Forgot PDF Password? Unlock PDF Online

We all have our ditzy 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 locked will be stripped away instantly, granting you the ability to view and edit your PDF file. If it hasn’t also been secured from modification, 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 files that are heavily encrypted, unfortunately.

Can I lock the PDF again?

Of course. To secure a password protected PDF file, you can go to the Protect PDF tool (via the footer of this page), upload the document again, and we will encrypt it with a robust password. And albeit we do not want to meddle, be sure to remember your new password (or write it down), as the unlock tool cannot remove the password encryption set by your Protect tool.

For the best result, do go for a password length combination of more than eight characters, with a few special characters thrown in as well. And no birth dates!

But I don’t want to upload my PDF online

If so, then the Smallpd Desktop app is to come for the rescue. We added this software in late 2017 as a mean for those who cannot or do not wish to upload their files online. Although our site uses SSL encryption to ensure the utmost secure environment for file processing, 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. Click ‘Unlock’ from the left-hand panel.

3. Drag a PDF into the window.

4. Click ‘Unlock’ and you are all done.

As you can detect, multiple file processing is also enabled for the desktop app, so you can click open to unlock or encrypt PDF files in batches, as many PDFs as you’d like. 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 a dozen 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.