How to Unhide All Sheets at Once in Excel

Q: How do I unhide all sheets in Excel with a keyboard shortcut?

There's no single combination. Press Alt, H, O, U, H on Windows to open the Unhide dialog, then Shift + Down to select every sheet before Enter. On Excel 2016 and 2019 it still accepts one sheet per trip.

The "unhide them one at a time" problem

Right-click a tab, click Unhide, and 12 hidden sheets sit in that little dialog. For years Excel made you pick one, click OK, and repeat. That's why people search for how to unhide all sheets in Excel in the first place.

Two things matter here. Excel 365 and 2021 now let you select every sheet in that dialog at once. And a second category, very-hidden sheets, never shows up in it on any version.

TL;DR: Key takeaways

In Excel 365, Excel 2021, and Excel for the web, Ctrl-click inside the Unhide dialog to select every hidden sheet and reveal them in one click.
In Excel 2016 and 2019, that dialog is still one sheet at a time. Use VBA instead.
Very-hidden sheets (xlSheetVeryHidden) never show up in the Unhide dialog on any version.
A free macro unhides everything, including very-hidden sheets, and reports the count.

Method 1: Select them all in the Unhide dialog

Right-click any sheet tab, click Unhide.
Hold Ctrl (Command on Mac) and click each sheet, or click the first, hold Shift, and press Down to select the rest.
Click OK.

Microsoft's guide to hiding and unhiding worksheets confirms both selection methods. The Excel team announced multi-select unhide for Windows build 16.0.13525 and Mac 16.45, so check File > Account > About Excel if it doesn't respond. Perpetual licences of 2016 and 2019 never got this update, and no version of this dialog shows a very-hidden sheet.

Method 2: The free macro

Download Unhide All Sheets. Free .xlsm, catches very-hidden sheets too.

Alt + F8, pick UnhideAllSheets, click Run.
Every hidden and very-hidden sheet becomes visible. A popup reports the count.

The macro checks whether each sheet's Visible property is anything other than xlSheetVisible, rather than checking whether it equals xlSheetHidden. Most forum snippets do the latter, which quietly skips very-hidden sheets and leaves you thinking the workbook is fully exposed when it isn't.

No macro file? Press Alt + F11, then Ctrl + G to open the Immediate window, and paste:

For Each sh In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets: sh.Visible = xlSheetVisible: Next sh

Works on a plain .xlsx with nothing to save, but gives no count or confirmation.

Hidden vs. very-hidden

Very-hidden is set from the VBA editor's Properties pane, not the Hide command, and it never appears in the Unhide dialog. People use it for config tabs or staging sheets. It isn't security, just a speed bump anyone who knows Alt + F11 undoes in five seconds.

Why the Unhide option is greyed out

Usually one of two things: there are no regular hidden sheets (very-hidden ones still leave it greyed out, since they don't count), or the workbook structure is protected under Review > Protect Workbook, which blocks visibility changes including from VBA. If it's individual sheets locked rather than the workbook structure, that's unprotecting all sheets instead.

A real example

A finance analyst inherits a quarterly workbook showing 6 tabs. Right-click Unhide lists 9 more. Running the macro instead reveals 4 further sheets the dialog never showed at all: three very-hidden rate tables and a staging sheet feeding a broken formula nobody had documented.

Frequently asked questions

How do I unhide all sheets in Excel with a keyboard shortcut?

There's no single combination. Press Alt, H, O, U, H on Windows to open the Unhide dialog, then Shift + Down to select every sheet before Enter. On Excel 2016 and 2019 it still accepts one sheet per trip.

Why is the Unhide option greyed out?

Either there are no regular hidden sheets, or the workbook structure is protected under Review > Protect Workbook. A workbook with only very-hidden sheets also greys the option out, since none of them appear in that dialog.

Will this work if the workbook is protected?

No. Structure protection blocks every visibility change, including from VBA. Remove it under Review > Protect Workbook first.

Can I undo unhiding all sheets?

Not with Ctrl + Z. Visibility changes don't undo reliably, and running any macro clears the undo stack entirely. To re-hide one sheet, right-click its tab and choose Hide.

What to do next

Once every tab is visible, run List All Sheet Names for a clickable index, or clear out the dead ones with Delete All Hidden Sheets. Download the free macro to unhide all sheets in Excel in one pass, very-hidden tabs included.