How to remove a password from a PDF
Statements, payslips and certificates often arrive as PDFs that ask for a password every time they open, and many upload forms refuse locked files. Unlock PDF saves a copy without the password. It's meant for your own documents and files sent to you: you type the password you already have.
- 1. Add the PDF. Drop it in, or click to choose it. The tool checks what kind of lock it has.
- 2. Type the password. The one you use to open the file. Files that open without one but block printing or copying need no password.
- 3. Download. Click Unlock PDF and save the unlocked copy. Keep the original if you might need it again.
Two kinds of PDF lock
An open password stops the file from opening at all β that's the one you type here. A permissions password lets the file open but blocks printing, copying text or editing; merging, signing and compressing tools usually refuse those files too. Unlock PDF removes both, and says which one it found before you start.
Nothing is redrawn
The PDF is rewritten without its encryption, and every page, font and picture is copied as it is. Text stays selectable, the quality doesn't change and the size stays about the same. To make the file smaller afterward, run the PDF compressor, or combine it with other files in Merge PDF.
We can't open a PDF without its password
The tool doesn't guess or crack passwords. If you don't know it, ask whoever sent the file. If you saved the file yourself and chose the password, downloading it again without one is often quicker.
Digitally signed PDFs
Some certificates carry a digital signature that a reader checks against the exact original file. Removing the password rewrites the file, so that check will no longer pass. If the office you send it to verifies the signature, submit the original, or download the document again without a password.
