How to Recover an Excel Password on Windows/Mac

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How to Open a Password Protected Excel File

Many users set passwords on their Excel files to limit modifications or access, but sometimes, users forget their Excel password, which can be frustrating, given the risk of losing important files.

To prevent any third party from viewing your hidden sheets, renaming, adding, deleting, or hiding your sheets, you should protect your Excel with a valid password. Many people dislike setting passwords because they might forget the code.

But you don't have to worry about it anymore. If you forget your Excel password, there are many ways to unlock your Excel file. In this article, you'll learn different Excel password recovery methods and how to use them.

Method 1: Unlock an Excel Worksheet with VBA Code

Open the workbook with the forgotten password. Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor. In the VBA editor, double-click on the sheet that you want to unlock from the list on the left. This will take you to the General Declarations page of your sheet.

Step 2: Paste this code into the "Declarations" page you just opened. Do not change the Sheet name or anything else; just copy and paste.

Step 3. After adding the code, go to the Ribbon's Home tab and click on Run. You will see that the macro has started running. Navigate to the VBA Editor screen or hit the F5 key.

Step 4: The macro will proceed to the sheet that you want to unprotect. You will be greeted with a warning dialog box with valid code.

5. Click "Unprotect Sheet" from the Review tab. Enter the password you set. Your sheet is now unlocked.

Method 2: Unlock an Excel File by Changing the File Extension

You can reliably open or view an unprotected Excel file by changing its file extension with these simple steps:

Step 1. The first thing to do before you start the Excel password recovery process is to make a backup copy of your Excel file. Make sure it is password protected.

Step 2: After you create the backup, simply right-click on the Excel file and select the “Rename” option.

Step 3: Regardless of whether the file has a .xls or .csv extension, you must change it to have a .zip extension.

Step 4. Be sure to unzip the contents of the file after renaming it and changing the extension to .zip.

Step 5. Look for a file that ends with the .xml extension. Once you've found it, click on the file and open it with an XML editor.

Step 6. Press Ctrl + F to help you find the word you're looking for. Once you've found it, delete it from the file.

Step 7. Save the file after you have deleted the word.

Step 8. After making the necessary changes, save your file and change the file extension from .zip to .csv or .xls, depending on your preference.

After doing so, all your sheets will be accessible, meaning you can open any file without having to enter a password.

5 Free Online Tools to Remove Excel Passwords

An online Excel password recovery tool can quickly restore your Excel password in a short period of time. Here are some recommended tools: 1. **PassFab for Excel**: This is a powerful password recovery tool that offers a fast and efficient solution to recover lost or forgotten Excel passwords. It has a user-friendly interface and supports various versions of Excel. 2. ** Stellar Password Recovery**: This tool provides a comprehensive solution for recovering Excel file passwords. It uses advanced algorithms to crack the password and comes with a free trial version. 3. **Recovery Toolbox for Excel**: This is another reliable option for Excel password recovery. It has a high success rate and can handle complex passwords. The software offers a simple step-by-step process. 4. **Advanced Excel Password Recovery**: Developed by Eltima Software, this tool claims to have a fast recovery speed and supports multiple encryption types. It's suitable for both beginners and professionals. 5. **Office Password Recovery Wizard**: This tool is designed to recover lost passwords for various Microsoft Office applications, including Excel. It offers several recovery methods and has a straightforward interface. Remember to always prioritize data security and only use these tools for legitimate purposes.

1. LostMyPass 2. Password-Online 3. Password-Find 4. Straxx Password Remover 5. Password Remover Online

1. LostMyPass

"LostMyPass MS Excel Password Recovery is recognized as a renowned online Excel password recovery tool for retrieving passwords from MS Excel. It offers a free trial MS Excel password search service, scouring through a database of over 3 million common passwords."

Advantages:

• You can use the weak password recovery freely
• The process will take just a few minutes

Disadvantages:

• You have to pay to set up a strong password, which is too expensive.

2. Password Online

(Image displays: Password-Online icon, an online password recovery tool)

When it comes to online free Excel password recovery, Password Online is another priority. It uses its technology to recover passwords for Microsoft Office Excel 2003, 2000, and 97 along with 40-bit keys, thus enabling encryption of files to be restored in seconds.

