How do I remove protection from an Excel spreadsheet 2016?
Gabriel Cooper
Updated on March 09, 2026
How do I remove protection from an Excel spreadsheet 2016?
After you’ve opened your Excel file, go to the Info section, choose “Protect Document,” then “Restrict Editing.” At the bottom of the following pop-up menu, there’ll be the “Stop protection” option. Select it to remove the restrictions.
How do I unlock a protected workbook in Excel 2016?
Unprotect an Excel worksheet
- Go to the worksheet you want to unprotect.
- Go to File > Info > Protect > Unprotect Sheet, or from the Review tab > Changes > Unprotect Sheet.
- If the sheet is protected with a password, then enter the password in the Unprotect Sheet dialog box, and click OK.
How do I unprotect an Excel worksheet if I forgot the password?
Just do any of the following:
- Right-click the sheet tab, and select Unprotect Sheet… from the context menu.
- On the Review tab, in the Changes group, click Unprotect Sheet.
- On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format, and select Unprotect Sheet from the drop-down menu.
How do I unprotect an Excel sheet?
How to unprotect a cell or worksheet
- In the menu bar, click the Review tab.
- In the Protect group, click the Unprotect Sheet option.
- In the Unprotect Sheet sheet window that pops up, enter the password to unlock the worksheet, then click OK.
How do I unprotect an Excel workbook without the password for free?
How to Remove Password from Excel Spreadsheet (Unprotect Excel)
- Step 1: Go to Control panel.
- Step 2: Click on Folder Options.
- Step 3: Open View Tab.
- Step 4: Uncheck “Hide Extension for the known file type”
- Step 5: Select the excel file.
- Step 6: Change the extension of your Excel file from .
- Step 7: Open Zip File & Extract.
How do you unlock an Excel workbook for editing?
If the worksheet is protected, do the following:
- On the Review tab, click Unprotect Sheet (in the Changes group). Click the Protect Sheet button to Unprotect Sheet when a worksheet is protected.
- If prompted, enter the password to unprotect the worksheet.
How do I unprotect an Excel workbook without the password?
How do you edit a protected cell in Excel?
In other words, you can allow certain cells on a protected sheet to be unlocked with password. Here’s how: Select the cells or ranges you want to unlock by a password when the sheet is protected. Go to the Review tab > Changes group, and click Allow Users to Edit Ranges.
How do I make an editable Excel spreadsheet protected?
Copy and paste in a protected worksheet
- If the worksheet you want to change is protected, click Review > Unprotect Sheet.
- Click the Select All button to select the entire worksheet you want to protect.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+F.
- On the Protection tab, uncheck the Locked box, and click OK.
How do you fix workbook is protected and Cannot be changed?
“Workbook is protected and cannot be changed” or Excel workbook…
- Start to unprotect the workbook: Office 2007 (Ribbon menu in Xcelsius or Excel).
- You will be prompted for a password.
- This is the password (the O is an uppercase o): fazOh1+u.
- Click OK and the spreadsheet should no longer be locked.