Quick answer
In Excel, work on a copy of the workbook, choose File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document, run the inspection, and select Remove All next to each finding you want gone. Or drop the .xlsx file into the tool above: it shows what the workbook carries, then gives you a copy with the author, last modified by, company, notes, threaded comments and other properties removed.
Excel’s inspector can also delete hidden sheets, rows and columns; Doc Scrubber only lists them.
What Microsoft says Excel stores, and how Inspect Document works
Microsoft defines document properties, also known as metadata, as “details about a file that describe or identify it”, such as title, author name, subject and keywords. Its properties page lists Excel for Microsoft 365, 2024 and 2021, among other apps.
Microsoft’s Inspect Document page (Excel for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016) says: on the File tab, select Info, choose Check for Issues and select Inspect Document. For Excel it says the inspector looks for:
- comments and ink annotations;
- document properties and personal information, including document location, user name, printer path information, document server properties and scenario comments;
- worksheet headers and footers;
- hidden rows, hidden columns that contain data, and hidden worksheets;
- custom XML data, and objects formatted as invisible.
Microsoft’s cautions: use the inspector on a copy, because it is not always possible to restore what it removes, and Undo may not bring it back. Removing hidden rows, columns or worksheets that contain data might change the results of calculations or formulas. For a workbook saved as a Shared Workbook, you can’t remove comments, annotations, document properties and personal information.
In Excel for Microsoft 365, Microsoft says you cannot remove or change the name on a threaded comment, but you can on a note.
The Privacy Options page (Microsoft 365, Office 2021, 2019 and 2016 on Windows) lists the setting “Remove personal information from file properties on Save” as turned off in Excel.
Microsoft’s page on hiding worksheets (Excel for Microsoft 365, 2024 and 2021) says data on a hidden sheet can still be referenced from other worksheets and workbooks, and that a sheet hidden with VBA code (xlSheetVeryHidden) will not show under Unhide.
Clean the file with Doc Scrubber
For an .xlsx file the tool removes: author, last modified by, title, subject, keywords, description, category and the created, modified and last-printed dates; company, manager, template, total editing time, hyperlink base and sheet titles; custom properties; the preview thumbnail; custom XML parts; notes and threaded comments with their people list; the folder path Excel saved the workbook from; and camera and GPS data in embedded JPG, PNG and WebP photos.
- Keep your original workbook. The tool gives you a separate clean copy.
- Above the drop zone, leave “Document properties and personal info” ticked. Leave “Comments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and annotations (PDF)” ticked to remove notes and threaded comments, or untick it to keep them. Leave “Camera and GPS data in photos embedded in Office files” ticked. The other options are for Word.
- Drop the .xlsx file or choose it. Free for up to 5 files at a time. Old .xls files and password-protected workbooks are not supported.
- Read “Found in your file”: it can list author, last modified by, company, comments, hidden sheets, hidden rows and columns, the saved-from folder path and links to local file paths.
- Download the clean copy and read “Still in the clean copy”, which is re-read from the new file.
- Open the copy in Excel and look through it before you send it.
What this does not remove
- Hidden sheets, very hidden sheets, hidden rows and columns. The report lists them and keeps them. Excel’s Inspect Document can remove them, or delete them yourself.
- Anything visible: names in cells, sheet tabs, text boxes, watermarks, text inside images, and sheet headers and footers. Microsoft’s inspector checks headers and footers; this tool does not list or remove them.
- Some comments. If a sheet’s drawing layer also holds non-note objects such as form controls, the tool skips that sheet’s comments. Check “Still in the clean copy”.
- Links to local file paths. Listed in the report, not removed.
- Embedded files and objects, macros, and photos in other formats than JPG, PNG and WebP.
- Digital signatures. They stay but stop validating, because cleaning changes the file. The report warns you first.
- The file name, and copies stored elsewhere, such as earlier email attachments.
This is not legal advice. The tool removes the fields it lists and shows what is left; read the copy before you send it.
Also sending a deck or PDF? See removing personal information from PowerPoint, removing metadata from a PDF or inspecting a document for hidden data.