When to remove a PDF password
Statements from banks and employers often arrive locked, and typing the password every single time you open one gets old fast — especially for a document you refer back to often.
This tool opens the file with a password you already know, then rebuilds it without the lock. It is not a tool for getting into files you can't already open.
How to use it
- 1Upload the password-protected PDF.
- 2Enter the password you know.
- 3Press "Remove password and download".
- 4Open the new file to confirm it no longer asks for anything.
Common questions
- Can it open a file when I don't know the password?
- No. The document only opens with the correct password. There is no password-cracking here.
- I can't select or search the text in the result.
- To unlock the file safely inside your browser, each page is redrawn as a picture. It looks the same, but the text has become an image, so copying and searching no longer work. If you need the text intact, open the original and re-save it as a PDF instead.
- The file got bigger than the original.
- Same reason. A document that was mostly text becomes a picture on every page, which takes more space. The more text the original had, the bigger the difference.
- Can I use this on work documents?
- Only on documents you're entitled to read. If the file is covered by a distribution or security policy, check with whoever owns it first.