How to Remove a Password from a PDF on a Mac
Receiving a password-protected PDF from a bank, lawyer, or employer is standard security practice. However, entering that same password every single time you open the document quickly becomes tedious. Storing important financial or legal records for the long term without requiring a password makes managing your files much easier.
Depending on whether you use paid Adobe software or the built-in macOS tools, removing that password requires different steps. Here is how to unlock and resave your password-protected PDFs on a Mac using Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe Reader, and Apple Preview.
Watch Video
Learn how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe Reader, or Mac Preview to save copies of your password-protected PDFs that no longer require a password.
Want to follow along and test this out yourself?
You can download this password-protected PDF. The password is designer.
1. Using Adobe Acrobat Pro (Paid Version)
If you subscribe to Adobe Acrobat Pro, removing password protection from a PDF takes only a few clicks once you open the document.
- Open your password-protected PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro and enter your password.
- Navigate to the Tools menu on the right side or top bar and select Protect a PDF.
- Select the option titled Remove Security.
- Confirm that you want to remove security from the document when prompted.
- Go to File, choose Save As, select your destination folder, and save your new unlocked document.
Once saved, the file will open instantly in any viewer without requesting a password.
2. Why Adobe Acrobat Reader (Free Version) No Longer Works
In the past, users relied on several workarounds inside the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application to strip passwords from documents. Recent updates have blocked these methods:
- Page Extraction: Selecting thumbnails under Organize Pages to extract them now requires a paid subscription.
- File Conversion: Exporting the PDF to a Microsoft Word file to convert it back to a PDF is now locked behind a paywall.
- Print to PDF: Selecting Save as PDF or Open in Preview from the Adobe Reader print dialog triggers an error stating that saving a PDF while printing is not supported.
Because Adobe Reader blocks these features, Mac users must rely on native system tools instead.
3. The Mac Preview Solution (Free Native Method)
If you do not have a paid Adobe Acrobat Pro subscription, you can easily remove the password using the default macOS Preview app. The process requires using the Print menu rather than the standard Save or Export commands.
- Right-click your password-protected PDF file.
- Hover over Open With and select Preview.app.
- Enter your password to view the document.
- Go to the top menu and select File, then Print (or press Command + P).
- Look at the bottom-left corner of the print window, click the PDF drop-down menu, and select Save as PDF.
- Verify that Security Options does not have Require Password checked.
- Choose your file destination, type a new filename, and click Save.
By printing the file to a fresh PDF using Preview, macOS generates a clean copy of the document completely free of password restrictions.
Summary Key Takeaways
- Paid Adobe Acrobat Pro users can remove passwords directly through the Protect a PDF tool menu.
- Free Adobe Reader no longer permits exporting, extracting, or printing to PDF to remove passwords.
- Mac users can open password-protected PDFs in Preview and use File > Print > Save as PDF to generate an unlocked file.
