🔓 Unlock ANY Password-Protected Excel File (No Software Needed!)

[@efril-hopegarcellano5070]

Wow👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻, very helpful, thank you very much for this content. God bless❤️

[@SharonJohnson-p6v]

Thanks! Followed your steps exactly and it works a treat!

[@SoulTrain101]

After opening the Zip file, nothing is the same as the video. There's no "xl" folder, just "EncryptionInfo" and "EncryptedPackage". Can that be fixed?

[@paulomalley]

Ah, that implies that this file of yours is not actually a regular Password Protected Excel file. Your file seems to be protected by Information Rights Management which is completely separate to Password Protection in Excel. You can read more about it here - support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/restrict-access-to-workbooks-with-information-rights-management-in-excel-3525d8fd-4313-4645-b60e-5ec0e1b9c317#ID0EBBD=Windows But the short version is basically that the guide I have shown here isn't going to work for this as it is a completely different mechanism for locking the file that is not related to Excel itself.

[@ManjunathBasutkar-t7c]

please check the file , if it .xls to zip - dont work, convert file from xls to xlsx, then follow the process, it works thank you

[@ladyfil9751]

Omg thank you for this 👏 it worked

[@hazeneze]

Hi , thank you for the video, after open the sheet1.xml i look for sheetData no , protect no , sha1 no , do you have better Idea

[@286Nishant]

Works Fine,.. Thanks Buddy

[@adeldaroga1932]

Thank you.. this does work on sheet protection and on book (read only) protection, but what about open protection? the zip simply does not extract!! I tried with RAR, and although it worked, but the data viewd with Notepad is all codified !! Any help on that? Thanx again

[@paulomalley]

If the protection is for open, I don't believe this will work unfortunately. That type of protection is quite different in design and is sometimes far more robust. I'm not aware of any tools that could bypass that sort of protection, but that is most likely due to the wide array of ways that open protection can be added.

[@RasoolEsfahani]

After changing the file extension from .xlsx to .zip, I encountered the following error: The archive is either in an unknown format or damaged. could you help me?

[@paulomalley]

I have seen this happen on occasion. Usually it happens if the file is saved to a cloud location like OneDrive or Google Drive though. If you have your file currently stored in a cloud location, move it to a local folder before continuing with the process. If you don't have the file sitting in a cloud location and you still have the same issue, I would suggest starting fresh with a new copy of the file. I've seen some people mention that just creating a different copy and doing it again fixes the issue for them.

[@nitr0usntc]

Right after I change the extension to .zip, once I double click it says " unknown or damaged file" and won't let me open the zip file. What can i do? Thanks in advance

[@paulomalley]

I've seen instances of that happening if the zip file is located inside a cloud storage service like OneDrive or Google drive. I would suggest not storing the file in a cloud storage service if you can. Maybe just move the Excel file over to a non-cloud storage service for the time it takes to do this process and then move the unlocked file back. If you don't happen to have it located inside your cloud storage then I would just suggest making a new copy and doing the conversion again because that can happen sometimes. It's rare but it can happen.

[@nitr0usntc]

@@paulomalley Thanks for the quick reply. I did as you suggested and still popped up the same error. :( I'm desperate, I absolutely need these files...

[@paulomalley]

Is it possible that the Excel file is not a standard password protected file and is instead encrypted with file protection such as Microsoft 365s file protection? Because if that's the case, this process is not going to be able to unlock that component of it. That sort of encryption is far more robust.

[@nitr0usntc]

@paulomalley Nah I wouldn't have gone that far. With the excel opened I clicked file>info>protect file. Which I believe it's the first kind of protection you mentioned.

[@paulomalley]

Yeah, that's what this video guide is for. Annoyingly though, aside from trying it again, there isn't much else you can try to get it working.

[@shegoftashabnom6403]

I tried to follow your method on my Mac laptop, but I could not open it. It says, "unable to expand the file. It is in unsupported format!"

