If multiple sheets are protected, you’ll need to remove protection on each sheet separately.
If you don’t know the password, see the Using Google Sheets method. This method lets you upload the file to Google Sheets, which removes all protections added in Excel. If you’re using Excel 2010 or earlier and prefer not to upload to Google Sheets, see the Using VBA Code in Excel 2010 and Earlier method.
If you’re not already signed into your Google account, follow the on-screen instructions to sign in now. If you don’t have a Google account, see How to Make a Google Account.
Click the File menu at the top-left corner of your sheet. Click Download As. Click Microsoft Excel (. xlsx) . Select a folder to save the file. If you want to keep the original version of the file (the one with a protected sheet) intact, type a new name for the file as well. Click Save to download the file.
Use this method if you have already tried unlocking a sheet but found that it’s password-protected (and you don’t know the password). This method will not work in Excel 2013 or later.
Click the File menu at the top-right corner. Click Save As. Go to the folder in which you want to save the file. Select Excel 97-2003 (. xls) from the “Save as type” or “File Format” menu. Click Save. Follow the on-screen prompts to make any necessary conversions.
The new password will be a random number of “As” rather than the original password.
If you had to convert the file to an earlier format, you can now save the workbook again as an . xlsx file.
If you had to convert the file to an earlier format, you can now save the workbook again as an . xlsx file.
