Solved: Unprotect a worksheet

[ukdane]

We have received a worksheet, that we use on a regular basis,
the creator has protected the worksheet with a password, because they don't want information to be deleted.
However the person is now no longer working for the company, and we need to unprotect the worksheet, in order to create an autofilter (which can't be done when the sheet is locked).

Does anyone know how to unprotect a worksheet, when the password has been lost?

Cheers

[CreganTur]

See if someone can call this ex-employee to get the password for the worksheet.

No one here will tell you how to bypass the password security, as it is against our forum rules. Sorry.

[ukdane]

My mistake, didn't know it was against Forum rules.
Sorry for the trouble.


These aren't the droids you're loooking for. Nothing to see here- move along.

[CreganTur]

My mistake, didn't know it was against Forum rules.
Sorry for the trouble.


These aren't the droids you're loooking for. Nothing to see here- move along.

*L* It's okay- no one's going to hunt you down for asking.

[david000]

These aren't the droids you're looking for. Nothing to see here- move along.

That Jedi mind trick doesn't work on me. Don't break the password just copy the entire sheet to a new book.

[Zack Barresse]

The problem with password cracking is that we, as experts and members of the online community, do not want to give ourselves a bad name, which would happen if we just gave out this information freely. Then anybody doing a web search for hacking or cracking would find these solutions, and we would not be able to guarantee the safe use of this information. While Excel is not a secure environment, and the passwords have ways of being stripped, that information should NOT be posted on the open forum. If anybody does, their post shall be removed and the board administrators will scrutinize what actions shall be taken on that board member.

That being said there are valid reasons for stripping passwords on files. Employees leaving is one of them. This is tragic, yet happens quite frequently. Often times it will result in the entire workbook being scrapped/deleted and starting over again. Obviously this could be a colossal waste of time.

If you indeed have a valid need for this, there are many who would empathize with you. You should be able to see the need for us to be highly skeptical of your situation/needs. We highly discourage posting of this on the open board, for the above mentioned reasons. No action shall be taken against you, no worries there.