I can't get past the password check in XP on files transfered from Win 8

**JeffLeites** · 01-05-2015, 03:26 AM

This used to work! I did it all the time.

I can no longer open password protected .xls files created on my Windows 8.1 Desktop (Excel 2013) on my XP Notebook (Excel 2000).
I get the Incorrect Password window.

This was working the last time I needed to do this within the last 2 months.

What can I do?

**JeffLeites** · 01-05-2015, 04:05 AM

Quit Looking! I figured it out!

The one thing that changed from the time it worked, to the time it didn't, is that I deleted the .xls file from my XP Notebook. The file was only present on my Win8 Desktop. I have no recollection of what I did to the file on the Desktop, but I must have changed something so that when I saved it on the Desktop, it somehow got saved differently, in a manor that was incompatible with the Excel version on my Notebook.

I fixed it by removing the Password protection on the file on the Desktop, moving it to a shared folder, opening the file on the Notebook, applying the Password protection on the notebook, and saving that file on the Notebook and the Desktop. Now I can modify the spreadsheet and save it, and make copies of it on the Desktop, copy it to the Notebook, and open it on the Notebook.

**JeffLeites** · 01-06-2015, 03:00 AM

It turned out that my problem was not completely solved.
I opened the spreadsheet this evening, and noticed that my macro command buttons were gone.
In the process of starting over, I found that when the file was converted from .xls to .xlsm, the command buttons were there, but no longer recognized as command buttons.

In case it helps anyone else, this is what I finally had to do to get it working again.

1. Open the .xls file on the Desktop (Excel 2013).
2. Save the file as .xlsm (this had to be done before removing the Password, because removing the Password first resulted in a low Memory message).
3. Save the .xlsm file as .xls.
4. Send the .xls file to the XP notebook.
5. Open the .xls file on the notebook (Excel 2000).
6. Replaced what looks like the command buttons with new command buttons (linking them to the existing code). I had 5 buttons.
I saved a copy after replacing each button, because I messed it up the first time, and had to start over again.
7. Put a open Password on the file. This will reestablish the lower level of encryption password when using the file in Excel 2013.
6 Send a copy back to the Desktop.

It hasn't been fun

**JeffLeites** · 01-07-2015, 02:20 AM

Last Update - I figured out how this mess happened. I have a macro that saves and closes the spreadsheet. One of it's functions is to also save a generational copy of the file with a date in the file name (it also deletes the dated files that are over 21 days old. I figured out this morning, that when the an Excel file is created with a Save As, either manually, or in the macro, the password in the new file is encrypted at the higher level of Excel 2013 making in unreadable in Excel 2000. Using Format 56, doesn't help. I was recently working with the spreadsheet, made some mistakes, and decided to replace it by renaming the previous dated file to the regular file name. That resulted in the regular file having the more highly encrypted password from that time on. I didn't notice the problem until yesterday, when I transferred the file to my Notebook. By experimenting, I found that creating the new file by doing a Copy instead of a Save As did not affect the password encryption, so, the simple fix was to change my macro instruction from ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs FileName to ActiveWorkbook.SaveCopyAs FileName. And that is the rest of the story.