Unprotect Excel Sheet
Make protected worksheets editable again. The sheet protection record is removed in your browser - no password needed, nothing uploaded.
Important
This removes editing locks - sheet protection, workbook structure, read-only passwords, and protected ranges - without needing the password. It cannot decrypt a file that demands a password just to open it. Drop your file in either way and it will tell you which kind you have. Only use on files you own or have permission to modify.
Drop your files here or click to upload
Supports .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls · up to 50MB · or paste a file from your clipboard
How to Unprotect an Excel Sheet Without the Password
- Upload the workbook - Drop your .xlsx or .xlsm file above. It is analyzed in your browser and never uploaded.
- Sheet protection is removed - The tool deletes the
<sheetProtection>record inside every protected worksheet. Locked cells, locked formatting, and locked ranges all become editable. - Download and edit - The result screen names each sheet that was unprotected. Open the copy in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice and edit freely.
This Page Is for Protected Sheets Specifically
Sheet protection is the lock an author applies to one worksheet so its cells can't be changed - the file opens fine, but editing a cell shows "The cell or chart you're trying to change is on a protected sheet." That is exactly what this page removes, sheet by sheet, and the removal also works when nobody remembers the password.
Two related locks are different jobs. If sheets can't be added, renamed, or deleted, that is workbook structure protection - our Excel password remover clears sheet and workbook protection together in one pass. And if Excel demands a password before showing anything at all, the file is encrypted - see Excel password recovery for what is realistically possible there.
The Manual Alternatives
If you know the password, Excel itself is quickest: open the sheet, then Review → Unprotect Sheet, and type it in. If you don't, the classic manual route is renaming the file to .zip, editing each worksheet's XML to strip the protection element, and re-zipping - fiddly and easy to get wrong. This page automates exactly that edit, locally and instantly, so the manual surgery is never necessary.