How to remove security from a PDF file?

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?

asked Aug 22, 2010 at 16:52 AngryHacker AngryHacker 18.8k 74 74 gold badges 162 162 silver badges 213 213 bronze badges Commented Feb 6, 2013 at 7:58

What I understand is that these pdfs are signed - in acrobat all you need to do is remove the signature and then they will be editable (as it would be invalid after editing). Suppose foxit will have a similar feature.

Commented Sep 18, 2013 at 9:48 For Linux users, Thebozo Already answered this question here: superuser.com/a/367356/278746 Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 13:48

16 Answers 16

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.

  1. Open the PDF
  2. 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.
  3. Open the resulting XPS file
  4. 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.

answered Nov 10, 2015 at 12:05 973 9 9 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges

I love this idea and worked for me. Only issue was the quality change in conversion to XPS and back to PDF. It would be just specific to my document, though.

Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 13:16

Interesting, I have also found the MS PDF creator to be a bit pants. I use the Adobe PDF creator, although I believe it came with Adobe Creative Suite so not everyone will have a copy (could be wrong).

Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 13:36

This approach worked for me, by opening it in Chrome, printing, choosing 'Print to PDF' and then opening the outputted PDF.

Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 3:17 The major downside of this is that you cannot mark or copy text anymore. Commented May 8, 2018 at 9:49

@basseur If the text was OCR'd text in images then just re-run Acrobat's OCR on the unprotected PDF and re-save it with the recognized text.

Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 0:23

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:

  1. Grab https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases
  2. Unzip/Install and navigate to the bin folder that holds qpdf.exe (or similar for your platform)
  3. Place the PDF you wish to work on in the same folder
  4. Run: qpdf --decrypt InputFile.pdf OutputFile.pdf (use " s if the file name has spaces).
  5. 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/ .

103 2 2 bronze badges answered Apr 18, 2013 at 21:42 1,451 2 2 gold badges 10 10 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges qpdf work well for me. I can install it in OS X using homebrew. Commented Oct 6, 2015 at 15:15

I had to use qpdf then PDFcreator to enable edits on one PDF document. (PDFcreator without qpdf first wouldn't work). It was a document both password-protected and certified. Using the save as .ps trick didn't work. (I couldn't compare against unlock PDF websites as the document was confidential.)

Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 17:57

Works fantastic on government-issued W-9 form. Genius bureaucrats locked down the PDF so you can't apply a signature through Foxit, but this fixes it!

Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 0:00

Why oh why does Adobe come up with this stupid "encrypted" PDF marketing BS. If it can be viewed, it surely is decrypted already. BS.

Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 14:42

As of March 2nd 2022 qpdf + PDFcreator still works, even for "certified" PDFs. Critically, it doesn't rasterize the text (like the Microsoft "Print-to-PDF" solution does for certified PDFs.

Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 0:44
  1. 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)
  2. Edit the resulting .ps file and remove:
mark currentfile eexec 54dc5232e897cbaaa7584b7da7c23a6c59e7451851159cdbf40334cc2600 . cleartomark
answered May 16, 2012 at 18:16 486 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 4 4 bronze badges Works for me. I have scripted it here: andorian.blogspot.ie/2014/05/… Commented May 19, 2014 at 15:37 I've used this trick before, but now I don't remember how I managed to convert to .ps . :( Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 21:16

mark currentfile eexec 54dc5232e897cbaaa7584b7da7c23a6c59e7451851159cdbf40334cc2600 -These are not present in a pdf version 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x) digitally signed file. It was decrypted with qpdf. But the sign is still there and prevents editing.

Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 2:19

Using google chrome offline (without uploading anything)

It's a slightly old thread but as I use this often, I wanted to update it:

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.

As you can install chrome without giving them your email address, I would consider this a truly "free" solution.

626 2 2 gold badges 9 9 silver badges 29 29 bronze badges answered Jul 25, 2017 at 16:04 Xan-Kun Clark-Davis Xan-Kun Clark-Davis 632 8 8 silver badges 14 14 bronze badges Doesn't work any more. Commented Mar 24, 2018 at 23:04 It works, easy and fast! thank u Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 11:41 This is the easiest way. Thanks! Commented Jul 5 at 5:54

Directly (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.

answered Nov 13, 2015 at 23:26 423 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges

The PDFUlock website reported "The uploaded file is not secured and does not have any restrictions that can be removed" even though FoxIt reader declares my PDF "SECURED" and disables comments.

Commented Aug 24, 2017 at 15:40

Weeny soft PDF Password remover tool worked great for me! I have tried 6 others before this: PDF Password Recovery, Instant PDF Remover, PDF Password Remover, GuaPDF, PDF Crack, the expensive Wondershare PDF Remover, which worked.. others did not.

Commented Dec 21, 2017 at 3:45 This software is convenient for bulk files Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 2:10 Please note that Wondershare products install Chinese-based adware software to your PC. Commented Apr 25, 2021 at 13:22
  1. From the full version of Acrobat (I used v9.3), select "File..Export..Postscript..Postscript". This creates a ".ps" file.
  2. Click on the .ps file, it converts it back to pdf automatically with Acrobat distiller.
  3. 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) .

answered Sep 3, 2010 at 8:55 1,197 6 6 gold badges 15 15 silver badges 36 36 bronze badges

Nope, this didn't work for me. Got this error: This PostScript file was created from an encrypted PDF file. Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted. Looks like they caught up with this trick.

Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 13:03 This site unlocked a PDF for me. pdfunlock.com Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 13:10 By full version of Acrobat do you mean the paid version? Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 21:58

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.

Also removes printing restrictions from files. (Credit @Rob)

Beware! Also removes bookmarks and links. (according to @Barleyman)

Thanks Google! You guys are hackers :-)

answered Jul 25, 2016 at 14:50 Xan-Kun Clark-Davis Xan-Kun Clark-Davis 632 8 8 silver badges 14 14 bronze badges Why is this downvoted? Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 13:37

Yeah, I would also be very interested. As a matter of fact, I had some tricky PDFs with images and vectorgraphics and I tried all "free" solutions (most of them aren't really free, it's mostrly trials and crippleware) and none of them worked. Maybe the purely commercial ones are so much better (don't forget, the Microsoft XPS Document Writer is the contrary of free and you better habe a valid MS License whe you export it, as it will be in your resulting PDF, along with your name and other "useful" stuff.) Then I tried the google way and it worked like a charm for all PDFs so far.