How to Unhide All Rows in Excel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Last updated: August 20, 2026

How do you unhide all rows in Excel?

Unhiding every row is a two part move. You select the entire worksheet first, then issue the unhide command. If you skip the first part, Excel only unhides rows inside whatever you had selected.

1. Click the Select All triangle in the top left corner of the grid, where the column letters meet the row numbers. If you prefer the keyboard, press Ctrl + A twice. The first press selects the current block of data, the second press selects the whole sheet.

2. On the Home tab, click Format in the Cells group, then Hide & Unhide, then Unhide Rows. The keyboard sequence for the same path is Alt, H, O, U, R.

3. Faster option: with the sheet selected, press Ctrl + Shift + 9. On most keyboards this is the same as Ctrl + Shift + open parenthesis. Every hidden row reappears immediately.

The rule: Unhide only acts on the current selection, so select the whole sheet before you unhide anything.

Which unhide method should you use?

Suggested read: Why Microsoft Excel Cannot Paste the Data

How do you unhide specific rows or a block of rows?

You do not always want the whole sheet back. If rows 12 through 40 are hidden and you want only those, you need to select across the gap rather than click on it, because you cannot click a row header that is not on screen.

1. Click the row number immediately above the hidden block, for example row 11.

2. Hold Shift and click the row number immediately below the block, for example row 41. Excel now has the hidden rows inside the selection even though you never touched them.

3. Right-click anywhere in the highlighted row numbers and choose Unhide.

You can spot a hidden block without guessing. Where rows are hidden, the row numbers jump, for example from 11 straight to 41, and the border between those two headers looks slightly thicker than the others.

The rule: to unhide a block, select the visible row above it and the visible row below it, then unhide.

How do you unhide row 1 and the top rows?

This is the case that traps most people. When row 1 is hidden, there is no row above it to select, so the usual right-click trick has nothing to grab. Two methods work.

Method 1: use the Name Box

1. Click the Name Box, the small white field to the left of the formula bar.

2. Type A1 and press Enter. Excel selects cell A1 even though you cannot see it.

3. Go to Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows. Row 1 comes back.

If several top rows are hidden, type a range such as A1:A10 in the Name Box instead, then unhide.

Method 2: drag from the corner

1. Move the pointer just below the top edge of the row 2 header until it becomes a double headed arrow with a split line through it.

2. Drag downward. The hidden top rows expand back into view.

If the top rows still refuse to appear, check whether Freeze Panes is on. Frozen panes do not hide rows, but they can park the freeze line above your data so the top of the sheet is scrolled out of reach and looks hidden. Go to View > Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes, then scroll back to the top with Ctrl + Home.

The rule: when there is nothing above the hidden row to select, select it by name in the Name Box instead.

How do you mass unhide hundreds of rows at once?

Bulk unhiding is the same command, but the selection step matters more because scattered hidden rows can be anywhere in a 50,000 row sheet.

• Whole sheet in one shot. Ctrl + A twice, then Ctrl + Shift + 9. This is the fastest bulk method and it does not care how scattered the hidden rows are.
• A defined range only. Type the range into the Name Box, for example A500:A2000, press Enter, then Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows.
• Rows collapsed by grouping. If you see small plus and minus buttons in a margin to the left of the row numbers, those rows are collapsed by an outline, not hidden in the normal sense. Click the plus buttons, or go to Data > Ungroup > Clear Outline to remove the grouping entirely.

Bulk unhiding on a very large sheet can take a few seconds because Excel has to recalculate row positions across the whole grid. That pause is normal and does not mean the command failed.

Why can't you unhide rows in Excel?

When Unhide does nothing, the row is almost never broken. Something else is controlling visibility. Work through this table from the top.

The rule: if Unhide is greyed out the sheet is protected, and if Unhide runs but nothing changes the rows were filtered, not hidden.

Are your rows hidden or just filtered out?

Excel treats these as two different states, and the fix for one does nothing for the other. Telling them apart takes about three seconds.

• Filtered rows: the row numbers of the visible rows are blue, and at least one column header shows a small funnel icon. The status bar at the bottom often reads something like "12 of 400 records found."
• Hidden rows: the row numbers stay black and there is no funnel icon anywhere in the header row.

