> pdf remove-password
Remove PDF password
Bank statements or payslips ask for the password every time. For your records, you can create a version without the prompt here. This page cannot set a new password, it can only remove one that you know.
Choose a PDF
or just drag it here.
.PDF ONLY · STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE
The password your PDF program asks for when opening the file. It stays in this browser: it never appears in the address bar, is not saved and is not sent. As soon as the file is open, the field is cleared again.
The pages are inserted as good quality JPG images. More dpi means sharper and larger. Expect the new file to be larger than the old one. Very large pages (posters, building plans) may be drawn smaller than chosen if your browser needs to; what really came out is shown at the end under “Done”.
Anything else to do afterwards? Compress PDF · Remove metadata
Your file and your password do not leave this device.
Only for your own files: A password to open that you do not know cannot and should not be bypassed by this tool. Locks against printing or copying, however, it removes even if you do not know the matching owner password.
How it works
- 01Choose a PDF or drag it into the box.
- 02If the file asks for a password, type it in. If it does not, the tool tells you so and stops.
- 03Choose the resolution. 200 dpi fits almost always, 300 dpi if you want to print the file later.
- 04Tap “Remove password” and download the new file. Your original stays unchanged on your device.
Why does it become an image? To display PDFs, this page uses pdf.js by Mozilla: It can open a protected file when it gets the password. To write, it uses pdf-lib, and that cannot write an encrypted file back out decrypted. So the only way is through the image: each page is drawn and placed into a new, unprotected PDF, at the original size of the page, rotated pages included. Compress PDF works the same way.
What happens to your password. You type it into the field on this page. It goes to pdf.js in your browser so that it can open the file, and nowhere else. It is not in the address bar, does not end up in the browser’s storage and is not sent along. As soon as the file is open, the tool clears the field. When you close the tab, it is gone.
What the new file no longer has. It is created completely from scratch, so author, program and date from the original are no longer in it. But bookmarks, comments and fillable form fields are not in it either. Check the finished file once before you delete the original. Better yet, do not delete it at all.
Limits. This tool cannot find out a password to open that you do not know, and it is not meant to: There is no guessing and no cracking here. It cannot set a new password either. And if a file is so damaged that pdf.js cannot draw it, even the right password does not help.
Two different passwords. A PDF can have a password to open and, in addition, an owner password that the locks against printing, copying or changing depend on. Only the first one keeps you out; hardly anyone knows the second one, and most programs ignore it. So does this tool: If your file opens without a prompt but has locks set, it removes them without asking for the owner password. That is no magic, just the result of the pages being redrawn. Still, only use it for files that belong to you.
Resolution. Very large pages do not fit at full resolution on a browser drawing surface, on a phone even less than on a computer. Then the page is scaled down until it fits. That is why the Done line always shows the resolution that was really drawn, not the one you tapped.