Removing the password from a PDF file

I have a couple of ebooks as PDFs with passwords, however my ebook reader (sony prs600) doesn't seem to support PDFs with passwords. What is the easiest of removing the password from a PDF (I know the password, which presumably helps a lot). It's a bit annoying buying a book and then only being able to read it in front of a computer.

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6 Answers

With A-PDF Restrictions Remover, you can remove the password and other restrictions in a few seconds.

A-PDF Restrictions Remover is shareware ($10), try before you buy.

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I tried the Win32 pdfclean binary for MuPDF 0.5:

I was able to remove the password without having to know the source password.

pdfclean clean protected.pdf pdfwithnopassword.pdf

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MuPDF, available for at least Windows and macOS (via Homebrew) has a free command line tool called mutool. I personally used it to remove the password on my American Express statement and merge all my separate PDF statements into one giant PDF. The command line is: mutool clean protected.pdf pdfnopassword.pdf

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You can try Easy Pdf Password Remover Free. Other alternatives are:

• PDF Password Remover (freeware)
• PDF Unlocker (freeware)

If none of the above worked for you, have a look at this page: 7 easy ways to unlock a PDF file.

NOTE: If you have Adobe Acrobat (not the free Acrobat Reader), you can remove the passwords from File > Document Security > Security Options by selecting No Security.

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If you have access to a Mac (and Preview.app), you can try "File", "Print", "Save as PDF" or "File", "Save as" a PDF document.

This has removed the password on some documents for me. I don't know if these tips are applicable to Adobe Reader.

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On GNU/Linux, use the qpdf utility:

qpdf --password=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE --decrypt your_input.pdf your_output.pdf

this is also easy to automate with a shell script to decrypt multiple PDF files.

qpdf is available as a package on many/most GNU/Linux distributions. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions, you would get it by running:

sudo apt install qpdf

Caveat: If you specify your password on the command-line, your shell may place it, as plain-text, in your command history file.

You can use SysTools PDF Unlocker:

• Microsoft Windows
• non-gratis if you don't want the SysTools Watermark or need to process batch of PDF files

It allowed me to remove the security on a password-protected document (for which I knew the password) certified by Adobe EchoSign e-signature service, whereas Adobe Acrobate Pro XI wouldn't let me do it:

You cannot change security on this document because the document is signed or certified.

Trying to print the document also wasn't working:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
This PostScript file was created from an encrypted PDF file.
Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted.
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%