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Hi Folks.

I have an old spreadsheet which I protected with two passwords, one to open & modify it and another to protect one of the worksheets within it. Problem is, I remember the password to open and modify, as I use the workbook on a weekly basis, but I can't for the life of me remember the one to unprotect the individual worksheet containing the data I need to modify/update. It is quite a large application which I put together a long time ago and I really don't want to start from scratch again because I can't remember exactly what I did or how I did it.

Any ideas as to how I may be able to open it?

This add in claims to be able to do it - never tried myself tho so cant vouch for it:- Password Remover | Spreadsheet Download | PC World

I've used this excel password remover successfully.

Excel password: Excel password remover

If the worksheet protection is simply to prevent changes to forumlae and formats etc, then the whole sheet can be copy/pasted to another workbook and the protection is removed by doing this. Then copy/paste it back. But if you've got links though, this could be messy. :}

If the protection is to prevent access by unauthorised persons, then you'll need the above password removers.

This is also useful when you get those Excel based quizzes emailed round and you have to type the answer in. If your answer doesn't match the quiz's answer exactly (including their typos), you get it wrong. However, you can copy/paste the quiz into another workbook and get the answers in the correct format. :ok::ok:

Cheers

Whirls

You could email it to me, and I can remove the passwords with some software I have.

Thanks for this.

Downloaded the add-in and it worked a treat!

Still can't remember how I did the formulae though :ugh: I'll figure it out.

Use this Macro:

Quote:

Sub PasswordBreaker()
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
MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

It will BruteForce a backdoor password - Microsoft TELL LIES when they say that a password cannot be recovered. True, the password cannot be recovered, but Excel actually creates a backdoor password, which CAN be recovered and used.
The Format of the backdoor password is:
AAAAAAAAAAAx
where A is "A" or "B" and x is any character.
The script above will scroll through ALL possible combinations until it finds the one which will unlock your worksheet.