How to remove protection from PDF

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These simple tricks will allow you to open, edit, copy and print secure PDF documents.

PDF files can be protected in several ways: DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), user or author password. In addition, PDF can be a collection of images with text.

The life hacker hopes that you will use these methods exclusively for good purposes and will not get access to information that does not belong to you.

How to reset a user password

The user password is requested when trying to open a protected document. Without it, any actions with the file are impossible. It is difficult to reset or work around it.

You can try to guess a password using a dictionary using the proposed utilities, but this method does not guarantee the result. Especially when it comes to very complex passwords. In addition, you will need a lot of time and a fairly productive computer with Windows or macOS.

On smartphones with Android or iOS, you will not be able to remove this protection.

Passcovery Suite

This Windows application allows you to recover passwords for many document and archive formats, including PDF. It can use the resources of your discrete graphics card, so that password guessing is done at a decent speed. True, in the free demo only the first two characters of the found password are displayed, and the guessing time is limited to 30 minutes.

Passcovery Suite easily clicked PDF with a password of 1111, but gave up in front of a seemingly simple lifehacker1. So make sure the app can guess your password before purchasing. It costs $ 199.

Passcovery Suite for Windows →

Cisdem PDF Password Remover 3

Another application that can crack a custom PDF password with a simple brute-force attack. It differs from the previous one in that it works with macOS. The rest of the applications are similar, since the method is the same.

Drag the PDF into the application window, click on the lock icon and select the Forgot option. Specify the number of characters and possible special characters in the password, if you know, and click Decrypt.

Cisdem can easily cope with digital passwords like 111 and 112121, but more complex utilities are apparently too tough: they can crack them for several days without guaranteeing the result. The application may be able to help you, but keep in mind: brute-force passwords take a very long time. Therefore, it is better to make sure that the computer does not fall asleep without you, and do something useful.

The free trial will only unlock the first five pages of the file. The license will cost you $ 34.99.

Cisdem PDF Password Remover 3 for macOS →

How to reset author password

This password is used by the creator of the document for copyright protection. You can view the PDF, but you will not be able to edit, print or copy its contents: every time you try to do something with the PDF, you will be prompted for a password. However, such protection is much easier to remove than the previous one.

Google Chrome + "Google Docs"

This is the easiest way to copy or print text from a secure PDF.

Start Google Chrome. Go to "Google Docs" and open the "File selection window" (folder icon on the right). Select the Download tab and upload your PDF to Google Drive. When it opens, print the file (click on the printer icon) or save the content to an editable PDF (click the "Edit" button and select the "Save to PDF" option).

You can copy content from a new document without problems. In addition, it can be edited with Adobe Acrobat or other PDF editors and printed.

Online services

Many online services are able to reset the author's password. One of them is Smallpdf.com. Open the site, drag the PDF to the upload field, confirm that you have the right to remove protection from PDF (the service takes your word for it), and then click on the "Remove protection" button. The resulting PDF can be saved to hard drive, Dropbox or Google Drive, or immediately start editing in Google Docs.

Smallpdf.com →

If Smallpdf.com is somehow unavailable, you can use PDF.io, Unlock-PDF.com, iLovePDF and other online services. They all work exactly the same.

How to copy text from a scanned PDF

Some PDFs are not password protected, but they still cannot be copied or edited because the pages are images. As a rule, such PDFs are created by scanning programs or manually from photographed sheets. You can extract text from them using applications or services for text recognition.

FineReader and analogues

If you have ABBYY FineReader, then there will be no problems extracting text from PDF. Upload a PDF to the application and wait for the recognition to finish. Then the text can be copied or saved in TXT or DOCX format.

Those who don't feel like spending money on a FineReader license can try its online scanner. True, it will require registration and in the free version it will only allow 10 pages to be recognized.

FineReader Online →

However, it does have free alternatives.

How to remove DRM protection

Some PDF books purchased from digital libraries cannot be read on readers or tablets because they have built-in Digital Restrictions Management protection. You are expected to open them in Adobe Digital Editions using the correct user ID to verify your read permissions.

All DRM Removal

This app for Windows, macOS and Linux helps you remove DRM protection from PDF, which means you can open, copy and edit the file as you like. Please note that this is copyright infringement.

All DRM Removal is free to try, but then you have to pay $ 19.99.

All DRM Removal →