How to remove a password from a PDF you can open

Once you've opened a PDF with its password in PDF by Zaweba, choose Protect, then Remove security, and save. The file is written without encryption, so it opens without asking for a password next time. The app is free, works offline on Windows, and doesn't upload your file anywhere.

This is for files you're entitled to open: your own bank statements, a payslip sent with a password, a document a colleague protected. You need the password to start with; the app doesn't break into locked files.

Why people remove passwords

Typing a password every time you open a statement gets old quickly, especially for files that are now stored safely on your own PC. Some other programs, such as tools for combining or printing many files in one go, also struggle with protected PDFs. And a file that has a permissions password may stop you copying text or printing, which is a nuisance in a document you own.

Taking the password off

Open the PDF in PDF by Zaweba and enter the password when asked. If the file only has a permissions password, it opens without one, but you'll need that password to remove the restrictions.

Choose Protect, then Security details first if you want to see what you're dealing with. It shows the encryption method, which password opened the file, and each permission. That tells you whether you opened it with the owner's permissions password or only the open password.

Then choose Protect, Remove security. Save the file, ideally with Save as under a new name, so you keep the original protected copy as well.

Open the new file to check it no longer asks for a password.

Some files have two passwords

A PDF can have a password to open and a separate permissions password. Knowing the open password lets you read the file. Removing all security normally needs the permissions password too, because that is the one that governs changes to the document. If you only know the open password, ask whoever sent the file.

Think before you take it off

An unlocked file is readable by anyone who gets hold of it. If you're keeping it on a laptop, a shared drive or a cloud folder, consider whether the password was doing a useful job. A middle path is to remove security, make your changes, and protect it again with your own password.

Before sharing an unlocked copy, it can be worth tidying it too. Protect, Remove hidden information lists what the PDF carries, such as document details, attached files, comments and earlier versions, with counts, and lets you tick what to remove.

Doing several files at once

If you have a folder of statements that all share a password, Tools, Actions can include a remove security step and run on a whole folder, or on files you choose. PDF by Zaweba also has watched folders: while the app is open, each PDF dropped into a watched folder goes through its action, with the result in Processed and the original kept in Originals.

Either way, everything happens on your own computer, and nothing is sent to a website to be unlocked.