How to unlock a PDF by removing its password

Faesol Ogungbayi Leading Stories, Technology 15/10/2024

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Some PDFs have passwords that you have to type every time you open the document. There are various methods of removing passwords from PDFs, but all are based on knowing the password to the encrypted PDF containing it. The two methods for removing a password from a PDF are using the built-in tools in the PDF editors or other PDF software.

Use Save as PDF or Print to PDF

Perhaps it sounds a little ridiculous, but in fact, removing the password from a PDF file can be done very easily and quite comfortably. One simply opens the file, prints out the file as a new PDF, or saves it as a new PDF. What you are going to discover is that your system will create a copy of the PDF, and this copy will not be password-protected.

This trick will only work if the PDF that you have does not have any restriction on the printout. Nevertheless, the vast majority of PDF files are simply protected by passwords to ensure that they are encoded and can be printed if the password is entered.

You can do this in a few ways. If you use Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS, you can do it right through your browser. First, open the PDF document and provide the password it requires. Click the Print button (it might be an icon of a printer) on the PDF toolbar while viewing the password-protected document.

Click the drop-down menu that lets you pick your printer, then select “Save as PDF”. Click the “Save” button, and you’ll be prompted to provide a name and location for your new PDF. Your new PDF will contain the same content as the original PDF, but won’t be password-protected.

If you are unable to find Save or Save As PDF for whatever reason, search for another option, Print to PDF. You can use this trick in any PDF viewer on the Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems. For it, just choose “Microsoft Print to PDF” as the printer. In the previous versions of Windows, you have to download some third-party PDF printer, for instance.

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The Save as PDF method also applies to other operating systems as well. For instance, on a Mac you can use Preview, the same applies to any other PDF viewer application.

So, while they are wanted, users have to make some playful attempts to see their contents: Preview the protected document and say ‘yes’ to the password it will ask for. Choosing File and selecting Print will open the print dialog, or using the shortcut, Command+P.

In the print dialog box select “File” and from the sidebar, choose the option or button that says “PDF”. You will be prompted to enter the file name and its location for the created PDF file. That means the new PDF file created will contain exactly what the previous one had, excluding any password functions.