How to Remove a Password From a PDF (and When You Can't)
Banks, utilities and payroll systems often send PDFs locked with your date of birth or part of an account number. Typing that password every time you open the file gets old, and many tools, from mergers to tax software, cannot read a locked PDF at all. If you can open the file, removing the password takes a few seconds. If you cannot, no honest tool can do it for you. This guide explains the difference.
Two kinds of PDF protection
An open password stops the file opening at all until it is typed in. Permissions (also called restrictions) let the file open but block printing, copying text or editing. A PDF can have either, or both.
Unlock PDF tells you which kind your file has as soon as you add it, so you know whether you will be asked for anything.
Remove a password you know
Add the PDF to Unlock PDF, type the open password, leave Remove protection selected and press Unlock PDF. You download a copy that opens with no prompt. The pages are not changed in any way.
If the file only has restrictions, they come off without a password, and printing and copying work again.
When you can't remove it
If a PDF needs a password to open and you do not know it, Unlock PDF will not open it. It is not a password cracker, and a strong password on a modern PDF cannot be guessed in any practical time. Ask the sender for the password, or for an unprotected copy.
Only remove protection from files you are entitled to open: your own statements, payslips and documents sent to you.
Change the password instead
If you want the file to stay protected but with a password you choose, pick Change password in Unlock PDF, type the new one twice and decide what people may do once it is open. To protect a file that has no password yet, use Protect PDF. Keep a note of the new password: a forgotten one cannot be recovered.