🔓 Unprotect Excel Sheets in Seconds (When You Don't have the Password)

In this video, I will show you a simple way to unprotect worksheets in any Excel file without the need for any software or website.
It's pretty easy and takes less than a minute.
Download the example file - www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1zvawx...
Read the article here - trumpexcel.com/unprotect-exce...
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#Excel #ExcelTips #ExcelTutorial #SumitBansal

[@c.o.d.y.langton]

It's been ages since I learned something novel about Excel. Thank you.

[@IvanCortinas_ES]

Thanks for the tutorial. You can also keep the code, without having to delete it, and change the numbers 1 to 0 (turning off the password) in the section: sheet = "1" by sheet = "0" objects="1" by objects="0" scenarios ="1" by scenarios ="0" Thanks Sumit!

[@trumpexcel]

Thanks for the tip Iván 👍

[@ranganathanvelayudam5869]

Thank you very much, it's so simple

[@skipbechtold3735]

You’re a genius. This came at the perfect time. Thank you.

[@MisiuPO]

Its good to hear this still exists as I have been using it for 8 years and wondered if they ever going to plug it :) it actually helped me gain a lot of respect in the company.

[@Turbonuts78]

Fantastic as always. Thanks a bunch!!

[@raotouqeerahmad7594]

Awesome. Thank you.

[@WekomVideos]

Genius, thank you Sumit!

[@bhaskaryenagandula8712]

Amazing one Sumit. Thanks for sharing.

[@evfusion4094]

Clever yet quite simple (when you know how). Thank you.

[@claudegiguere8731]

Very glad to know this! Thanks Sumit 👍👍👍

[@jpblauvelt]

Excellent information. I’m now a subscriber ❤

[@subhraghosh4050]

Many thanks for sharing

[@behramcooper3691]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@michelbaudoinca]

Great trick ! Thx Sumit !!!

[@ashroff17]

Thank you very much!

[@serdip]

Absolutely BRILLIANT! Thanks for sharing!

[@trumpexcel]

Glad you found the video helpful 🙂

[@lorenakademar5267]

Thank you a lot! great tip!!

[@19peris87]

Great Work! Thanks Summit!!!!!

[@BytebroUK]

Very useful, thanks!

[@cornelbejenaru3523]

Wow! Amazing! Thanks a lot!

[@ranjan4495]

I don't need to listen to the content to give a like, I have been following trump excel for years now, the content quality is such great that giving a like at the end is like playing devil's advocate. Thankyou for all your qualitative content.

[@trumpexcel]

🤗

[@Froschkoenig751]

Nice, easily convinced to subscribe after watching one video by you!

[@GoodlyChandeep]

Excellent Production Summit!

[@trumpexcel]

Thanks Chandeep.. Good to see you in the comments section 🙂

[@sanjayshrestha3013]

Thank u it’s finally done

[@piyushrvyas]

Thanks a lot. That was a great tool

[@sumardjo]

Wuiiii Genius trik thanks for sample file I can follow your video thanks very much!!!

[@ym10up]

Cool. I use to unlock sheets by running a macro but I've since lost that code. Good to have a backup method. Thank you

[@lalitkumarkashyap]

superb 🙏thanks a lot.

[@Navneetsingh-ud2ru]

Simply WOW 😲

[@jhankhanajani9314]

Thank you Sumit for showing this trick !!!, Bit surprise, with this trick, suddenly felt like, no data is secure. However your explanation is pretty clear. Thank you.

[@JAG.65]

thank you!

[@sanjayshrestha3013]

Great tips I will try mine too and let you know the result

[@StevenBrener]

good stuff!

[@dominiquecolin4716]

Great video. Thanks a lot

[@trumpexcel]

Glad you found the video helpful 🙂

[@nononsense129]

HI Sumit, is there any way to open a password protected Excel file?

[@ANILKUMAR-cj4mi]

excellent

[@chrispascual1188]

Brilliant tutorial!!! But, does this also work on word, ppt etc.?

[@ajitbarik4071]

Wow Really 👌

[@pabeader1941]

Nice one. Can you also do it for protected VBA code?

[@tammimayson8059]

This is great! I forgot the password of a sheet the other day and had to recreate it 🤦‍♀ is there a way to unprotect a workbook like that too?

[@CalinSabau]

That's cool 😎

[@gaurav4uk]

Good

[@raffibarsoumian1075]

Sneaky but it works:)

[@markstewart7559]

This is a really useful video, thank you. I am curious why you need to make a copy of the .xml file and take it outside the main folder to edit it when you’ve already made a copy of the whole file?

