Forgot PDF Password? Unlock PDF Online

We all have our forgetful moments where our mind goes blank, and a password disappears from our thoughts altogether. And rather than having to frustratingly go through the list of all possible password combinations or purchasing an overpriced PDF password recovery tool, you can use our PDF password remover to get the job done. And yes, it’s free to use online.

The password lock will be stripped away instantly, granting you the ability to view and edit your PDF file. Provided it hasn’t also been secured against editing, you may also modify the copy of your PDF documents, in whichever way you’d like. It should be noted that this tool cannot recover forgotten PDF passwords or unlock all files. Those that are heavily encrypted, such as with our protect tool, will unfortunately require the password to unlock.

Can I Lock the PDF Again?

Of course! To secure a password protected PDF file, you can go to the Protect PDF tool, upload the document again, and we will encrypt it with a robust password. As we don’t want to meddle, we don’t store or save your chosen password. Be sure to remember your new password (or write it down somewhere secure), as our Protect tool encrypts your files so strongly that not even the Smallpdf password unlocker can decrypt it! For the best result, do go for a password length of more than eight characters, with a few special characters thrown in as well. And no birth dates!

Is This Secure?

Absolutely. Smallpdf transfers files for all of our tools via a super secure connection. Our site uses SSL encryption to ensure the utmost security for you and your information while using our services. We can assure that your files are never read, analyzed or downloaded, and we always delete them an hour after processing, with the exception of eSign requests that remain available for up to 14 days. They are only available long enough to guarantee you have time to download or share your files once you are done working on them.

But I Don’t Want to Upload My PDF Online

If so, the Smallpd Desktop app is to come to the rescue. We added this software in late 2017 as a means for those who cannot or do not wish to upload their files online. Although our site offers a secure environment for file processing, we understand our users’ concerns and the desktop app removes the upload step altogether. A free trial is needed to get it, which can be done directly from the download page. The offline version of Smallpdf is currently available for Windows and Mac users. The process to unlock a PDF once you’ve forgotten its password is the same:

1. Download, install and have the Desktop app opened.
2. Select ‘Unlock’ from the left-hand panel.
3. Drag a PDF into the window.
4. Click ‘Unlock’ and you are all set!

As you can see, multiple file processing is also enabled for the desktop app, so you can unlock or encrypt as many PDFs as you’d like in one go. Once you remove PDF passwords from multiple files, we will save them in the same folder as they were located for your convenience. For the online website, a free trial would be needed to unlock batch processing, but the procedure remains the same - with the drag and drop tactic.

And lastly, other than unlocking and opening passwords from PDFs, we have more than 20 other PDF-related tools for you to compress, modify, or annotate your files. Once you crack open a PDF, the possibilities are endless with this versatile file type.