Unlock PDF
Remove a password you know from a PDF.
About Unlock PDF
Supply the password for a protected PDF and download an unencrypted copy with permission restrictions cleared. This is a decryption tool, not a cracker — you need the correct password.
If you have the password and want a copy that does not ask for it every time — for archiving, for a document you reopen daily, or before merging it with something else — decryption produces an unencrypted version.
This requires the password. It is for documents you are entitled to open.
- Processed on your deviceEverything you open or type here is handled by this page and never uploaded anywhere.
- No queue, no limitsNothing waits on a server, so the only limit is your own hardware.
- No account neededNo sign-up and no email address required.
How Unlock PDF works in your browser
The password you supply is used by pdf-lib to decrypt the document in this tab, and an unencrypted copy is written out. Neither the file nor the password is transmitted, which is the whole reason to do this locally: pasting a working password into a web form sends both halves of the protection to a stranger.
Permission restrictions come off in the same operation. Those flags — no printing, no copying — are advisory instructions to compliant readers rather than encryption, so removing them changes what readers are asked to do, not what the file protects.
There is no password recovery here and there will not be. Breaking encryption without the password means guessing it, which is what password-cracking software does; a tool that offered it would be built for a different purpose than this one.
When to use it
Archiving a document you will need in five years, when the password will be long forgotten. Removing encryption from a statement you receive monthly and open constantly. Decrypting a file before merging it into a larger document. Making a protected document searchable by tools on your own machine.
Read more about this
Frequently asked questions
Can this recover a password I have forgotten?
No. Office Utilities will not attempt to break encryption. You must know the password; the tool simply removes the protection once the file is opened successfully.