How can I recover and unlock an encrypted Excel file without a password?

This page includes 3 parts to help you effectively recover deleted or lost Excel files, and unlock encrypted Excel or Excel worksheet without password.

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Is it possible to recover a lost Excel spreadsheet and decrypt it without a password?

"Hello, do you know how to recover and decrypt a lost Excel file without a password? I've lost an important Excel file that was encrypted with a password."

"I cannot find it in the Recycle Bin or through searching for the file name on my computer. If anyone of you knows how to recover and unlock an Excel file without a password, please let me know."

Though losing access to an Excel file or a Word document on a Windows PC is not a new problem, it remains a major concern. Losing access to an encrypted Excel without the password could be one of the issues.

If you're experiencing the same problem, you can fix and unlock your Excel file by following the solutions in this article.

Part 1: 3 Ways to Recover Deleted or Lost Excel Files

If you accidentally delete or lose an important Excel file with password, don't worry. You can recover your lost Excel from the following 3 methods.

Restore Deleted Excel Files from Recycling Bin

First, you can try to recover Excel from the Recycle Bin:

Step 1: Open the Recycle Bin.

Step 2. Right-click on the deleted Excel file and choose “Restore”.

2. Search for the Excel file name on your computer.

If it's not there, try searching for “Excel” on your computer by file name.

Note: This method is more effective in helping you find lost files that are still on your computer or storage device.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and type the name of your lost or missing Excel file in the search bar on the right.

If you can't remember the file name, search by file extension, such as .xls or .xlsx.

Step 2: Check and open the displayed Excel files to see if you can find them.

Utilize a File Recovery Software for assistance.

If both of the above methods fail to recover your Excel file, you can use a file recovery software – Data Recovery Wizard Pro to efficiently retrieve your deleted or lost Excel files.

"File Recovery Software Tool"

With a Data Recovery Wizard tool, you can perform a simple 3-step recovery process to scan and find lost data on Windows 11/10/8/7 and older versions. If your Excel file is corrupted, it can also automatically repair corrupted Excel files after the recovery.

Step 1: Choose a location and click "Scan"

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

Step 2: Find your Excel file

To quickly locate your Excel files from the scan results, click on “Documents” in the left pane. Choose “Excel,” and then click “Preview” to check if the Excel file is correct.

Step 3: Recover Excel Files

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

If the recovered Excel file is password-protected, unlock it with the password. If you've forgotten the password, you can try to decrypt it as shown in Part 2.

Part 2: How to Decrypt Excel File without Password

When you try to open an encrypted Excel file, the program will prompt you for the password. If you can't remember your decryption key, don't panic.

The methods we cover here will remove the password protection from the found Excel files. In other words, you'll be able to decrypt Excel files without a password:

Method 1: Remove Excel Password

Step 1: Create a new folder, drag the password-protected Excel file into it, and then open Folder Options.

Step 2: Click the “View” tab, scroll down and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types,” and then click “Apply.”

Step 3: Change the extension of the Excel file from .xlsx to .zip.

Step 4: Open the .zip file with an archiver, click on the xl folder > Worksheets > Sheet1.xml, and open it with Notepad.

Step 5: Remove the password from "Sheet protection password="**"", save the Notepad file, and click Yes.

Step 7: Change the file extension back to .xlsx. Open it in Excel, click Review, and click Unprotect Sheet.

You can now edit your Excel file and unlock it for reuse.

Method 2: Remove Password from Protected Excel with VBA Code

Step 1: Create a new Excel file and then press Alt + F11 to open the VBA Editor.

Step 2: Click Insert, and then choose Modules.

Step 3: Enter the VBA code in the Normal window.

Step 4: Click the Run button (or press F5) to run it.

5. When a small window pops up, click “OK,” then close the VBA window. Your Excel spreadsheet should now be unprotected.

Method 3: Try an Excel Password Removal Tool

If you'd prefer to use a specialized software or tool to help you remove the password protection from your Excel file, try the following:

Or if you want to unlock an Excel file without a password, you can try the recommended password removal tool:

• Excel Password Remover
• Flexible Excel Password Recovery Tool
• Excel Password Genius
• Excel Password Fixer
• PassFab for Excel

You can optionally try any recommended tool online to unlock Excel file without password.

If you're facing the issue of Excel not saving, there's online help available on how to recover an unsaved Excel document.

Part 3: Remove Password Protection from Excel Spreadsheet

Step 1: Backup the encrypted Excel file, and then change the extension of the original Excel file from .xlsx to .zip.

Step 3: Open the .xml file with Notepad and change the value of lockStructure from "1" to "0", as shown below.

Step 4: Save the modified file, then copy it back into the extracted folder and replace the original workbook.xml file.

Step 5: Change the file extension back to .xlsx, and you've converted your zip file back into an Excel file.

Step 6: Reopen the Excel file, and click Enable Connections.

Now, you should be able to edit the Excel spreadsheet without any password protection.