How to remove the password from a PDF
Bank statements, payslips and invoices often arrive locked. Typing the password every time is tedious, and some programs cannot open them at all. Here is what kind of lock you have and how to remove it.
Two kinds of lock
A PDF can have a password to open (user password): without it the content is encrypted and nothing can be read. Or it can open normally but carry permissions (owner password) that forbid printing, copying text or editing.
The second kind is much weaker than it looks: the document is already readable, and the permissions are a rule that viewers agree to respect. That is why removing restrictions does not need any password.
If you know the password
Open the PDF in Unlock PDF, type the password once and save the copy: it opens anywhere without asking again. This is perfectly legitimate for your own documents — your bank statement does not stop being yours because it is encrypted.
Keep the original if the document may need to be presented as received; some institutions check that the file has not been modified.
If you forgot it
Modern PDFs are encrypted with AES-256. With a long password, trying every combination would take longer than the age of the universe, whatever a website promises. Tools that claim to “crack any PDF” either only remove permission locks (which needs no cracking) or try lists of common passwords, which only works with weak ones.
The realistic options: look for the password in the e-mail or letter that came with the document — banks usually use your ID number or date of birth — or ask the sender for an unprotected copy.
When not to do it
Removing the protection of a document you are not entitled to read or modify — someone else's confidential file, copyrighted material you only have permission to view — can break the law and the terms under which you received it. Use it on your own documents or ones you have the right to use.
Next time
If you are the one protecting a document, write the password in your password manager at the moment you create it. To share a protected PDF, send the password through a different channel than the file — a message, not the same e-mail.