[@trumpexcel]

I made a copy and placed the XML file outside the ZIP folder, as within the ZIP folder, it doesn't allow me to open the file in Notepad or Wordpad.

[@MichaelToub]

Wow!

[@amirkeren8386]

Any similar method for Word documents?

[@qwertyui2827]

Very nice. Well done. Is it the same procedure when the file is password protected to open ?

[@trumpexcel]

It works only when you have the worksheets that are protected. Won't work when the entire file is locked or the VBA project is locked

[@VeryProudIndian]

Pl also show how to unprotect a protected MS word doc

[@jowiepoet9972]

Does this work for encrypted VBA too? (Xlsm with a protected VBA script)

[@Bisdako2013]

This will work on Word protected file?

[@mohammedismail2198]

How come MS make such option which is easily tampered with? What is the use of giving password to the worksheet if it can be tampered like this....Though good information......

[@SuperVikas45]

Can we do it for vba codes.

[@thelammas8283]

And whilst you watched this, I cleaned out your entire bank account 😂😂

[@yagneshbhatt8399]

Though you made it appear simple. I have some challenges. I have a file which is protected as xlsm. I was unable to convert this file into zip file. The second challenge was that though the file was xlsx and it did get converted into zip file. The xml file in the folder worksheet could not be converted into word pad. Please advise how to handle this.

[@tekmepikcha6830]

OMGGGGG 👏👏👏👏

[@joseluismatam.1660]

Todo seguro, analógico o digital, tiene o llega a tener su cerrajero

[@productionmate]

Does it work for Mac Excel?

[@kandinovich]

Numpang nitip gorengan.

[@andysingh905]

How to open a password protected file, if you forgot the password?

[@pilotpawanc]

Yeah that will be far more interesting to know

[@SSPanesar]

That would be a challenging task...

[@piksodriver]

​@@SSPanesarthere is macro that do it as brute force

[@SSPanesar]

@@piksodriver gr8 to here that.

[@Derekzparty]

Either use hashcat or johntheripper. I've mainly used johntheripper for cracking zip files, but they can do many more file types.

[@apeel2008]

I’m wondering if looking at the code if there is a way to see what the original password is without deleting it. I assume it is inherent in the HashValue. Any way of translating the HashValue to the actual password?

[@trumpexcel]

I tried researching on that a little bit but couldn't figure out how to get the original password back

[@apeel2008]

@@trumpexcel OK. Thanks!

[@peter.mccullagh]

A hash is a one-way transform. You cannot translate it back to the original password I'm afraid

[@apeel2008]

@@peter.mccullagh Thanks. Makes sense for security purposes.

[@robertweigl7201]

a note sometimes error messages can occur, when reopening, the renamed file, but the content is still accessable

[@ksumar]

Brilliant 💯 Was was the password: "SHA-512"?

[@trumpexcel]

No, this wasn't the password 🙂

[@jmwill2005]

Is there also a way to unprotect the entire workbook, when it got protected with "Protect Workbook" command in the "Review" section of the Ribbon?

[@thewelder3538]

No, there's no way to do that without brute forcing the AES encryption.

[@dermotbalson]

You can also remove sheet passwords by brute force because they are hashed into 8 bits (as I recall). This means there are many other passwords which will open the sheet. Just write a program (in VBA or anything else) to test random passwords until you find one that unlocks the sheet. It usually takes only a minute or two. (This is completely different encryption to that used to protect whole workbooks, which is extremely difficult to crack).

[@johnnycbad]

This used to work but Microsoft changed the hash algorithm a few years ago. Notice in the part where the sheet protection code is removed, there's a bit that mentions SHA-512. That's the new algorithm.

[@ladislavbertha6789]

I do it as shown in the video, but when I open it, the files that are there like sheet1, sheet2, sheet3 are not displayed

[@seifeddine1163]

cannot work in window 8.1 or previous version of windows, i tested with 7zip and WinRAR, the files doesn't appear

[@erbalumkan369]

Will this work for a .xls file as well?

[@trumpexcel]

Seems to be working only with xlsx file format. With XLS, it doesn't open the ZIP folder for me

[@tideypaws]

That's for the oldest possible version of excel?

[@mariotabet3938]

Do you think this would work with VBA security too? I know, I’m too lazy to try after a long day!

[@alanmonaghan9194]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work with VBA security as they are binary files rather than XML files.

[@mariotabet3938]

@@alanmonaghan9194 that was helpful. Thanks!

[@Gjbsecurityandalarms]

Just saved my bacon

[@tideypaws]

isn't there something for a newer file, where the data is encrypted?

