Take the password off a PDF you can open.

Remove the password from a PDF you can open, in your browser with nothing uploaded: type it once and save a copy that opens without one. No cracking.

By Suraj Kumar1 November 20264 min read

Pages from a report and an appendix joined in a chosen order into one merged PDF

A bank, a payroll service or a school sends a PDF that asks for a password every time it is opened. You know the password; you are just tired of typing it, or another program cannot open the file at all. Here is how to save a copy without the password, on your own device, and what this cannot do.

This works only when you know the password.

A PDF can carry two kinds of lock. One asks for a password before the file opens at all. The other opens freely but asks programs not to allow printing, copying or changes. Removing the first needs the password. KeepSimp cannot find or recover a password you have forgotten, and current PDF encryption (AES-256) is strong enough that guessing is not a realistic way back in. If you have lost it, ask whoever sent the file for a new copy.

What follows is for the common case: the file is yours, or you were given the password, and you want a copy that opens without it.

Open it once, save it without the lock.

Open the PDF merger and add the locked file. Its row asks for the password. Type it and the file opens; a wrong password is said to be wrong, and nothing else happens. Then press Merge PDF with that one file in the list, and download the result. The merged PDF has no password unless you set one.

The PDF splitter and the PDF converter ask for the password in the same way. Parts written by the splitter have no password either, so it is a quick way to save only some pages without the lock. The PDF compressor and the PDF editor are different on purpose: a file that came locked keeps its password there unless you set a new one.

Files that only restrict printing or copying.

Some PDFs open without a password but say that they may not be printed, copied from or changed. The merger opens such a file by itself and reminds you to make sure you have the right to change it. The copy it writes carries no limits.

Those limits were always a request to the reading program rather than a lock, which is why the file could be opened at all. Whether you may lift them is a question about the document and the person who sent it, not about the software.

What else changes in the copy.

The pages are copied as they are: text stays text and pictures are not compressed again. Links and bookmarks come along. Two things do not. A digital signature covers the exact bytes of the file it was made for, so it cannot stay valid in a new file; the merger keeps the signature's picture as a stamp and says so. Accessibility tags are not carried over either. The title and author are left out unless you take them from the file with one press under Details.

Lock it again, with a password of your own.

If you only wanted to change the password, set a new one before you merge: under More options, turn on Password and type the one you want. The file is then encrypted with AES-256, and you can also limit printing, copying and changes.

Guide: password protect a PDF

Your password stays with you.

An unlock service that runs on a server receives two things: the file and its password. With KeepSimp both stay in your browser. The file is opened and written on your device, the password is used only to open it there, and nothing is uploaded or stored.

A little less theory. A little more doing.

Try it on your own terms, with a free browser tool.

Try the tool