VBA to protect and unprotect Sheets

Protecting and unprotecting sheets is a common action for an Excel user.  There is nothing worse than when somebody, who doesn’t know what they’re doing, over types essential formulas and cell values.  It’s even worse when that person happens to be ourselves; all it takes is one accidental keypress, and suddenly the entire worksheet is filled with errors.  In this post, we explore using VBA to protect and unprotect sheets.

Protection is not foolproof but prevents the accidental alteration by an unknowing user.

Sheet protection is particularly frustrating because it has to be applied one sheet at a time.  If we only need to protect a single sheet, that’s fine.  But if we have more than 5 sheets, it is going to take a while.  This is why so many people turn to a VBA solution.

The VBA Code Snippets below show how to do most activities related to protecting and unprotecting sheets.

Download the example file

I recommend you download the example file for this post.  Then you’ll be able to work along with examples and see the solution in action, plus the file will be useful for future reference.

Download the file: 0016 VBA Protect and unprotect sheets.zip

Adapting the code for your purposes

Unless stated otherwise, every example below is based on one specific worksheet.  Each code includes Sheets(“Sheet1”)., this means the action will be applied to that specific sheet.  For example, the following protects Sheet1.

 Sheets("Sheet1").Protect

But there are lots of ways to reference sheets for protecting or unprotecting.

Using the active sheet

The active sheet is whichever sheet is currently being used within the Excel window.

ActiveSheet.Protect

Applying a sheet to a variable

If we want to apply protection to a sheet stored as a variable, we could use the following.

Dim ws As Worksheet

Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1")

ws.Protect

Later in the post, we look at code examples to loop through each sheet and apply protection quickly.

Protect and unprotect: basic examples

Let’s begin with some simple examples to protect and unprotect sheets.

Protect a sheet without a password

Sub ProtectSheet()

'Protect a worksheet
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect

End Sub

Unprotect a sheet (no password)

Sub UnProtectSheet()

'Unprotect a worksheet
Sheets("Sheet1").Unprotect

End Sub

Protecting and unprotecting with a password

Adding a password to give an extra layer of protection is easy enough with VBA.  The password in these examples is hardcoded into the macro; this may not be the best for your scenario.  It may be better to apply using a string variable, or capturing user passwords with an InputBox.

Protect sheet with password

Sub ProtectSheetWithPassword()

'Protect worksheet with a password
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword"

End Sub

Unprotect sheet with a password

Sub UnProtectSheetWithPassword()

'Unprotect a worksheet with a password
Sheets("Sheet1").Unprotect Password:="myPassword"

End Sub

Catching errors when incorrect password entered

If an incorrect password is provided, the following error message displays.

The code below catches the error and provides a custom message.

Sub CatchErrorForWrongPassword()

'Keep going even if error found
On Error Resume Next

'Apply the wrong password
Sheets("Sheet1").Unprotect Password:="incorrectPassword"

'Check if an error has occured
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    MsgBox "The Password Provided is incorrect"
    Exit Sub
End If

'Reset to show normal error messages
On Error GoTo 0

End Sub

If you forget a password, don’t worry, the protection is easy to remove.

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Applying protection to different parts of the worksheet

VBA provides the ability to protect 3 aspects of the worksheet:

• Contents – what you see on the grid
• Objects – the shapes and charts which are on the face of the grid
• Scenarios – the scenarios contained in the What If Analysis section of the Ribbon

By default, the standard protect feature will apply all three types of protection at the same time.

Protect contents

Sub ProtectSheetContents()

'Apply worksheet contents protection only
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    DrawingObjects:=False, _
    Contents:=True, _
    Scenarios:=False

End Sub

Protect objects

Sub ProtectSheetObjects()

'Apply worksheet objects protection only
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=False, _
    Scenarios:=False

End Sub

Protect scenarios

Sub ProtectSheetScenarios()

'Apply worksheet scenario protection only
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    DrawingObjects:=False, _
    Contents:=False, _
    Scenarios:=True

End Sub

Protect contents, objects and scenarios

Sub ProtectSheetAll()

'Apply worksheet protection to contents, objects and scenarios
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=True, _
    Scenarios:=True

End Sub

Applying protection to multiple sheets

As we have seen, protection is applied one sheet at a time.  Therefore, looping is an excellent way to apply settings to a lot of sheets quickly.  The examples in this section don’t just apply to Sheet1, as the previous examples have, but include all worksheets or all selected worksheets.

