Free Ways to Unprotect Excel Sheet without Password

So you are prompted the warning message each time you attempt to modify an Excel cell?

It means the Excel sheet is protected and you need to unprotect it by click on the Unprotect Sheet button in the
Changes group under the Review tab.

When a password is required to unprotect sheet but you dont know the password or forgot it, what can you do in
such a situation?

Take it easy! There are two free ways you can unprotect Excel sheet without password.
How to unprotect Excel sheet without password for free
Way 1: By using VBA codes
Way 1: By using ZIP
Free Way 1: Unprotect Excel sheet without password using VBA codes
You may know little about VBA codes. But never mind. Here you just need to type several lines of VBA codes to
unprotect your Excel sheet.
Step 1: Open the Excel sheet. Press Alt + F11 to open Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.
Step 2: Double click on the sheet you need to unprotect. Then type the codes in the blank field as the picture
shown as below. Be careful and do not miss anyone character or word.

Step 3: Click on the Run button and select Run Macro to run the codes.

Step 4: It will return you back to the worksheet and an alert box will appear with one usable password. Click OK
and the Excel sheet will be unprotected immediately. You can modify the sheet without password.

Free Way 2: Unprotect Excel sheet without password using 7-ZIP

This way only works for Excel file in .xlsx format. Hence, if your Excel workbook is in .xls format, just open it
and then save it as .xlsx format.
Step 1: Change the Excel file name extension from .xlsx to .zip. Just click on Yes to make sure when prompted.

Step 2: Open the ZIP archive as 7-ZIP. Open the folder xl->worksheets and you can see three sheet.xml files.
Select the sheet1.xml file. Right click on it and select Edit. Choose to open it with Notepad.

Step 3: Delete the tag beginning with sheetProtection. Then save and close the sheet1.xml file.

Step 4: Update the modified sheet1.xml file in the ZIP archive when prompted. Then close the ZIP archive.

Step 5: Change the ZIP fie name extension back to .xlsx. At this point, the Excel sheet has been unprotected.
Open it and you can edit the sheet without password.
Tips: An Excel worksheet also can be protected by Open password. If you cant open a protected Excel
worksheet without password, you have to remove or recover Excel password to unprotect the sheet.

How to Unprotect an excel sheet without password

THis document will tel you how to unprotect an excel spread sheet without having the password
This procedure works in Excel 2010 and earlier but in Excel 2013 this will not work.
In case of a password protect worksheet you are unable to Edit the data on the Excel Sheet. If you do not
Remember the Password or do not know the password to unprotect the sheet just follow the below simple steps.

Press ALT + F11 or click on View Code in Developers Tabs

In the Above White Space Enter the below Code. Do not change the code just copy paste:
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
Now Click on the Run Button or press F5:

And there you go the sheet is unprotected for you now. Also you would be getting a message in the pop up
window.
This Message is contains the password which can be used to unprotect the other sheets in the same workbook.