I was once asked by the Guidance officer to edit an excel file, the problem was they cannot simply input data into the file and when I open the file, I found out that it was locked to prevent editing and nobody can recall the password. When you will try to edit the file it prompts you an error message saying "The cell or chart you are trying to change is on a protected sheet"I took a screenshot of it for documentation.

They don't have much time to create a new one due to a tight deadline. And there is really no other best option but just to break the password and gain a full access to the file. I am sharing this tutorial for educational purposes, whenever you come across a situation where you have to do this.

There are other excel files out there in businesses or in schools that automate the generation of reports and they are normally password protected sheets, to hide the formula and to prevent wrong inputs from users. If you really need to check, view the formula and be able to edit the file for your good purpose, let's say you are learning advance excel lessons, you can follow the steps here to get rid of the password and guess what, after you take full control of it, you can now lock it using your own password.

Before we proceed make sure you have Power Archiver installed in your computer. The software is not intended for password cracking, and there is no feature on this software to crack or break passwords. We will only use it for the workaround, that's right, just a workaround, but a very effective workaround at least for this purpose.

No need to buy Power Archiver the free version is more than enough.

Once you are done downloading and installing PowerArchiver you can now follow the steps below.

LET'S DO THIS

Open Windows Explorer by just clicking the yellow folder icon from the taskbar or by pressing WinKey + E keys on your keyboard for advance users.
From the Windows Explorer window, click the View tab then tick the checkbox labeled as File name extensions. This is to reveal the extension of your files, your Microsoft Word file with a name abcd will now be displayed abcd.docx, your file created in notepad will now have extension .txt and your excel file will have an extension of .xlsx
Navigate or go to the file you want to break the password within Windows Explorer, mine is located at the desktop inside a directory called "New Folder". The location of your file maybe different. Right-click on the file and select Rename.

Change the file extension from xlsx to zip.
As you change the file extension you will get this dialog box , just click yes , notice also that the file icon will change.
Now, just right-click on the file and select Open With, then select Power Achiver. My version is Power Archiver 2017 but this will work regardless of the version you are using.
When Power Archiver launches, you might get this prompt if you are using the free or trial version, just click "I agree" to close the dialog box. (No need to buy it)
This is what will appear inside the Power Archiver windows. Double-click the xl folder to open it.

Then double click the worksheets folder

Yours maybe different from here. In this example, the locked sheet is labeled as "Sheet1" which is the default name of excel sheets that starts from Sheet1, then Sheet2 and so on and so fort.

To find out what's the name of the locked sheet you are working on just simply open the file normally in excel and check the sheets tab, in the image below the name of the sheets are Finance, Banking, and Data.
Once you have determined the name of the password protected sheet, just right-click on it, select Open with then click on Notepad.
When notepad opens, press CTRL + F on keyboard to open the FIND dialog box as shown below. Type the word protection inside the textbox, then click the Find button and notice the word protection will be located and highlighted. Be extra careful from here,

Close the FIND dialog box, then highlight the text starting from the special character "less than sign" < just before the word sheetprotection upto the special character "greater than sign" > the inbetween texts might be different from one excel to another and yours might be longer or shorter than this example. Just make sure you start from less than sign upto greater than sign, as shown below.
Right-Click on the highlighted area and select Delete.
Be careful here, Close Notepad and you will be prompted if you want to save the change, just click yes.
As you close Notepad, you will be prompted again by another dialog box, saying the sheet has been modified. Just click Yes. And now, close the Power Archiver window and go back where your file is located.
Now we will RENAME again the file. We will change the zip extension back to the original extension which is xlsx as shown below. Just click yes from the dialog box asking for confirmation.
Now you can just open your file and VIOLA! You now have full access to your file. In this example, you will notice that I am already able to input data. Also, notice the "Protect sheet" button is now ready for me to create my own password for the file. When you protect it with a password, the label "Protect Sheet" will change to "Unprotect sheet" where you need to enter a password for access.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned another useful and cool way in working around with computers!

I hope this has been informative for you and I'd like to thank you for reading!

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LOCKED EXCEL SHEET? Break that password and gain full access!

LET'S DO THIS

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned another useful and cool way in working around with computers!

I hope this has been informative for you and I'd like to thank you for reading!