How to remove a password from a PDF you own

Banks and insurers often send statements locked with a password. If you know the password and the document is yours, you can save an unlocked copy and stop retyping it.

Add or remove a password
Whichever tool you use here, the file stays on your device. How that works

Step by step

  1. 1Open the protect tool and add the locked PDF. It will tell you that the document is password protected.
  2. 2Switch to Take it off, if it has not already switched for you.
  3. 3Type the password the document was locked with.
  4. 4Remove the password and save the unlocked copy.

This needs the password, and that is deliberate

There is no way to remove a password you do not have. Encryption is the point of the feature, and a tool that could bypass it would make every protected document on the internet worthless. If you have lost the password, the only route is whoever issued the file.

For bank statements the password is usually derived from something you know, often a date of birth or part of an account or card number, and the covering email normally spells out the formula.

Think about where the unlocked copy ends up. A statement with the password removed is readable by anyone who can see the file, so keep it somewhere sensible rather than a shared downloads folder.

Questions

Can you remove a password I do not know?

No. You need the password to unlock the document, here or anywhere else.

Is the document uploaded?

No. It is unlocked by your own browser, which matters rather a lot for a bank statement.

Can I add a password instead?

Yes, the same tool does both. Nobody can recover it for you, so write it down somewhere safe.