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Unlock PDF

Remove the password from a PDF you are allowed to open. Type it once and you get the same document back with no password on it: every page, picture, bookmark and form field as it was, ready to print, forward or merge. A PDF that opens but refuses to print or copy needs no password at all; the restrictions simply come off. Unlike the sites that do this on a server, nothing is uploaded: not the file, and not the password.

1 · The locked PDF

3 · Unlocked

Add a PDF to begin.

    Frequently asked questions

    I forgot the password. Can this unlock it?

    No. It only removes a password you type. Modern PDFs are encrypted with AES-256, and without the password the content is genuinely unreadable; a site that claims otherwise is guessing, which only works on very short passwords and takes that long. If it is a bank or card statement, the password is usually set out in the email it came with: often a date of birth or the last digits of an ID or account number.

    The PDF opens but will not print or copy. Can this fix that?

    Yes, and it does not need a password. Those restrictions are set with an owner password that is not needed to open the file, and every reader could ignore them. Drop the file in and you get a copy that prints and copies normally.

    Is my file or my password uploaded?

    Neither. The PDF is opened, decrypted and written again in this tab. The site’s security policy sets connect-src ‘none’, so the browser blocks network requests from these pages, so nothing could be sent even if the code tried. The sites that rank for this upload both the file and its password to their servers, which for a bank statement is exactly what the password was there to prevent.

    Can I unlock several files at once?

    Yes, up to twenty. Files that need no password are unlocked straight away. For the rest, type the password once and every file it opens is unlocked; a file with a different password waits for you to type that one. Everything can then be downloaded as a single ZIP.

    Does anything in the document change?

    No. Every page, picture, font, bookmark, link and form field comes across as it was; only the encryption is removed. The one thing that cannot survive is a digital signature, because it was calculated over the locked file.

    Does it work on an iPhone?

    Yes, in Safari or any other browser. Choose the file from Files or from an email attachment, type the password, and save the result back to Files.

    How do I put a new password on it?

    Use Protect PDF, which sets an AES-256 open password. Unlocking first and protecting again is how you change a PDF password.