Every PDF carries details that are not on any page: who wrote it, which program made it, when it was created and last changed, and often who wrote each comment. Add a file and you will see what yours holds before you remove anything.
It is read straight away and what it holds is listed, including the author name if there is one.
Names and dates are flagged, because those are the ones people are surprised by.
The pages are left as they are. You get a cleaned copy, and your original is never changed.
Word, Google Docs, Pages and most scanners write the author into the file when they export a PDF, usually the name on your computer account. Send that file to an employer, a court, a tender or a journalist and the name goes with it, along with the program you used and the time you last saved.
That information is kept in more than one place. There is the document information, an XMP block that repeats it with an editing history, private data some apps leave on individual pages, and the author name on every comment. A tool that clears only the first leaves your name readable in the others. This clears all of them, then drops any leftover copy that nothing in the file points to any more, because those are saved along with everything else if they are not removed.
What it cannot do is read the pages. A name typed into a letterhead, a footer or the text of a comment stays, because that is content and not a stored detail. Search the document for your own name before you send anything sensitive. Text hidden inside a page is left alone for the same reason.
A file with details like these is often the one you least want to hand to a stranger's server in order to clean it. That is why this runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
No. The work happens inside this tab, on your own machine. Open your browser's network tab while you use the tool, there is no request carrying your file.
None set by us. Very large files are limited only by your device's memory, and we warn you before that becomes a problem.
No, and there is no daily limit either. There is nothing to sign up for.
The title, author, subject and keywords, the program that made the file, the created and changed dates, any custom fields, the XMP editing history, private data left by apps on pages and images, the author and time on comments, and the document ID.
No. Pages, text, images, links, bookmarks and form fields stay as they are.
You can, but the signature will stop being valid. A signature covers the whole file, so any change breaks it, including this one. Clean the document first and sign it afterwards.
A protected file cannot be read or changed without its password. Remove the password with the Protect PDF tool, clean the file, and add a password again if you want one.