It is likely that you have a large number of password protected PDF files in your computer. While in some cases, it is useful to protect these files with a password, when you need to access the data on a regular basis, the password can become a nuisance. If the file doesn’t really require a high level of protection, it is not worth having to type a password whenever you want to access it. The best option would be to remove the password protection and this can be done by decrypting the PDF file. While the process is very simple, you may need software that is specially designed to decrypt PDF files. Here we will show you different options to remove the password protection from PDF files.
Use PDF password remover software
The most effective option to decrypt PDF files is to use password specially designed for this purpose. However, it should be noted that the majority of options are paid. You can try solutions like Advanced PDF Password Recovery (APDFPR) by Elcomsoft. The software is available from their official website and the Standard edition costs €49. Although the software is focused on helping you to recover the password to access PDF files, it also supports a decryption solution. Here is what you need to do to remove PDF encryption.
- Open software and click the Open button that appears at the top left
- Choose the file that you want to decrypt from the dialog box and open it.
- You will be asked for the PDF file password. Type the password and select “Decrypt Now”. This will unblock the PDF within seconds.
- You can choose the “Start Recovery” option if you don’t know the password. You just need to allow some time for the recovery process to be completed.
Use a Web App to remove the password
This method works when you need to unlock files on your tablet or smartphone. The issue is that when you need to decrypt large files, you may need to wait a while due to the time that it takes to upload, decrypt and download the data. You can find many websites that offer tools to remove passwords from PDF files for free. The advantage of using web applications is that they work with any platform including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Below you will find the most popular solutions.
Unlock PDF
This website gives you the possibility of removing PDF passwords very quickly, as long as you know the password. If you don’t own the PDF and don’t have the password, Unlock PDF may still work if the password is not very strong. You can also add password protected PDF files from your cloud storage service.
PDF Unlock
You can also remove passwords and restrictions from PDF files with the help of PDF Unlock. To add PDF files, simply drag them and drop them from your computer. It is possible to import password-protected PDF files from cloud storage services like Dropbox.
How to remove PDF file password using a web browser
This is a simple and convenient way to remove the password from a PDF file is using your web browser. You can use any web browser to do this and you won’t even need to get additional software. The process takes less than with any other methods and all you need to do is to open the PDF file using the browser and then download it from the print option. It works almost in the same way in every browser, although the options may vary a little. Here is what you need to do.
- Drag and drop the PDF file into a new tab to open it in the web browser. Alternatively, you can right click on the PDF file and select the “open with” option. After that, you can select your browser from the list.
- Once the file is open, right click on it and press print.
- In the printer options, select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” option and click Print. This should allow you to download the PDF without requiring a password.
