ScrubDrop

What ScrubDrop finds and removes in Word, Excel and PowerPoint files

Last updated: 13 October 2026

Each table is one file type. “Document Inspector’s item” is the heading under which Microsoft’s Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks lists the same thing; “found, not removed” means Document Inspector reports it but leaves it in the file. The tables are made from the same list as the summary on the home page, and the “Removed in” column from the line the tool itself draws between the free version and Pro.

For the same items set side by side with what Document Inspector does to each — removes, only reports or leaves — see Office Document Inspector vs ScrubDrop.

Word (.docx)

Excel (.xlsx)

PowerPoint (.pptx)

What stays, and why

• Headers, footers and watermarks. They are what a reader sees on every page or printout. Document Inspector removes them; ScrubDrop keeps them, and removes hidden text and picture metadata inside them.
• Embedded fonts. They draw the text the way the author saw it. Without them the recipient’s computer would substitute another font.
• The picture of an embedded object, or of ink. Removing an embedded object or an ink annotation leaves the picture that was showing, so the page looks the same.
• The ordinary text of layouts no slide uses. It is the template the presentation came with. Hidden and off-slide shapes on those layouts are removed.
• White or tiny text, and cells outside the print area. Whether they matter is the reader’s call: they are listed for you to check, not removed.

What it does not handle

The same list is kept with the code (docs/limits.md). Where ScrubDrop cannot be sure, it refuses rather than guesses: the message says what to change first. When the refusal is about one kind, unticking that kind lets the rest of the file be cleaned; a refusal about the whole file (a signed, encrypted, macro-enabled or old-format file, or one with building blocks) needs the file changed first.

Refused, with a sentence saying what to change first

1. Signed, rights-protected and encrypted files.
2. Macro-enabled files (.docm, .xlsm, .pptm), the old binary .doc, .xls and .ppt, and files saved as Strict Open XML.
3. Text hidden through a style or the document’s default formatting.
4. Fields split across paragraphs or nested in other fields, when they pull in other files or read properties that are being removed.
5. Charts over hidden cells that cannot be taken apart: a block of cells, multi-level labels, a defined name, a chart set to plot hidden cells, a chart with no saved values, or a title or label that shows a hidden cell.
6. A sheet with conditional formatting, data validation, sparklines or scenarios, when hidden rows or columns would be emptied. Check that sheet by hand.
7. Formulas outside cells that point at something being removed, or that use INDIRECT, OFFSET or references across several sheets while sheets, names or links are being removed.
8. Pivot charts, slicers, timelines and GETPIVOTDATA when pivot tables are removed; tables filled by a query when links to other files are removed.
9. Rotated or flipped shapes that reach outside the slide, and off-slide placeholders on layouts and masters.
10. Hidden structures whose removal would break what is visible, such as a footnote referenced from hidden text, a hidden shape inside a group of shapes or beside a visible one in the same drawing, a hidden button or shape in a workbook's legacy drawing, or a Zoom link to a hidden slide.
11. Building blocks, tracked changes in forms ScrubDrop does not take apart, and comment shapes it cannot read.
12. Formulas that cannot be replaced by their last value.
13. Pictures that cannot be cleaned field by field: a colour profile with lookup tables ScrubDrop does not rebuild or with a table of a type its specification does not allow there, a JPEG segment that is not part of coding the picture, a segment, chunk or block the picture needs that is longer than its fields, data after the end of a PNG or GIF picture's compressed data or more picture data than its size calls for, or a picture that cannot be read. Unticking image metadata keeps such a picture as it is. A picture drawn from another file in an old-style drawing is refused when links to other files are removed: untick those, or put the picture in the file first.

Pointed out, not removed — your call

14. White or tiny text, text Word hides only in Web Layout (it shows when printed), and cells outside the print area.
15. Pictures in formats ScrubDrop does not clean (TIFF, BMP, EMF, WMF, JPEG XR, HEIC, WebP): kept as they are and listed as not checked.

