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Today, we are going to explore a technique to unprotect a VBA project from an Excel 2019, 2016, 2013 document. Users looking for how to decrypt a VBA project in Excel without a password can read this article.
Real User Problem
I was handling one of my organization’s project last month. While working on that project, I protected my VBA project. Now, when I am accessing my VBA Macro, it is not accepting my credentials. Therefore, can anyone guide me how to unprotect VBA project in Excel without password?
“Tom, System Admin”
Solution to Unprotect VBA Project in Excel without Password
Excel save the file contents in which each cell includes formulas, formats, VBA code, conditional formatting, etc. Users can easily unprotect VBA project in Excel without password through common fixes. They can follow few steps to unprotect VBA project as mentioned.
- Firstly, user needs to open the Excel file in notepad. User will notice the first two characters, i.e. PK. It means that Excel compresses all its file contents
- Now, Rename the file extension from .xlsm to .zip
- Open the .zip file on your system, user will see all the content in the form of coding XML Code
- To explore more, user can go back to original file and can add few VBA codes to it
- Now Add Password to protect VBA code
- User can store the file and perform the same steps as discussed above to open XML file structure. Now, there is another XML file is created, known as vbaProject.bin. This is the actual file that is user needs to unprotect
- Open this file in Hex Editor
- Search a keyword “DPB” from the content and keep in mind to find it just above “Host Extender Info”
- After finding the keyword, replace “DPB” with “DBx” and save the data file. Now, replace the edited file and with drag and drop way place the file back to compressed file location and rename that compressed file to .xlsm
- Open that file in Excel, it will give an error message, which contains an invalid key DBx. Click on yes option to proceed further
- Now again, another error message will pop-up. Select OK
- Open VBA editor and open the module code. Again, error messages will pop-up. Just save the file data and close
- The file is now all set as new without VBA password.
The user can now check the file again and can utilize it without password VBA password.
Also Read: How to Import Excel Data into SQL Server?
Automated Solution to Unprotect Excel VBA Project
The manual method is obviously free solution but having a high chance of data loss. Also, this method required high technical knowledge. We recommend that you only select secure VBA Password Remover Tool. This advanced utility can quickly unlock excel VBA projects and from any file type such as .xlam, .xls, .doc, etc. It is also a great tool to get rid of lost or forgotten old VBA passwords.
Conclusion
In the above discussion, major problem faced by the users, i.e. how to unprotect VBA project in Excel without password is described. A proper solution is discussed, which helps to give systematic guidance to the users. By following these steps properly, use can unprotect the VBA project but user must take backup before following the procedure.
