Some PDFs are encrypted with a password, which you’ll need to enter each time you want to view the document. You can remove the password to save yourself some inconvenience if you’re keeping the PDF in a secure location.
We’ll cover two ways to do this here: A convenient trick that works in all operating systems with applications you already have, and the official method that requires Adobe Acrobat. Both methods assume you know the password to the encrypted PDF file. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to remove a password if you don’t know it.
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A Convenient Trick: Print to PDF
RELATED:How to Print to PDF on Any Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet
This may seem a little silly, but you can easily and conveniently remove the password from a PDF file by opening it and printing it to a new PDF. Your system will create a duplicate copy of the PDF, and that duplicate copy won’t have a password.
This trick will only work if the PDF doesn’t have any printing restrictions. However, many PDF files are just password-protected to provide encryption and can be printed normally once you provide the password.
You can do this in a few ways. If you use Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS, you can do it right through your browser. First, open the PDF document and provide the password it requires. Click the “Print” button on the PDF toolbar while viewing the password-protected document.
Click the “Change” button under Destination and select “Save as PDF”. Click the “Save” button and you’ll be prompted to provide a name and location for your new PDF. Your new PDF will contain the same content as the original PDF, but won’t be password-protected.
This method will work in Chrome on any operating system, but you can perform the same trick with other applications and PDF printers. For example, Windows 10 includes a PDF printer, which means you can do this in Microsoft Edge or any other PDF viewer on Windows.
For example, open a protected PDF document in Microsoft Edge and provide the password to view it. Click the “Print” button on the PDF viewer toolbar after you have.
Select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer and click “Print”. You’ll be prompted to choose a name and location for your new PDF file.
You can do this trick in any PDF viewer on Windows 10. Just select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” printer. On older versions of Windows, you’ll need to install a third-party PDF printer before you can perform this trick (or just use Chrome).
This method also works in other operating systems. For example, on a Mac, you can do this with Preview, or any other PDF viewer and the built-in PDF printing feature.
First, open the protected document in Preview and provide the password it requires. Click File > Print to open the print dialog.
Click the “PDF” menu button at the bottom of the print dialog and select “Save as PDF”. Enter a file name and location for your new PDF file when prompted. The new PDF file will have the same contents as the original, but no password.
Note: Due to the printing process, the resulting PDF won’t have selectable text. if you need to copy text from the PDF, you must re-open the original password-protected PDF and copy text from there. You could also use optical character recognition (OCR) software on the unprotected PDF.
The Official Method: Use Adobe Acrobat Pro
You can also do this the official way with Adobe Acrobat Pro, a paid application. This is a different program from the free Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF viewer that most people have. Adobe offers a week-long free trial of Acrobat Pro. Adobe Acrobat Pro will work even if the PDF has printing restrictions, and can’t be printed in other applications using the above trick.
Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro and provide its password to view it. Click the lock icon at the left side of the window and click “Permission Details”. You can also click File > Properties and click the “Security” tab.
Click the “Security Method” box, select “No Security”, and click “OK” to remove the password.
Click File > Save to save your changes. You can also just close the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC window and you’ll be prompted to save your changes. Once you have, the password will be removed from the original PDF file.
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I am trying to fill out some docs, but the provided PDFs are 'SECURED', meaning I can't use FoxIt's typewriter tools.
Is there any way to remove the security?
AngryHackerAngryHacker11 Answers
Contrary to the other solutions, you do not need additional software.
Anyone with Windows can do it with no extra software in 4 simple steps.
- Open the PDF
- Go to File > Print. From your print options choose Microsoft XPS Document Writer. Although you might expect it to print, it does not print anything, it will create an XPS Document.
- Open the resulting XPS file
- Press Print, go to Microsoft PDF Creator. It will now save it as a PDF again. Again, it will not print.
In my case I had to remove the first/last page of a document so I only printed the pages required.
Assuming it's simply a 'rights' (owner) password that restricts things like editing, printing, and copying (i.e. the password does not need to be entered to open the file) the following will remove the restrictions:
- Grab https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases
- Unzip/Install and navigate to the bin folder that holds qpdf.exe (or similar for your platform)
- Place the PDF you wish to work on in the same folder
- Run:
qpdf --decrypt InputFile.pdf OutputFile.pdf(use's if the file name has spaces). - Do what you like with the OutputFile.
If your PDF file is user password protected, change step 4 to qpdf --decrypt --password=yourpassword InputFile OutputFile
This won't work for Adobe Digital Editions and may have issues with digitally-signed files.
Some discussion on the background of these owner password restrictions at https://lwn.net/Articles/335415/ .
DanDan- Print to a PostScript (PS) printer (where the printer's port is set to print to file, not to the printer -- or check the 'Print to file' option in the Print dialog)
Edit the resulting
.psfile and remove:Save and distill the
.psfile
Easy!
- From the full version of Acrobat (I used v9.3), select 'File..Export..Postscript..Postscript'. This creates a '.ps' file.
- Click on the .ps file, it converts it back to pdf automatically with Acrobat distiller.
- You now have a perfect copy of the original file, minus any signatures, restrictions on editing, etc.
I needed this technique fix the pdf file so it would display on my Kindle DX, via the 'Advanced..Preflight' menu. This method worked perfectly on a file that had resisted all attempts by the four major utilities that offer to remove restrictions on pdf files (i.e. A-PDF, pdftk, Kernel PDF, UnrestrictPDF) .
ContangoContangoDirectly (see and) remove the restrictions from your pdf without any tricks:
1- Online method:
If you want to do in your browser (without installing a tool), then use PDFUnlock. You just need to upload your pdf (drop it to the available box) and it removes the security restrictions. However, up to 5MB files are converted for free.
2- Offline method:
But, like me, if you prefer having an offline tool on your machine, then you can install Weeny Free PDF Password Remover.
Using google chrome offline (without uploading anything)
It's a slightly old thread but as I use this often, I wanted to update it:
- Simply drag and drop the PDF in question on a blank chrome page.
- Chrome opens the 'locked' PDF.
- Now print the document and use 'save as PDF' as the printer of choice.
- Enjoy your perfectly conserved and unlocked PDF (esp. copy & paste ;-) )
The 'print'->'save as' step can be tricky when you do it the first time, as you might choose the PDF Writer/Maker for output and you will end up with a locked PDF again.
The process is further described here: Save As PDF
On some versions of chrome (older?) you have to activate the 'save as PDF' option first.
Remove Security From Pdf File Online
As you can install chrome without giving them your email address, I would consider this a truly 'free' solution.
I upload it to google drive with chrome, hit the print button and save it as pdf (which has to be enabled within chrome settings on some versions).I get the real deal, images are same resolution, file size checks out too, but all the security restrictions are gone.
Thanks Google! You guys are hackers :-)
The best option I have found is this online tool: https://smallpdf.com/unlock-pdf
Edit: they now have a desktop application too. https://smallpdf.com/desktop
Removing user/open password is next to impossible, but if your PDF file is only protected with owner password, i.e., PDF print, edit, copy and other functions are disabled then there are several programs available to remove PDF security like the one mentioned in this article: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Remove-PDF-Password-Security-PrintEditCo/
Remove Security From Pdf Without Password
Due to security and privacy reasons I would not recommend those online services where you’re supposed to upload your PDF documents to remove PDF security.
In my case, there was a view password that maintained its state through save -- but print, etc. were not blocked. That left open the analog method, or print-to-PDF-printer, which is what I did. The resulting file lacked a password, and seemed to suffer no degradation.
protected by nhinkle♦Jul 24 '11 at 19:50
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