5 Free and Easy Methods to Unlock PDF Without Password in 3 Minutes!

Can You Really Unlock PDF without Knowing Password?

Unlocking a PDF without a password is technically possible but involves ethical and legal considerations.

To unlock PDFs without knowing the owner/user password, it’s strongly advised to obtain explicit permission from the PDF owner to access the document.

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Unlock PDF Offline with PDFgear Software

The most reliable way to remove passwords from PDFs without knowing the password is using a dedicated PDF password remover (especially if you protected it with another software), and PDFgear software is the best free PDF password remover software as it helps to unlock PDFs with ease.

PDFgear is one of the most powerful PDF unlocker software that removes passwords from PDFs with simple clicks, even for strongly encrypted PDFs.

As a top PDF editor, PDFgear offers a complete set of tools for editing PDF text, annotating PDF, and converting protected PDF to Word, and the best part of PDFgear software is that it works offline, so you don’t have to upload your important files to the internet.

👉Now get PDFgear for free on your Windows or Mac computer and give it a try!

Step 1. Open PDF Password Remover

Launch PDFgear on your Windows or Mac computer > Hit the red Open File button from the left side > Browse the file and import the password-protected PDF document into PDFgear.

Step 2. Unlock PDF in PDFgear

Go to the Tools tab > Click the Remove button > A pop-up window appears to notice that Are you sure you want to remove the password(s)? > Click Yes.

Step 3. Save PDF as Unprotected

When you’ve removed the password for the imported PDF document, hit the Save button from the upper-left corner to save the new unprotected PDF on your local drive, without the password anymore.

Unlock PDF Using Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat, the industrial leader in viewing and editing PDFs, is also competent in removing passwords from PDF documents.

Since most advanced PDF features such as password removal, PDF cropping, and adding comments to PDF are only available in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, you need the paid subscription.

The following shows you how to unlock PDF in Acrobat Pro, without a permissions password.

Step 1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro DC on your computer.

Step 2. Go to the File tab and open the password-protected PDF.

Step 3. Go to the File tab again from the upper-left side

Step 4. Hit Properties from the File dropdown menu.

Step 5. From the Document Properties window, go to Security Method, and change it from Password Security to No Security.

How to Unlock PDF Without Password Online Using PDFgear

If you are comfortable with uploading your secured PDF files to the internet, online PDF unlocking tools are worth considering. These web-based applications work similarly to local software programs but operate entirely in the cloud, accessible through a web browser. Aside from password removal, it helps you sign on PDFs and annotate PDFs for completely free.

They allow you to quickly remove PDF passwords from both computers and mobile devices without the need for software installation. Follow these steps to unlock your PDF using the best free online PDF password remover, PDFgear.

Step 1. Use a web browser on your computer or mobile phone to navigate to the PDFgear Unlock PDF tool.

Step 2. Hit the Select PDF files button or drag and drop the file to import the PDF protected by a password.

Step 3. Wait for a few seconds, and pdfgear will automatically start the decryption. The unprotected PDF document should be available for download in a matter of seconds.

Unlock PDF Using Google Chrome

In recent years, the Google Chrome browser has been updated with a useful PDF viewing feature, allowing users to browse and view PDFs within the browser itself, much like they would using a PDF viewer application like Acrobat.

In addition to this, there are other practical features included, such as the ability to flatten PDFs.

However, it should be noted that some PDF documents that are protected with weaker passwords can be easily opened in Google Chrome and then printed to a new PDF document without requiring a password.

Consequently, Google Chrome can potentially be used as a password remover.

Step 1. Open Google Chrome on your computer, and its window opens.

Step 2. Find the protected PDF document on your computer, and drag and drop the PDF into the window of Google Chrome.

Step 3. When the PDF is opened in Chrome, here you can freely copy the text on the protected PDF.

Step 4. Hit the Printer button from the upper-right corner, which allows you to Print the protected PDF to a plain PDF document.

Step 5. You can either go with Microsoft Print to PDF or Save as PDF and hit Save when the decision is made.

Unlock PDF Using Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud storage used these days, and it helps you freely store videos, images, and documents over the web, and can be easily accessed using your Google account.

By opening the PDF document in Google Drive, you get to unlock certain soft-protected PDFs without knowing the password and print the document to a password-free PDF format, and the following steps show you how to do so.

Step 1. Open Chrome browser on your computer, and make sure you’ve logged into your Google account. You can also use the Google Drive app on mobile phones.

Step 2. Go to Google Drive > My Drive, and find and open the protected PDF from a Google Drive folder.

Step 3. From the PDF preview screen, go and click the Print button from the upper-right corner.

Step 4. From the Print settings, click the Change button from Destination and set it as Save as PDF. This will print your opened PDF as a PDF document without a password.

FAQs

Is it possible to unlock PDF without a password?

Yes, but it depends on the type of security that the PDF document has:

If the PDF has only a user password, then there are several tools and methods available for unlocking it (and maybe illegal).

If the PDF has an owner password, which is used to restrict actions such as printing, copying, and editing the content of the PDF document, then it can be rather difficult to unlock without the password.

Is it legal to unlock a PDF without permission from the owner?

No, it is generally not legal to unlock a password-protected PDF without permission from the owner. Depending on the laws and regulations in your jurisdiction, such an action may be considered a criminal offense and may result in legal consequences.

How to open a password-protected PDF if you forget the password?

When you forget the password to your PDF document, you won’t be able to directly view or edit the PDF. Therefore, you’ll need to first unlock the PDF document.

Which online tool Is the best PDF password remover?

PDFgear is considered the best online PDF password remover tool. With PDFgear’s online PDF Unlocker, users can easily remove password protection from PDFs without needing the password.

Which software is the best for removing a strongly encrypted PDF password?

If your PDF document has strong encryption, you’ll need a powerful password remover. The best strongly encrypted PDF password remover is PDFgear, available for Windows, Mac, and iOS.

The Bottom Line

These 5 methods are the best possible methods to unlock PDFs without knowing a password, according to our user feedback and testing results, so make sure to give them a go.

As mentioned, the introduced methods don’t guarantee to work so you may have to be a little more patient to try multiple methods until you find the working option, and good luck with that! And if you have questions or issues in this regard, please leave us a message in the comment section below and let us know.