Remove PDF Restrictions

Unlock a PDF you can already open

Some PDFs open fine but block printing, copying text, or editing because the author set an owner password and a permissions dictionary. Drop a PDF and, before anything is changed, it tells you which actions the file blocks right now — printing, printing at full quality, copying text, editing the pages, adding comments, filling in form fields, adding or reordering pages, and reading the text out with a screen reader. Click Remove restrictions and download the unlocked version, and the tool reports how much selectable text survived so you can see the unlock worked. If the file carries no restrictions, you simply get a clean copy back with a note that nothing needed removing. Drop several at once and the password is asked for once for all of them, with the unlocked files handed back as a single .zip — anything that wanted a different password is named rather than dropped quietly.

Runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded

Everything happens locally with pdf-lib and pdf.js, so your PDF never leaves your device and is never sent to a server — safe for contracts and other sensitive documents, and it works offline. The file is decrypted and re-saved without its encryption, so the pages themselves are untouched: text, fonts, links, bookmarks and form fields come through exactly as they were. Only if a file's lock cannot be decrypted does the tool offer to re-draw the pages as pictures instead, and it says plainly that the text would then stop being selectable before you accept. One limit is worth knowing: it removes permission (owner) restrictions, and an open password only when you type it in, so it cannot crack a user password you do not have.