of Excel.

1. Right-click on the file and convert it by renaming the extension from “.xlsx” to “.zip”.
2. You will get a notification of whether you need this change or not. Click Yes.
3. Right-click once again on the file to extract the content of the zip file and choose Extract All.
4. In another window, you will see a folder where the files are extracted. Click Extract.
5. Open the “XL” folder in the extracted file.
6. Go to the “Worksheets” folder in the “XL” folder.
7. There you will see a list of XML files that are password-protected spreadsheet files. The worksheets you will see are named sheet1.xml, sheet2.xml, and so on.  
8. When you need to make changes in the XML file, open one file in Notepad and find the text “Protection.”
9. You need to select all between and including “<” and “>” characters. Once you find it, delete it.
10. In the notepad, click on the File menu and choose the Save button.
11. You have to repeat this procedure for each XML file available in the Excel spreadsheet. You must have to make changes in all the XML files.
12. If you want to put the XML files back to the zip file, once again go to the extracted file and choose all the files.
13. Right-click and choose Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
14. Doing this will make a new zip file and you have to rename the extension from “zip” to “.xlsx”.
15. You will again get a notification if you really want to change the name. Click the Yes option.
16. Go to the Excel file.  

Now, you will easily approach the content of the file to view, edit, or make changes in the data.

Wrap Up

You’ve got many answers to the question of how to remove passwords in Excel. Once your Excel file is protected with a password, others cannot open the file without the password. So, basically, it is a good safety measure, however, at times it becomes problematic when you don’t have a password to open the Excel file. Thereby, you need to know how to remove Excel password protection without creating any mess.