To bring filtered rows back, go to the Data tab and click Clear in the Sort & Filter group, which drops all filters while keeping the filter arrows in place. To remove the filter entirely, press Ctrl + Shift + L. Only after the filter is gone will Unhide Rows behave the way you expect.

Microsoft documents both behaviours in its official guide to hiding and showing rows or columns.

How do you unhide rows and columns at the same time?

Rows and columns are separate commands even when the whole sheet is selected, so unhiding everything takes two passes.

1. Select the whole sheet with Ctrl + A twice.

2. Press Ctrl + Shift + 9 to unhide the rows.

3. With the sheet still selected, go to Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Columns, or use the keyboard sequence Alt, H, O, U, L.

The column shortcut Ctrl + Shift + 0 exists, but Windows uses that combination to switch keyboard layouts on many systems, so it often does nothing inside Excel. The Alt, H, O, U, L sequence is the reliable option. For the full walkthrough on the column side, see our guide to unhiding columns in Excel.

If entire worksheets are missing rather than rows, that is a different command again. Right-click any sheet tab and choose Unhide, or read how to unhide an Excel workbook or worksheet.

How do you hide rows in Excel?

Hiding is worth knowing because it is what you will undo later, and because the shortcut is a near neighbour of the unhide one.

1. Click the row number to select the entire row.

2. To hide several rows at once, click the first row number, then hold Shift and click the last one for a continuous block, or hold Ctrl and click individual row numbers for a scattered set.

3. Right-click the selection and choose Hide, or press Ctrl + 9.

Hiding rows is a display setting, not security. The data is still in the file, still referenced by formulas, and anyone can reveal it in two clicks. If you need people not to see numbers, put them on a separate protected sheet or remove them, and treat password protection as the actual control.

The rule: hidden rows still feed your formulas, so a SUM over a hidden range keeps counting the hidden values.

How do you unhide every row on every worksheet with VBA?

If a workbook has twenty sheets and you do not want to visit each one, a short macro clears the lot. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic editor, click Insert > Module, paste the code, then press F5 to run it.

Sub UnhideEverything()
Dim ws As Worksheet
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
ws.Cells.EntireRow.Hidden = False
ws.Cells.EntireColumn.Hidden = False
Next ws
End Sub

To unhide rows on the active sheet only, the one line version is enough:

Sub UnhideAllRows()
Cells.EntireRow.Hidden = False
End Sub

Two limits worth knowing. A macro cannot unhide rows on a protected sheet, so unprotect first or the code will stop with a run time error. And running a macro clears the undo history, so save a copy of the workbook before you run it on anything important.

Does this work in Excel for the web and on Mac?

If you are working in Google Sheets rather than Excel, the commands are different. See 4 ways to unhide rows in Google Sheets.

New to spreadsheets generally? Start with our Microsoft Excel tutorial.

Frequently asked questions

How do I unhide all rows in Excel?

Press Ctrl + A twice to select the whole worksheet, then press Ctrl + Shift + 9. You can also right-click any row header and choose Unhide, or use Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows.

What is the keyboard shortcut to unhide rows in Excel?

Ctrl + Shift + 9 unhides rows within the current selection, and Ctrl + 9 hides them again. If the shortcut is intercepted by your keyboard layout, use the menu sequence Alt, H, O, U, R instead.

Why is Unhide greyed out in Excel?

Unhide is greyed out when the worksheet is protected. Go to Review > Unprotect Sheet, enter the password if there is one, then unhide the rows.

How do I unhide row 1 in Excel?

Type A1 into the Name Box to the left of the formula bar and press Enter, which selects the hidden cell. Then go to Home > Format > Hide & Unhide > Unhide Rows.

Why do my rows come back hidden after I unhide them?

A macro is re-hiding them, usually a Worksheet_Change or Workbook_Open event. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic editor and look for Hidden = True in the sheet and workbook modules.

Do hidden rows still count in formulas?

Yes. SUM, AVERAGE and COUNT include hidden rows. Use SUBTOTAL with a function number in the 101 to 111 range, or AGGREGATE, if you want the calculation to ignore hidden rows.