Good to know

16. Removing hidden sheets, rows or columns, defined names or links turns the formulas on the sheets that stay into their last values, removing an embedded object leaves its picture, and removing properties turns the fields that show them (such as DOCPROPERTY or AUTHOR) into the text they showed. A HYPERLINK formula whose target is worked out rather than written out counts as a link to a file: with links removed, the cell keeps its text.
17. The result is read again by readers separate from the one that wrote it (three separate readers, counting that one), not by Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Open it in the program you will send it with.
18. It finds hidden data by kind, not by meaning: it does not judge whether visible text is sensitive, and it does not read text inside pictures.

What may still remain

Before release, the engine was reviewed in rounds with files built to get past it. The last rounds kept finding new cases in the same few areas. Each case found was fixed or turned into a refusal, and the newest fixes have not been through another round. Other cases of the same kinds may exist. This is where they would be, why ScrubDrop refuses there rather than guesses, and how you can look for yourself.

• Inside pictures (JPEG, PNG, GIF and their colour profiles). What may remain: bytes tucked into a picture in a way ScrubDrop does not recognise as out of place. Why it refuses: when image metadata is being removed, each picture is rebuilt from the fields its format defines. Metadata it knows, and segments or chunks not needed to draw the picture, are left out; anything else the fields do not account for (data after the compressed picture ends, more picture data than its size needs, a block longer than its fields) stops the file. Each round found a finer place to hide bytes, so this is the area most likely to have more. How to check: if a picture matters, replace it with a fresh copy (a new screenshot or export) before cleaning the file. To see the pictures of the result, rename a copy to .zip and open its media folder (word/media, xl/media or ppt/media) in a metadata viewer you trust. A viewer shows only the structures it knows, so it may not show the bytes described here.
• Old-style drawings (VML) and drawings in Word. What may remain: a hidden shape, a button or a link to another file in a drawing written in a form ScrubDrop reads as ordinary. Why it refuses: when hidden content is being removed, a hidden shape that can be taken out on its own is removed (in Word, one placed directly in a drawing, or a drawing that is all hidden); a hidden shape inside a group, a hidden picture sharing a Word drawing with a visible one, or a hidden button or shape in a workbook's or presentation's old-style drawing makes the file refused, because taking it out could take visible content with it. A shape's link to another file is removed with links; a picture drawn from another file stops the file when links are being removed. How to check: open the Selection Pane (Home, then Select or Find & Select in Word and Excel, Arrange in PowerPoint). It lists the shapes on the page, sheet or slide, hidden ones included.
• Word fields and formatting. What may remain: a field that reads a property or another file, written in a form ScrubDrop does not take apart, and text hidden only in Web Layout, which ScrubDrop lists but keeps. Why it refuses: a field it cannot take apart stops the file when the removal you chose would change what it reads (properties, links to other files); formatting whose effect depends on the view is your call. How to check: in Word, right-click a field and choose Toggle Field Codes (or turn on “Show field codes instead of their values” in File, Options, Advanced) and look for INCLUDETEXT, LINK, DOCPROPERTY or AUTHOR. Switch between Web Layout and Print Layout and compare.
• Formulas and what-if data in workbooks. What may remain: a formula that reaches removed data or another file in a way ScrubDrop does not read, or the values of a scenario. Why it refuses: a HYPERLINK whose target is worked out is treated as a link to a file, formulas outside cells that use INDIRECT, OFFSET or references across several sheets stop the file while sheets, names or links are being removed, and scenarios are listed even when their cells are empty. How to check: in Excel, use Formulas, Show Formulas; Formulas, Name Manager (it does not show hidden names, which ScrubDrop lists); Data, Workbook Links (Edit Links in older versions); and Data, What-If Analysis, Scenario Manager.

For any file, a second look in another tool is the most direct check: the program you will send it with, Document Inspector in Office (File, Info, Check for Issues), or a copy renamed to .zip, whose XML parts open as text you can search for a name or a word you removed (pictures and embedded files are not text and need their own viewer). These checks can show what is there; finding nothing does not show that nothing is there.

After the items you chose are removed, the new file is rebuilt from the parts known to be needed, and the result is read again with different software; a result that does not pass is not offered. What the tool cannot do is listed on the scrub page, and the kinds are explained one by one in Hidden data in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Questions