What “removing a password” actually means
If you can open a PDF, you know its password. Removing it just saves a new copy that no longer asks for that password every time. That's useful for bank statements, payslips and other documents that arrive locked and that you'd like to keep in an easy-to-open form for your own records.
To be clear about what this is not: it can't open a PDF whose password you don't know. A tool that claims to do that for any file is either guessing passwords or not telling you the whole truth.
Step by step
- Open the Remove Password tool and add the locked PDF.
- Type the current password.
- Click Remove password and download the unlocked copy.
Two kinds of PDF protection
PDFs can have an open password (needed to view the file at all) and an owner password (which only restricts things like printing or copying). If a PDF opens freely but won't let you print, it has an owner password only. Many tools — including our merge, split and compress tools — can still work with such files without any password.
Keep unlocked copies safe
Once a password is removed, anyone who gets the file can read it. Store the unlocked copy somewhere private, or re-protect it with a password you choose using the Password Protect tool.
Privacy
You are typing a password into a website, so it's fair to ask where it goes. In Play PDF the unlocking happens inside your browser — the password and the file are never sent to a server.