how to unprotect excel sheet
How to unprotect Excel sheet without password
Unlock Excel spreadsheet with VBA code (for Excel 2010 and lower)
If you are using Excel 2010 or older version, you can unlock a password-protected sheet with the following macro.
- Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor.
- Right-click the workbook name on the left pane (Project-VBAProject pane) and select Insert > Module from the context menu.
- In the window that appears, paste in below code.
Sub
PasswordBreaker()
'Breaks worksheet password protection.
Dim
i
As
Integer
, j
As
Integer
, k
As
Integer
Dim
l
As
Integer
, m
As
Integer
, n
As
Integer
Dim
i1
As
Integer
, i2
As
Integer
, i3
As
Integer
Dim
i4
As
Integer
, i5
As
Integer
, i6
As
Integer
On
Error
Resume
Next
For
i = 65
To
66:
For
j = 65
To
66:
For
k = 65
To
66
For
l = 65
To
66:
For
m = 65
To
66:
For
i1 = 65
To
66
For
i2 = 65
To
66:
For
i3 = 65
To
66:
For
i4 = 65
To
66
For
i5 = 65
To
66:
For
i6 = 65
To
66:
For
n = 32
To
126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
If
ActiveSheet.ProtectContents =
False
Then
MsgBox
"One usable password is "
& Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit
Sub
End
If
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
:
Next
End
Sub
- Press F5 or click the Run button on the toolbar and wait a couple of minutes. The macro will report a cracked password, which is not the original one (always some combination of A's and B's), but nevertheless it works.