Protect all worksheets in the active workbook

Sub ProtectAllWorksheets()

'Create a variable to hold worksheets
Dim ws As Worksheet

'Loop through each worksheet in the active workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

'Protect each worksheet
ws.Protect Password:="myPassword"

Next ws

End Sub

Protect the selected sheets in the active workbook

Sub ProtectSelectedWorksheets()

Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim sheetArray As Variant

'Capture the selected sheets
Set sheetArray = ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets

'Loop through each worksheet in the active workbook
For Each ws In sheetArray

    On Error Resume Next

    'Select the worksheet
    ws.Select

    'Protect each worksheet
    ws.Protect Password:="myPassword"

    On Error GoTo 0

Next ws

sheetArray.Select

End Sub

Unprotect all sheets in active workbook

Sub UnprotectAllWorksheets()

'Create a variable to hold worksheets
Dim ws As Worksheet

'Loop through each worksheet in the active workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

'Unprotect each worksheet
ws.Unprotect Password:="myPassword"

Next ws

End Sub

Checking if a worksheet is protected

The codes in this section check if each type of protection has been applied.

Check if Sheet contents is protected

Sub CheckIfSheetContentsProtected()

'Check if worksheets contents is protected
If Sheets("Sheet1").ProtectContents Then MsgBox "Protected Contents"

End Sub

Check if Sheet objects are protected

Sub CheckIfSheetObjectsProtected()

'Check if worksheet objects are protected
If Sheets("Sheet1").ProtectDrawingObjects Then MsgBox "Protected Objects"

End Sub

Check if Sheet scenarios are protected

Sub CheckIfSheetScenariosProtected()

'Check if worksheet scenarios are protected
If Sheets("Sheet1").ProtectScenarios Then MsgBox "Protected Scenarios"

End Sub

Changing the locked or unlocked status of cells, objects and scenarios

When a sheet is protected, unlocked items can still be edited.  The following codes demonstrate how to lock and unlock ranges, cells, charts, shapes and scenarios.

When the sheet is unprotected, the lock setting has no impact; each object becomes locked on protection.

All the examples in this section set each object/item to lock when protected; to unlock, change the value to False.

Lock a cell

Sub LockACell()

'Changing the options to lock or unlock cells
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Locked = True

End Sub

Lock all cells

Sub LockAllCells()

'Changing the options to lock or unlock cells all cells
Sheets("Sheet1").Cells.Locked = True

End Sub

Lock a chart

Sub LockAChart()

'Changing the options to lock or unlock charts
Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Locked = True

End Sub

Lock a shape

Sub LockAShape()

'Changing the option to lock or unlock shapes
Sheets("Sheet1").Shapes("Rectangle 1").Locked = True

End Sub

ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

Sub LockAScenario()

'Changing the option to lock or unlock a scenario
Sheets("Sheet1").Scenarios("scenarioName").Locked = True

End Sub

Allowing actions to be performed even when protected

Even when protected, we can allow specific operations, such as inserting rows, formatting cells, sorting, etc.  These are the same options as found when manually protecting the sheet.

Allow sheet actions when protected

Sub AllowSheetActionsWhenProtected()

'Allowing certain actions even if the worksheet is protected
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    DrawingObjects:=False, _
    Contents:=True, _
    Scenarios:=False, _
    AllowFormattingCells:=True, _
    AllowFormattingColumns:=True, _
    AllowFormattingRows:=True, _
    AllowInsertingColumns:=False, _
    AllowInsertingRows:=False, _
    AllowInsertingHyperlinks:=False, _
    AllowDeletingColumns:=True, _
    AllowDeletingRows:=True, _
    AllowSorting:=False, _
    AllowFiltering:=False, _
    AllowUsingPivotTables:=False

End Sub

Allow selection of any cells

Sub AllowSelectionAnyCells()

'Allowing selection of locked or unlocked cells
Sheets("Sheet1").EnableSelection = xlNoRestrictions

End Sub

Allow selection of unlocked cells

Sub AllowSelectionUnlockedCells()

'Allowing selection of unlocked cells only
Sheets("Sheet1").EnableSelection = xlUnlockedCells

End Sub

Don’t allow selection of any cells

Sub NoSelectionAllowed()

'Do not allow selection of any cells
Sheets("Sheet1").EnableSelection = xlNoSelection

End Sub

Allowing VBA code to make changes, even when protected

Even when protected, we still want our macros to make changes to the sheet.  The following VBA code changes the setting to allow macros to make changes to a protected sheet.

Sub AllowVBAChangesOnProtectedSheet()

'Enable changes to worksheet by VBA code, even if protected
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    UserInterfaceOnly:=True

End Sub

Allowing the use of the Group and Ungroup feature

To enable users to make use of the Group and Ungroup feature of protected sheets, we need to allow changes to the user interface and enable outlining.

Sub AllowGroupingAndUngroupOnProtectedSheet()

'Allow user to group and ungroup whilst protected
Sheets("Sheet1").Protect Password:="myPassword", _
    UserInterfaceOnly:=True

Sheets("Sheets1").EnableOutlining = True

End Sub

Conclusion

Wow!  That was a lot of code examples; hopefully, this covers everything you would ever need for using VBA to protect and unprotect sheets.

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Don’t forget:

If you’ve found this post useful, or if you have a better approach, then please leave a comment below.

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