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

Encryption and passwords used in a PDF document are designed for protection, but they can become problematic when we forget the password. Is it possible to access a PDF without knowing the password and remove the password, or edit protected PDFs? The answer is yes, and this page outlines 5 free and easy methods to unlock protected PDF documents without knowing the password, each with step-by-step instructions.

It is important to note that if your PDF file has a stronger or higher level of encryption, some of the solutions outlined may not work, and you may have to try another method. Fortunately, the methods are easy to follow, and repeated attempts are not a problem. Without further ado, let’s start exploring!

How to Unlock PDF Without Password Offline Using PDFgear Desktop

One of the most reliable ways of removing passwords from PDFs without knowing the password is using a PDF password remover (especially if you protected it with another software), and PDFgear Desktop is the best free PDF password remover software as it helps to unlock PDFs with ease.

PDFgear Desktop 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 PDFs, creating PDFs, and setting up PDFs, and the best part of PDFgear Desktop software is that it works offline, so you don’t have to upload your important files to the internet.

Now hit the Download button below to get PDFgear Desktop on your Windows or Mac computer and give it a try!

Step 1. Open PDF Password Remover

Launch PDFgear Desktop 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 the 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.

How to Unlock PDF Without Password Offline Using Acrobat Acrobat

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

Since most PDF-related features such as PDF cropping, password removal, and adding comments to PDF are only available in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, you need the paid professional version of Acrobat in this part of the tutorial.

Compared with PDFgear Desktop, Acrobat can serve as another powerful and trustworthy PDF password remover software, as long as you don’t mind forking out for its premium membership.

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 crop 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: https://www.pdfgear.com/unlock-pdf/

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

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

How to Unlock PDF Without Password Offline 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.

How to Unlock PDF Without Password Online 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.

How to Unlock PDF Without Password: FAQs

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 Desktop, available for Windows and Mac.

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.