Advantages:

• It can unlock and grant access to an Excel spreadsheet protected with a strong password
• A free trial is available for users

Drawbacks:

• It isn't compatible with Excel 2010, 2013, 2016, or 2019, and it doesn't work well with other versions.

3. Password Find

"Password Find" offers a high-quality online service for unprotecting Excel sheets. Moreover, it possesses the remarkable ability to unlock passwords from VBA projects, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations. The passwords are removed in a short time, so you don't have to wait too long.

Advantages:

• Try it free • Unlock 100% content of protected Microsoft Office documents from versions 97-2003 with ease

Disadvantages:

• It costs $39.95 to recover a password for a single document. This is quite expensive, and not competitive with other products.

4. Straxx Password Remover

Straxx Excel Password Remover is considered to be the most powerful Excel password recovery tool that unlocks your password protected Excel and allows you to edit the workbook.

It eliminates the need for complex, lengthy passwords with special characters.

Advantages:

• You can access the free version only for personal use.
• It can detect original data during the process.

Disadvantages:

Additional cost for removing passwords in Excel 2013, 2016, 2019, and Windows 2016, 2019

5. Online Password Remover

Online Password Remover is another preferred choice of users when it comes to removing passwords from Excel documents. This tool offers a multitude of useful features, which is why users prefer using it.

Advantages:

• You pay nothing if your files are not decrypted
• Reliable

Disadvantages:

Does not support new Excel versions from 2013, 2016, or 2019

Recover Lost Excel Files with Data Recovery Wizard

Data Recovery Wizard Pro, with its collection of practical features and user-friendly approach, efficiently assists users in swiftly retrieving files that have been accidentally deleted from computers, USB devices, Windows systems, laptops, hard disk drives, PCs, and more. It serves as the perfect convenient tool to handle data loss scenarios due to unexpected power outages, formatting, sudden system crashes, or virus attacks.

Main Features:

• Efficiently recover deleted Word files, emails, videos, photos, music, and audio
• Quickly restore files from cameras, formatted hard drives, digital cameras, emptied Recycle Bins, flash drives, and memory cards
• Provide data recovery support in various scenarios, including sudden virus attacks, accidental deletion, hard drive failure, formatting, and system crashes

Hence, it's the top-notch care you can provide to recover lost data. The tool offers flexible scanning modes to help in data recovery. Best of all, remote assistance is available for free. You can follow the steps below to restore your lost Excel file.

Step 1: Select a location and click "Scan."

Select the hard drive where your lost Excel file was saved, or select Desktop or any specific folder, and then click on the “Scan” button.

Step 2: Locate your Excel file

To quickly find your Excel files from the scan results, click “Documents” on the left panel. Select “Excel,” and then click “Preview” to check if these Excel files are the ones you need.

Step 3: Recover the Excel File

Finally, select the desired Excel file and click on the “Recover” button. Then, choose a folder to save the Excel file at another location.

How to Recover an Excel Password on a Mac

This method works for Windows. If you're using a Mac, you can use the "Keychain Access" program to remove the password. Follow the guide mentioned in the article above.

Step 1. On your Mac, find the Applications folder and open it. Navigate to Utilities > Keychain Access. Click to open it.

Step 2: On the left, you should see "Keychain Access"; click on "Passwords" to proceed.

Step 3 Scroll down the “Name” column at the top of the Programs window until you find “Excel.” Click on it.

Step 4: A new screen will pop up. Under the "Attributes" tab, select "Show Password." Another screen will appear where you need to click on "Login Keychain Password."

Step 5: Click on “Allow” to proceed. You should see your password appear in the “Password” field provided.

Conclusions

An easy-to-use and straightforward online Excel password recovery tool is the best way to access and unlock a password-protected Excel file. When solving your issue, you shouldn't compromise data security, as this can lead to data theft and loss. Hence, choosing the right online Excel password recovery tool is crucial.

This article will introduce you to several software and methods for opening a password-protected Excel file. Among all the recommendations, Ease US Data Recovery Wizard stands out as an all-in-one solution to protect your data.