Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let’s figure out why people password protect worksheets to begin with.  By protecting a worksheet and the contents of locked cells, users can keep themselves or other users from:

• accidentally (or intentionally) removing formulas, or other contents of locked cells
• adding or deleting rows and columns
• changing cell, column or row formats
• sorting data
• using AutoFilter or PivotTable reports
• editing objects or scenarios

Protecting a worksheet will not keep users from

• editing any unlocked cells in the worksheet
• viewing all data in the worksheet, regardless of if it is in a locked cell or not

Being able to unlock a password protected worksheet is useful, when

• you have forgotten the password on your own worksheet
• a co-worker, or other user has password protected a worksheet that you now need to edit, and they are not available to unlock the sheet for you
• you have a need to perform an analysis of the data in a password protected worksheet, but are unable to do so due to the locked cells
• you would like to sort/filter the data in a password protected worksheet, or create a PivotTable report from the data

Since Microsoft Excel is not a “secure” program, it is very easy to unlock the password of a password protected worksheet.  This is because there are several different combinations of passwords that Excel will accept to unlock the worksheet.  For example, a worksheet with the password “treehouse”, can also be unlocked with the password “AAAABAABBBB/”.  The opposite is also true (i.e. protecting with the password “AAAABAABBBB/” can be unlocked with the password “treehouse”).  Go ahead; try locking a worksheet with the password treehouse, and use AAAABAABBBB/ to unlock it.

The macro code below will “unlock” one worksheet at a time, using the method used above.  It won’t provide you with the actual password someone typed in, but rather a random sequence of letters or symbols that will work to unlock the worksheet.


Sub PasswordRecovery()
'
'MACROS BY EXCELZOOM.COM
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