A locked PDF is locked in one of two ways. An open password encrypts the whole document, so nothing in it can be read without the password; Adobe calls this the Document Open password. Restrictions set by an owner (or Permissions) password are different: the PDF opens in any reader without asking, but the reader is told not to allow printing, copying text, editing, commenting or filling in forms. This tool tells you which one a PDF has and saves a copy without it.
For an open password, you type it and the tool saves a copy that opens without one, so you do not have to type it every time. For restrictions, no password is needed: the document is already readable, and the copy simply leaves the restrictions out. It is done with qpdf, the open-source PDF tool, which the page downloads the first time you save a copy. The PDF is read and rewritten in your browser and never uploaded. It is free to use, with no account and no upload limit, and it runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and while the page stays open, a feature you have already used keeps working offline.
- Can it unlock a PDF if I have forgotten the password?
- If it is the open password, no. That password is the key the document is encrypted with, and this tool does not guess, crack or recover passwords. If the PDF opens without a password but will not print or copy, yes: those restrictions are not protected by anything you need to know, and the tool removes them without one.
- Why will my PDF not let me print or copy text?
- Whoever made it set permissions when they saved it. The PDF is encrypted with an owner password, but readers open it with no password at all and then honour the permissions: no printing, no copying, no editing, or some mix. Drop it here to see which ones are set, and save a copy without them.
- Is it legal to remove restrictions from a PDF?
- For your own documents, and for ones you have the right to print or edit, it is a common task: a form you filled in, a statement from your bank, a report a colleague locked by accident. Use it for those. Removing the restrictions does not give you any rights over a document that you did not already have, and copyright still applies to what is in it.
- Does the unlocked copy look any different?
- No. Text, pictures, fonts, links, bookmarks and form fields are all kept; only the encryption is taken off. The copy can be a little bigger or smaller than the original, because the file is rewritten.
- What happens to a digital signature?
- A signature covers the exact bytes of the file, and removing the encryption rewrites them, so the signature on the copy no longer validates. Keep the original if the signature matters.
- Does the file or the password get sent anywhere?
- No. The PDF is read and rewritten by your browser on your computer, and so is any password you type. Most online PDF unlockers upload the file to their servers to do this; this one does the work in the page.