[@trumpexcel]

I did this with Excel M365 file. Works well for all the new versions

[@yvancg]

Does it work with pdf files as well?

[@trumpexcel]

No, this is only for protected Excel worksheets

[@yvancg]

@@trumpexcel can you make a video for opening protected pdf?

[@James-rh4nt]

Now, how do I get into a password protected spreadsheet?

[@tedmoy]

Awesome video!!! Time for a coffee break Mr. Bansal

[@trumpexcel]

Thanks Ted 😊☕

[@IceTobSmoKeo]

Why is mine .dat instead of .xml?

[@RhetoricalLanguage]

Hi Sumit, I can't seem to download the excel file shown in the video. It downloads the pdf of 51 tips.

[@trumpexcel]

You can get the file from here - www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1zvawx0zpvi4jn9dk3i4j/Call-Center-Dashboard.xlsx?rlkey=n2u8rp8h2vil4r3gboh4yzo42&dl=1

[@RhetoricalLanguage]

@@trumpexcel Thank You very much

[@niltmp7126]

Scary

[@rajanvadakkepat]

How to open protected vba excel sheet

[@trumpexcel]

If the VBA project is locked, there is a separate process for it. Will make a video on that too.

[@catito_meister]

After i changed the extension to zip, i cant open the zip file. It says is invalid. Anyone has the same issue?

[@myticktack]

It need to be a .xlsx file (new Excel format) not a .xls file. if you have a .xls file you need to covert it first into a .xlsx file.

[@journey01069]

It seems to work for everyone but It dose not work for me. I don't know what I am doing wrong with it.

[@Packhorse-bh8qn]

Excel has 3 levels of protection. I have a macro that unlocks two of them in seconds. This is even simpler.

[@badhombre4942]

It's a feature not a bug.

[@sanjayshrestha3013]

I converted excel file into Zip but after zip folder created it’s again same excel file inside the folder

[@stephenl5693]

By chance did you right click on the excel file and choose to send to zip? That would give the symptom of what happened to you. Instead ensure filename extensions are turned on so that you can see the .xlsx at the end of your filename then rename the file by replacing the .xlsx to .zip

[@gadgetsfunnel2886]

Same problem

[@gadgetsfunnel2886]

​@@stephenl5693 did but still same issue

[@alanparkinson549]

"The Compressed (zipped) Folder ... is invalid" when I try opening the zip file.

[@charlesrodriguez2176]

Thank you for all that you do. This is a touchy subject - you're essentially showing how to hack a way around password-protected data. You used the reasoning of a "forgotten password" or "inheriting an Excel file from someone that is no longer accessible". It's like teaching how to bypass a home's security "just in case one loses their house keys". You understand that this information can/will be used to by a criminal element. Again, thank you for sharing your videos - I've learned a great deal in the past. This video is not one I can support/promote though. The real complaint is to Microsoft for this disappointing Excel flaw.

[@trumpexcel]

The idea is to share a way in case people get stuck (which happens a lot). The security of Excel files is pretty week, and I always mention this whenever I talk about protecting Excel sheets and files using built-in measures. The security is more about making sure people don't accidentally end up changing the formulas or data. For someone who needs to really password protect a file, they should always go for more than the built in solution. But I respect your sentiment.

[@binot-ol6pd]

@trumpexcel... In that case where genuine reason to protect the vba files are absolutely crucial, can you please share a video how to protect them beyond standard / built-in methods ? Your help without any doubt is very much appreciated

[@JaxHO]

My worksheet doesn't show .xml instead, it stated .bin

[@trumpexcel]

It's likely that in your file, the VBA code is locked. Is it an XLSX file?

[@JaxHO]

@@trumpexcel It is in xlsm

[@kenyarborough812]

protecting a worksheet is not the same as encryption. It you save a excel spreadsheet with a password, removing the xml tag would do nothing.

[@trumpexcel]

Yes, this method is only when thr worksheet is protected. Doesn't work when the entire file or the VBA code is protected

[@LeonDieBoer]

Trust an Indian to figure this out... there's actually an easier way but I am not gonna say how.

[@thewelder3538]

This is like the stupidest video I've ever come across. Firstly, when you change xlxs into zip, you're not converting ANYTHING. An xlxs file *IS* a zip archive, just because it has an extension that's associated with Excel doesn't mean anything. Secondly, removing some xml from a worksheet is something I'd have thought everyone knew. Now, let's see you do that with a Excel file that's password protected from opening. Good luck breaking/brute forcing the AES for that archive.

[@JeffFox-ke5jw]

How to open a password protected file, if you forgot the password?