[@paulomalley]

macOS handles ZIP files very differently to Windows 10/11. So much so, that I doubt this process as it is shown would work there. macOS doesn't allow you to simply open the ZIP file and view it's contents, it instantly attempts to unzip/extract it instead.

[@joep9617]

@@paulomalley @shegoftashabnom6403 If you can still change the format to .zip, you can extract the folders and see various folders. If one is labeled "xl" then modify the content as shown, replace the new file, then RE-ZIP all the folders. Then rename back to .xlsx. Another option is to simply email or store on a USB Drive and open the file on a Windows based machine.

[@luzvega2096]

I couldn't open the file. It says Windows cannot open the folder: The compressed (zipped) folder......copia.zip is invalid

[@paulomalley]

I've seen this once or twice, but it usually only happens if the zip file is saved in OneDrive (or another cloud storage option). If your file is saved to OneDrive or similar, please try saving it to a non cloud location and try again. I believe this is because the cloud storage applications are trying to sync the file while we are trying to use it (but I don't know exactly why it causes the error).

[@UsmanRaufarain]

Hi, I tried this, I am keep geetin an error " Windows cannot open the folder. The Compressed folder is invalid."

[@paulomalley]

I've seen this once or twice, but it usually only happens if the zip file is saved in OneDrive (or another cloud storage option). If your file is saved to OneDrive or similar, please try saving it to a non cloud location and try again. I believe this is because the cloud storage applications are trying to sync the file while we are trying to use it (but I don't know exactly why it causes the error).

[@julianazhou7676]

I have the same issue..... no solution

[@boshy686]

This doesn't work for me. After zipping the Excel file I'm unable to open the zip. "Windows cannot open this folder" apparently it's invalid

[@paulomalley]

That seems like an unusual thing to see if you followed the directions of the video. Is your file saved to a cloud location like OneDrive possibly? If so, try this process again with the file in a non cloud save location. It's rare, but I've seen some cases where having the file syncing to OneDrive can prevent you from being able to modify it.

[@boshy686]

@@paulomalley Nah, one drive isn’t on. I’m downloading windows 7 onto a VM to see if it’s a windows 11 thing

[@paulomalley]

I wouldn't go with Windows 7 for this. Windows 7's File Explorer doesn't support natively opening ZIP files like modern versions do. Windows 10 and 11 do though. And for what it is worth, I performed this whole process on Windows 11 for the video.

[@wechangeitalia]

Hello, after copy new file in old, there is this code from zip : access denied.

[@paulomalley]

I've seen this occasionally if the original file is locked with Rights Management solutions. This is something different to password protection on an Excel file. I've also seen it if the Zip file is stored in a cloud storage like OneDrive or similar (this is less common).

[@DEDEPLDEDE]

Unfortunately Winnows cannot open the zipped file

[@paulomalley]

It should be able to provided you are on Windows 10 or 11. Just make sure that the zipped file is not saved in a cloud storage location as that can sometimes cause that issue.

[@dmprasanga]

👍👍👍

[@nayan5107]

Very bad idea,, not working 😕😕

[@paulomalley]

How so? If you can provide me with some information about how it is not working, I might be able to help. As you can see in the video, it does work.

[@vighneshjoygopaul4231]

For me it doesn't work as when i rename it to .zip it won't let me open it

[@vighneshjoygopaul4231]

Mine is .xls

[@merramerra3142]

​@@paulomalley for me once i unzip the folder it does not show any folder.. it show only the excel sheet which it protected

[@paulomalley]

That sounds to me like you may not have correctly changed the file extension (changing the file into a Zip). There shouldn't be an Excel file in the zip file because you have just changed the Excel file INTO a Zip file.

[@holycow3355]

Will an excel file locked with EncryptionSafe be unlocked, hope not ??!!

[@paulomalley]

No. This is not a process to bypass things like EncryptionSafe or Microsoft 365 File Protection features. It is to unlock files that simply use the built in Password Protection features in Excel.