ExcelUnlocker — Remove Excel password protection for free

ExcelUnlocker

Locked out of an Excel file? ExcelUnlocker removes sheet protection and workbook locks from any .xlsx file — no password required.

GitHub Download How it works

Features

Remove sheet protection from all worksheets
Unlock workbook structure (lockStructure)
Preserves all formatting, data and formulas
Simple interactive CLI with ASCII banner
Windows, Linux, macOS — requires .NET 6.0+

How it works

Rename .xlsx → .zip Excel files are ZIP archives. The tool renames and extracts them to access the raw XML.

Strip protection tags All <sheetProtection> elements are removed from each worksheet XML file.

Unlock workbook structure Sets lockStructure="0" in workbook.xml.

Repackage and output Recompressed and saved as unlocked_file.xlsx in the same directory.

Installation

# clone and build

            $ git clone
            https://github.com/simopisa/ExcelUnlocker.git
          
            $ cd ExcelUnlocker && dotnet build

# run

$ dotnet run

Note

Intended for recovering access to your own files. Only works with .xlsx (Excel 2007+). Output is always saved as unlocked_file.xlsx — keep a backup of the original. Users are responsible for ensuring they have the right to unlock any file they process.