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How to remove PDF passwords
Documents in PDF format can protect with two different types of passwords. The owner password can prevent printing or modification of the files. Remove password from pdf, And the user password completely blocks the viewing of the documents.
Today we will see how to remove PDF passwords in both cases, but there is an essential clarification before starting: the owner passwords are straightforward to remove. You can even rely on Web services that do all the work in a few seconds; user passwords, on the other hand. It can only overcome with the brute-forcing technique. I.e., by trying all possible combinations of characters until the right one is found. And this is an operation that takes a lot of time and computing power to complete.
Furthermore, I remind you that unlocking a document of which you are not the legitimate owner (or which in any case you are not authorized to view/modify) can constitute a crime. I do not take any responsibility for the use you will make of the information reported in this post, understood? Well, having made these necessary premises, let’s get to work and see how to unlock password-protected PDF documents.
How to remove PDF owner password
f you want to unlock a PDF document protected against printing, editing, or text selection, you can rely on free solutions that allow you to get the desired result in just a few seconds.
The most straightforward solutions to use are the online ones, which are accessible directly from the browser and do not require installing programs on the PC. However, if you have to deal with files that contain sensitive information (e.g., credit card numbers, personal data, etc.) I suggest you waste a few more minutes and use offline solutions, which are slightly more challenging to use but ensure a greater degree of privacy (as the user has direct control over them and do not require uploading PDFs to unlock on remote servers). Do all clear? Well, then let’s roll up our sleeves and see how to remove PDF passwords using some of these solutions.
Online2PDF (Online)
The first Web service that I recommend you try is Online2PDF which allows you to process a maximum number of 20 files for a total weight of 100MB. How does it work? Nothing easier. Connected to its home page, drag the PDFs to be unlocked on the Select files button and click on the Convert button.
The “smooth” PDFs will download to your computer within seconds. Furthermore, to protect your privacy, the files you uploaded to Online2PDF’s servers will automatically be deleted at the end of the processing.
Note: if you remove the protection from a PDF file that contains fillable fields, they will no longer be fillable in the output document.
iLovePDF (Online)
In the context of online services. I recommend that you also take a look at iLovePDF, which is as effective as Online2PDF. And also preserves user privacy by deleting the files that upload. To its servers a few hours after upload.
To unlock a document with iLovePDF. Connect to the site using the link I just provided. Drag the PDF to open into the browser window (you can only process one file at a time) and press the Unblock PDF button. The unlocked document will be automatically downloaded to your PC. Fillable records are kept as such.
QPDF (Windows / Mac / Linux)
If you need to unlock PDFs that contain private information, try QPDF: it is free and open-source software that allows you to remove the owner password from PDF files in seconds. It’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, but sadly it only works from the command line, so it doesn’t have a graphical interface to interact with.
That said if you use a Windows PC and want to try QPDF. Connect to the SourceForge page that hosts the software. Best baby monitor And click on the pdf-6.0.0-bin-mingw64.zip entry. Suppose you are using a 64-bit operating system. Or on the pdf- entry 6.0.0-bin-mingw32.zip if you are using. A 32-bit operating system. Once the download is complete, open the zip package that contains QPDF and extract the contents to a folder of your choice.
If you are using a Mac, to install QPDF, you need to get the Homebrew package manager (another completely free open-source software), and you need to download QPDF through it. Fortunately, you can do everything with two simple commands to be given in the macOS Terminal.
- /user/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”to install Homebrew. You will ask to type the password of your user account on macOS.
- Brew install pdf to install QPDF. You will ask to type the password of your user account on macOS.
Now you can take action! If you have a Windows PC. Open the folder where you extracted QPDF. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard. Right-click on the bin folder and select the Open command window here item from the menu that appears. When Command Prompt opens, issue the following command.
Remove PDF Passwords
- pdf –decrypt input.pdf output.pdf here instead of input.pdf, you have to enter the full path and name of the PDF to unlock, and instead of output.pdf, you have to type the full path and character of the “smooth” PDF to obtain as the final result.
If you want to do this first, you can also type the command pdf –decrypt and copy the PDF to unlock in the Command Prompt – its path will be automatically indicated in the Prompt.
If you are using a Mac, you have to open the Terminal (located in the Other folder of the Launchpad if you do not know) and use the same command seen above on Windows.
- Pdf –decrypt input.pdf output.pdf here instead of input.pdf, you have to enter the full path and name of the PDF to unlock, and instead of output.pdf, you have to type the full path and character of the “smooth” PDF to obtain the final result.
How to remove PDF user password
It was removing the password from an access-protected PDF document quite complicate but not impossible. To attempt the enterprise, you can rely on PDFCrack: a free and open-source software available for Windows, macOS, and Linux that works from the command line (so it does not have a graphical interface), and in my tests, it proved to be quite useful. Best free streaming sites, Of course. Remove password from pdf The longer and more complex the password to discover. The more difficult it becomes to find it. But trying doesn’t hurt. If you agree, let’s not get lost in chat further, and let’s find out how to use PDFCrack.
Window
To download PDFCrack on Windows, connected to the program’s website and click on Download located in the right sidebar. Then open the zip archive that contains the software and extract the contents from any folder.
At this point. Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard—Right-click on the folder where you extracted the program files. And select the Open command window here item from the menu that appears.
Command Prompt will open. In which you will have to give the following command to find—the password of your document.
- Pdf crack file.pdf where instead of the file.pdf, you have to type the document’s path and full name to unlock.
If PDFCrack does not recognize the file and the message “[file name] not found” appears, take the PDF to unlock, copy it to the folder where you extracted PDFCrack, and give the command pdf crack file.pdf where instead of the file.pdf you have to type only the file name (without route). The file name contains spaces, put it in quotes (ex pdf crack “nome file.pdf.”
If PDFCrack can find the keyword. Remove password from pdf. It will notify you with the message found user-password followed by the password needed to view the PDF content.
Mac
Suppose you use a Mac, download PDFCrack on your computer by connecting. To this website and clicking on the link next to Looking for the latest version. Weight loss motivation Then opens the tar.gz archive that contains the software, extracts the contents in any folder, opens the macOS Terminal (located in the Other folder of the Launchpad), and gives the following commands to compile the program.
- cd [percorso in cui hai estratto PDFCrack]
- make -f Makefile
When the operation is complete, open a new Terminal window and type [percorso in cui hai estratto PDFCrack]/pdfcrack -u [percorso e nome del PDF da sbloccare]to start searching for the document password.
If you want to simplify your work, give the command [percorso in cui hai estratto PDFCrack]/pdf crack -u and drag the PDF file to be unlocked into the Terminal window. This will automatically write the file path to the command. Remove password from pdf. If PDFCrack can’t find the PDF to unlock, grab the document, copy it to the folder where you extracted PDFCrack, and use the command [percorso in cui hai estratto PDFCrack]/pdf crack -u “nome file.pdf” to start searching for the document password.
If successful, the message found user-password will appear. In the macOS—terminal, they follow by the password required to view the PDF content.