Gone are the boring days when companies used to save data in cumbersome and physical files. Today, Excel files have made things pretty easy. On top of taking up practically zero storage space, Excel offers unmatched data security. In fact, most organizations use password-protected Excel documents. But what if you accidentally misplace or forget the password? Well, there are several tricks on how to crack Excel file password. Let’s have a look!.
Method 1. Best Way to Crack Excel File Password
Let’s start with the most widely-used method of how to crack Excel password on Windows – PassFab for Excel. With this Excel password recovery tool, you can rip open an Excel sheet without affecting the original data. Unlike some programs on this list, it’s compatible with all Excel versions, ranging from Excel 97 to Excel 2019. As if that’s not enough, this software works smoothly on all Microsoft Windows versions. Plus, you’ll enjoy free 24/7 customer support to help you crack Excel passwords in a heartbeat. Read our complete review of PassFab for Excel here.
Below are the straightforward steps of how to crack Excel sheet password with PassFab for Excel:
Step 1. Install and run the Excel password recovery program on your PC and then tap the “Recover Excel Open Password” tab.
Step 2. Next, press the Add (+) icon to open the File Explorer and import your password-protected Excel sheet.
Step 3. Choose the type of action you wish to take. You can select either the following methods:
- Brute Force Attack – to try multiple password combinations to unlock your Excel file.
- Dictionary Attack – best if you already have an Excel dictionary file.
- Brute Force with Mask Attack – lets you crack the Excel password with every character you can remember. That includes customizable symbols, numbers, and more.
Step 4. Finally, click Recover to start unlocking your password-protected Excel file. After the recovery process, you’ll see a pop-up window with your Excel document password. Save it somewhere!
Method 2. Crack Excel File Password with ZIP Software
Did you know that you can use ZIP software like WinRAR, WinZip, and 7-Zip to crack a password-protected Excel file effortlessly? So, how do you do that? Simple! First of all, create a ZIP copy of your password-protected Excel file first. You can do that by changing the file extension from .xlsx to .zip and then follow these steps:
Step 1. Download and install a ZIP compression app like WinRAR.
Step 2. Next, open File Explorer and locate your new zipped file.
Step 3. Right-click the zipped Excel document and then choose Extract files. Alternatively, open WinRAR, click File, tap Open Archive, and then select your zipped file to open it.
Step 4. You will see multiple folders on WinRAR. Click the xl Folder and then choose worksheets.
Step 5. On the resulting window, right-click the Sheet1.xml file and then open it on Notepad.
Step 6. Now delete the password protection code by removing the code. Save the edited document and close the text editor.
Step 7. Close WinRAR, locate your zipped Excel file and rename the filename extension back to .xlsx. You can now open your Excel sheet without any password restrictions.
Method 3. Crack Excel Sheet Password by VBA Code
If you’re tech-savvy, I’m sure you know something about the Visual Basic programming language. Although this might sound intimidating to beginners, you can break the stubborn Excel sheet password by copy-pasting a VBA code on the inbuilt Microsoft Visual Basic Editor. This method is one of the simplest on this list, but only if you do it correctly. So below is how to crack an Excel file password using the VBA code:
Step 1. Open your password-protected Excel file and then press the Alt + F11 keyboard shortcut. The VBA code editor will launch automatically.
Step 2. Navigate to the menu bar and click Insert. Proceed to select Module from the available options.
Step 3. On the pop-up VBA Editor window, paste the codes as you can see below:
Sub BreakPassword()
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
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub
Step 4. Click Run on the menu bar or F5 on your keyboard to process the VBA code.
Step 5. Wait for a few seconds for VBA to crack your worksheet password. A pop-up window will appear with a password. Please write it down somewhere or proceed to set a new password for your Excel file.
Step 6. To set a new Excel password, click File and then choose Info. Open Protect Workbook and then select Encrypt with Password. Now enter a new password that you’ll remember easily and then re-enter it to confirm. It’s that easy!
Method 4. Crack Excel Password Online
Interestingly, there are multiple online apps to help you crack Excel password quickly and easily. One such app is Password Online Recovery. With this online program, you can decrypt passwords on all Microsoft Excel versions, including Office 97. However, you should know that it has some limitations. For instance, users can’t upload Excel files more than 500MB. Also, the recovery time is a bit longer here. But the cons aside, this password remover does the job excellently. Apply these steps to crack Excel passwords online:
Step 1. Visit the website and then open the Online Password Recovery Excel tool.
Step 2. Click the “Upload your encrypted file” button to add the Excel file you wish to open.
Step 3. On the new page, enter and confirm the output email address.
Step 4. Click the conversion link sent on the email and wait for a while for the process to finish. Take note that this program doesn’t specify how long the recovery process will take.
The Summing Up
These four methods should help you crack Excel password quickly and easily. But as you can see, the ZIP software and VBA methods can be confusing, especially to beginners. Also, the online way is super-slow despite being easy to use. So, I suggest using the PassFab for Excel if you want a fast, straightforward, and free Excel password-removing method.
