How to hide and protect Tabs in Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a free spreadsheet software from Google. You can save a Google Sheets spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format and open Microsoft Excel files in Google Sheets. The primary thing you need to use Google Sheets is an Internet connection. You can create multiple tabs or sheets in a Google Sheets spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel. In this article, we will show you how to hide and protect tabs in Google Sheets.

How to hide and protect Tabs in Google Sheets

Here, we will show you how to:

Hide tabs in Google Sheets
Protect tabs in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has a feature using which you can share it with the other person(s). You can also manage permissions for the persons you are going to share the Google Sheets with. They can be either Editors, Commenters, or Viewers. Editors can edit the Google Sheets. But if you want to prevent a particular tab in Google Sheets from being edited, you can protect it. We will show you how to do that later in this article.

Let’s start.

1] How to hide Tabs in Google Sheets

If you have multiple tabs or sheets in a Google Sheets spreadsheet and you want to hide some particular tabs or sheets, you can do this easily. The following steps will show you how to do that:

Open the Google Sheets spreadsheet in which you want to hide tabs or sheets.
Go to the tab or sheet you want to hide.
Click on the little arrow on that tab. Alternatively, right-click on that tab.
Select Hide sheet.

After following the above steps, the selected sheet will disappear from your Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Unhide the hidden tab(s) or sheet(s) in Google Sheets

If you want to bring back the hidden tab(s) or sheet(s) in a Google Sheets spreadsheet, click on the View tab and then click Hidden Sheets. You will see all your hidden sheets. Select the sheet you want to unhide.

If you have shared a Google Sheets with another person and made him Editor, he can unhide the hidden tab(s) or sheet(s) by clicking on the View tab. If the person is Commenter or Viewr, he cannot unhide the hidden tab(s) or sheet(s).

2] How to protect Tabs in Google Sheets

By protecting a tab in Google Sheets, you can save it from being edited accidentally. However, you can view all the changes in Google Sheets by opening the Version History but protecting a tab or sheet is better than spending your time in viewing the edit history.

The following instructions will guide you on how to protect the tab(s) or sheet(s) in Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Open your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Go to the tab or sheet you want to protect from being edited.
Click on the little arrow on that tab or use the right-click of your mouse.
Select Protect sheet.

As you click on the Protect sheet option, a Protect sheets & ranges pane will open on the right side. You will see the following 2 tabs in that pane:

Range: Select it if you want to protect a specific range of cells on the selected tab.
Sheet: Select it if you want to protect the entire tab in your Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Now, enter the Description (if you want) and then click on the Set permissions button. You can also exclude certain cells or cell ranges from protection. For this, click on the Except certain cells checkbox and then enter the individual cell addresses or cell ranges. In Google Sheets, you can create multiple protections for a particular tab or sheet. That’s why the option to add a description is provided. All the protected tabs or sheets appear on the Protected sheets & ranges pane.

When you click on the Set permissions button, a new window will open showing you the Range editing permissions options. It has the following two options:

Show a warning when editing this range
Restrict who can edit this range

If you select the first option, other persons with editing rights can edit your protected sheet. But they will see a warning message that will let them know that the sheet is protected.

If you select the second option, Google Sheets will show you further three options. You can select any of them by clicking on the drop-down.

Only you: If you select this option, only you can edit the protected sheet.
Custom: This option allows you to select the persons who can edit the protected tab or sheet in Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Copy permissions from another range: Select this option if you want to set up the same permissions from a different tab or sheet to the targeted tab or sheet.

In this way, you can protect a particular tab or sheet in your Google Sheets spreadsheet. If you protect the entire sheet or tab, it will show a lock icon.

If you want to edit the permissions of the protected tab or sheet in your Google Sheets spreadsheet, follow the steps provided below:

Right-click on the protected tab.
Select Protect sheet.
The Protect sheets & ranges pane will open on the right side showing you to add a new protection. But you have to edit the previous protection permissions, hence, click Cancel.
Now, you will see all the protections you have created before. Select the one that you want to edit.

Remove protection from a tab or sheet in Google Sheets

If you want to remove the protection from the protected tab or sheet, repeat the first three steps written above and then select the protected sheet from the list that you want to unprotect. Now, click on the Delete icon. You will receive a confirmation pop-up, click Remove to confirm.

Why did my tabs disappear in Google Sheets?

Such a thing happens when you are working on a shared Google Sheets spreadsheet and you are not the owner of that spreadsheet. If the owner of the Google Sheets spreadsheet has hidden some tabs, you will not see them in the spreadsheets. If you want to view which tabs are hidden, go to “View > Hidden sheets.” You can unhide the hidden sheet(s) or tab(s) in Google Sheets only if you have edit access.

Can you delete tabs in Google Sheets?

Yes, you can delete tabs in Google Sheets. To do so, right-click on the tab that you want to delete and click Delete. Click OK to confirm. After deleting a tab in Google Sheets, you can recover it by using the Version History.