How to Remove Password from PDF with Password on Mac [4 Efficient Ways]

Removing the password from a PDF makes it more accessible and shareable with others, especially when you need to distribute the PDF to others who don’t have the password or if you’ve forgotten the password yourself.

If you are the owner of the PDF, or if you received permission from the PDF owner, unlocking a PDF would be like a breeze.

In this guide, we will explain 4 effective methods in detail to unlock a PDF with a known password.

How to Remove Password from PDF on Mac with Free PDF Unlocker

As one of the most popular PDF editors, PDFgear offers full-featured PDF tools for editing secured PDFs, rotating PDFs, annotating PDFs, and combining protected PDFs.

Furthermore, PDFgear has the flexibility to convert PDFs to various other formats, for example, converting secured PDF to Word, and changing PDF to JPG, etc.

PDFgear works online (for any browser) and offline (Compatible with Mac, Windows, iOS, and Linux), which are both completely free to use without sign-up required.

PDFgear software is the best free PDF password eraser that enables you to decrypt your PDFs with a few clicks.

Follow the detailed steps below to unlock your PDF with PDFgear.

Step 1. Run PDF Password Eliminator

Download and run PDFgear PDF password remover on your Mac, select a passworded PDF file to open by clicking the red Open File button.

Step 2. Remove Password from PDF

Enter the password to open the PDF file, and click OK to continue. Then navigate to Tools, and select Remove, a new window will pop up asking the confirmation to clean the password, click the Yes button to finish the process.

Step 3. Save the Unlocked PDF File

When you decrypt the PDF file, you can edit the file and password protect the PDF again by setting a password if necessary. Then click the Save or Save As icon on the upper left corner to save the updated PDF without a password.

How to Erase Password from PDF on Mac Using Preview

As a default application for viewing and interacting with PDF files on Mac, Preview allows users to view, and slightly edit PDFs including adding annotations and highlighting text in PDF.

More than that, Preview is capable of removing a password from a PDF document without additional software download.

Step 1. Open an Encrypted PDF with Preview

Run Preview on your Mac, and use the shortcut “command + O” to open a PDF with a password. Then fill in the original password and click the Enter Key to open the file.

Step 2. Decrypt the PDF File

Navigate to File, select Export, and then do the following things:

• Name the new PDF file without a password in the Export As section if necessary.
• Click Permissions under Quartz Filter, and select changes to be made without entering the owner password.
• Fill in the Owner Password and Verify it by retyping the passwords.
• Click Apply and then hit the Save button.
• Click File again and save the updated PDF file without any password.

How to Decrypt a PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat is one of the most reliable PDF readers and editors that offers a rich set of PDF management tools, but it is very expensive.

If you are an Adobe Acrobat Pro subscriber, you can also utilize Adobe Acrobat to unlock a passworded PDF document.

Step 1. Open a Passworded PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro

Launch the Adobe Acrobat Pro on your Mac, select a PDF file with password protection to open, and enter the password to open the PDF.

Step 2. Terminate the Password from a PDF

When opening the PDF file, navigate to Tools, select Protect under the Protect & Standardize section, click Advanced Options in the toolkit, choose Remove Security in the dropdown menu, a confirmation window will pop up to ensure the password removal from this document, and then click OK.

Step 3. Export the Non-protected PDF File

Navigate to File and Save As the updated file as a new PDF document.

How to Unlock a PDF on Mac Online for Free

PDFgear’s online PDF password eraser operates flawlessly on computers and mobiles across different platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS, which allows you to unlock your PDF online anytime, anywhere.

Beyond unlocking PDFs, it also provides a various set of free online tools to add pages to PDFs, convert PDFs, organize PDFs and OCR PDFs, etc.

Step 1. Upload a PDF File with a Password

Open your browser and directly head to PDFgear online PDF unlocker, upload a PFD file with a password by clicking the button, or drag and drop a PDF file to upload.

Step 2. Unlock Your PDF Online

As the PDF is encrypted, a password will be required to enter to gain access to the file. Just enter the original password of the PDF, then click the Unlock button.

Step 3. Download the Unprotected PDF

After entering the password, the PDFgear online unlocker will automatically decrypt the PDF file. Once the process is complete, click Download File to save the cracked PDF document.

How to Remove Password from PDF FAQs

How to remove passwords from PDF on mobile free?

One effective way to eliminate passwords from PDF on mobile is to utilize the online PDF unlocker tool provided by PDFgear. This option works well regardless of the Android or iOS device, without any limitations.

How to remove passwords from PDF files with Google Chrome?

Open your Google Chrome, drag and drop a locked PDF file to the browser, enter the owner password to open the PDF, then hit the Download or Print icon to save the PDF file as unprotected.

How can I unlock a locked PDF without a password?

For this issue, you may need to ask the document owner for the password. We do not recommend cracking it as it may be illegal. If you forget your password, please back it up next time or set a frequently used password.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this article has presented 4 effective ways to remove passwords from PDFs on Mac.

The built-in app Preview can eliminate passwords but with a limited PDF editing feature. Some users may prefer Adobe Acrobat to get rid of passwords from PDFs, while it comes at a high cost.

On the other hand, PDFgear is a completely free PDF password terminator that allows you to erase the passwords from PDFs with ease. Try PDFgear now and you won’t be disappointed.