How to Find and Unhide Hidden Sheets in Excel

Why Sheets Get Hidden

Before we get into the how-to, it's worth understanding why someone would hide sheets in the first place:

• Reducing clutter — keeping the tab bar manageable by hiding reference data
• Protecting data — preventing accidental edits to lookup tables or constants
• Simplifying the interface — showing end users only what they need to see
• Storing intermediate calculations — keeping formula logic out of sight

These are all legitimate reasons. The problem is when you need to see those sheets and don't know they're there.

Two Levels of Hidden

Excel actually has two different hidden states for sheets:

Hidden — The sheet doesn't appear in the tab bar, but you can unhide it through the right-click menu. Anyone can do this with a few clicks.

Very Hidden (xlSheetVeryHidden) — The sheet doesn't appear in the tab bar AND it doesn't appear in the Unhide dialog. You need VBA or the Visual Basic Editor to access it. This is meant for sheets that should stay hidden even from curious users.

The existence of “very hidden” sheets is not well documented, and many Excel users don't know it's possible. If you've ever wondered why a formula references a sheet you can't find even in the Unhide menu, this is probably why.

Method 1: The Standard Unhide (For Regular Hidden Sheets)

For normally hidden sheets, the process is simple:

• Right-click on any visible sheet tab
• Select “Unhide...” from the context menu
• A dialog appears listing all hidden sheets
• Select the sheet you want and click OK

If “Unhide” is grayed out in the menu, there are no hidden sheets (or they're all “very hidden”).

Note: You can only unhide one sheet at a time this way. If there are 20 hidden sheets, you'll need to repeat the process 20 times.

Method 2: The VBA Editor (For Very Hidden Sheets)

To find and unhide “very hidden” sheets, you need to use the Visual Basic Editor:

• Press Alt+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor
• In the Project Explorer (left panel), expand your workbook
• Click on any sheet in the list
• Look at the Properties window (press F4 if you don't see it)
• Find the “Visible” property

The Visible property has three possible values:

• -1 (xlSheetVisible) — Sheet is visible
• 0 (xlSheetHidden) — Sheet is hidden (can be unhidden via right-click)
• 2 (xlSheetVeryHidden) — Sheet is very hidden

To unhide a very hidden sheet, simply change the Visible property to -1 or xlSheetVisible.

Method 3: Quick VBA Code

If you want to unhide all sheets at once (both hidden and very hidden), you can run a quick VBA macro:

• Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA Editor
• Press Ctrl+G to open the Immediate Window
• Type this line and press Enter:

For Each ws In Sheets: ws.Visible = True: Next

This one-liner loops through all sheets and makes them visible. It's the fastest way to expose everything in a workbook.

Method 4: Using Name Manager Clues

Sometimes you can discover hidden sheets without even trying to unhide them. The Name Manager (Ctrl+F3) shows all defined names in a workbook, including their references.

If you see a name that references “HiddenSheet!A1:A100” but “HiddenSheet” isn't visible, you've found evidence of a hidden sheet. The same goes for formulas — any formula referencing a sheet you can't see tells you something is hidden.

How to Know If Hidden Sheets Exist

The tricky thing about hidden sheets is that there's no obvious indicator that they exist. Here are signs to watch for:

• “Unhide” is available — If the right-click Unhide option isn't grayed out, there are hidden sheets
• Formulas reference unknown sheets — If you see sheet names in formulas that don't appear in the tabs
• External references seem internal — If a formula looks like an external reference but the file path matches your current file
• Sheet count doesn't match — VBA's Sheets.Count includes hidden sheets

Official Resources

• Hide or show worksheets — Microsoft's guide to hiding sheets
• Use the VBA Editor — accessing very hidden sheets