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How to enable auto filter for protected sheet in Excel

October 10, 2015 by Admin 11 Comments

We had already seen the following tutorials related with protection of worksheet in Excel 2016, 2013 & 2010.

  • Prevent users from adding new worksheet.
  • Password Protect Worksheet in Excel.
  • Unprotect Worksheet in Excel.

And if a worksheet with auto filter is protected then users will not be able to use auto filter unless it is enabled while protecting the worksheet. This tutorial is about the steps required for enabling auto filter for a protected worksheet in Excel 2010.

Click the Protect Sheet option available under Review menu or Info menu.

Review Menu

Click Review menu –> Changes –> Protect Sheet

Review menu - Protect Sheet

Info Menu

Click File menu –> Info menu –> Protect Workbook –> Protect Current Sheet.

Info Menu - Protect Sheet

On clicking the Protect Sheet option would display the following Protect Sheet window.

Protect Sheet Excel 2010

Scroll down the “Allow all users of this worksheet to” list and make sure to tick the check box with caption as “Use AutoFilter”. Click OK button to confirm and save the changes.

Now excel users will be able to use the auto filter option even in a protected worksheet.

Protected Sheet with auto filter

Filed Under: Excel, Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016 Tagged With: auto filter, Enable, Excel 2010, Protect, Worksheet

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jan says

    May 8, 2013 at 10:56 pm

    You just describe the function that’s allready there, easy to find and that should do the job. The question was how to make autofilter work in a protected worksheet because the mentioned function that should do it does’nt.

    Reply
  2. Jan says

    May 9, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    You don’t add something new because you give me the normal procedure which everyone can find in help, and tutorials. But that does’nt work. You must come with something better.

    Reply
  3. Ravi Shankar says

    May 9, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    Thanks Jan for the feedback. Will try to add better tutorials in future.

    Reply
  4. Sam says

    September 17, 2014 at 6:10 pm

    Thank you for providing this. Your post was very helpful.

    Reply
  5. Jaana says

    December 5, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    This doesn’t work for me in Excel 2010. I have tried to allow users to sort data in my protected spreadsheet by ticking the box, but when they open the file the sort option is not allowed.

    Reply
  6. Cuong Danh says

    November 30, 2015 at 8:12 am

    I have the same trouble with Jaana, but with Excel 2007. I have checked the box when putting in password to protect worksheet, auto-filter and group/ungroup and other functions worked well immediately after the worksheet is protected. However, the auto-filter was disabled (blocked) after the file closed and reopened. (Please be noted that my workbook have been set with a sub code of VBA to enable group/ungroup function whilst the sheets are protected). Could someone helps me out?

    Reply
  7. Mary says

    July 9, 2016 at 3:30 am

    I am also having the same issue. Have checked the box and I still cannot sort. Everything locks up and I get a message telling me I am trying to use auto filters on a protected sheet and I can’t do that, and that I must unprotect the sheet to use auto filters.

    Very frustrating!

    Reply
  8. Avsharan Kaur says

    September 9, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Thanks the information was very useful and handy.

    Reply
  9. Jasmine says

    March 3, 2021 at 3:16 pm

    More than likely, the reason why it will not allow the protected worksheet to sort is because the cells are locked. To unlock cells, you will have to go to Format Cells->Protection and uncheck the “Locked” box. Unfortunately, doing this will also allow users to edit the cells even when the worksheet is protected. Microsoft should update the software to allow sorting of locked cells, but no such update has been made to date as far as I know.

    Reply
  10. Jack says

    October 25, 2021 at 3:23 pm

    Autofilter function should be activated before protecting the sheet and the check on Autofilter must be set when protecting, then the user can use the autofilter function

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Filtering problem says:
    February 18, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    […] document.write(''); Seems to be a solution here How to enable auto filter for protected sheet in Excel […]

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