Found yourself locked out of a PDF that you need to edit or save?
Locked PDFs can be great for keeping private information secure, but they can also result in awkward situations with you being unable to acces its contents!
What happens if you forgot the password or your colleague who know the lock isn’t responding?
Don’t worry, we’ve covered everything you need to know about locked PDFs below!
Keep on reading to learn how to unlock, edit, save, and manage your locked PDFs easily.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- 2 Main Types Of Secured PDFs
- 4 Ways To Unlock And Edit Locked PDFs
- Other Ways To Unlock Locked PDFs
- How To Save Locked PDFs After Unlocking Them
2 Main Types Of Secured PDFs
There are 2 main types types of secured PDFs: A user-locked one and a owner-locked one.
What’s the difference?
A user-locked PDF simply means that as the user, you’ll need a password to view the contents.
An owner-locked PDF means that you need a password to modify the document in any way. This can include copying, printing, or other forms of editing.
If you do not know the password to the document, there is not a way to unlock it.
There are some ways you can still view the document if absolutely necessary, though. You can use tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro to remove the PDF password.
First, let’s take a look at what you can do for locked PDFs.
4 Ways To Unlock And Edit Locked PDFs
If you have a locked PDF that you need to unlock, edit, or save, fortunately, you have a few different options to go about this.
Here’s what you need to know.
How to unlock password protected PDFs
If you know the password, then you can follow these steps to unlock the document:
- Go to the folder where your locked PDF is.
- Open the locked document using any PDF viewer.
- Input the correct password, and you will be granted access to the file
If you wish to remove the password from the document, follow these steps:
- After you have unlocked the file, click on “File”.
- Then click on Info > Protect Document > Encrypt with Password.
- It will then show the password box - clear the password until it is empty.
- Then click OK.
Or
- Open the locked document with Microsoft Word.
- In the tabs, click on Review.
- Then select Restrict Editing > Stop Protection.
- It will show a dialogue box to input the password and put in the password.
- Click on Unprotect Document, then click OK.
After completing these steps, the password protection will no longer be there. You can now view the PDF without any restrictions.
How to edit locked PDFs
If a PDF is secured, it is typically not supposed to be edited unless it is edited by the author.
The best option is to contact the author of the PDF for editing purposes
If you do have the permission to edit or only certain features are restricted, then you can open the document by following the steps above.
Once the password is removed, you’ll have access to view it. Many times, a different password is also required for editing.
If you attempt to edit without unlocking the document, you’ll receive an error like this:

PDF unlocking tools
If you need to unlock the PDF for editing purposes, you can use a third-party, online tools like SmallPDF to do so.
Here are the steps to complete it:
- Upload your protected PDF into the Unlock PDF tool.
- Enter the password.
- Wait for the PDF to unlock, then select “Edit PDF”.
- Once you’re finished with editing, you can click the download button to save the document .
If you have access to Adobe suite, then you can use Adobe Acrobat to unlock your PDF as well. Unlocking your document is quick and simple with this tool:
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.
- Use the “Unlock” tool by choosing Tools > Protect > Encrypt > Remove Security
- Remove the password:
- If the document has a Document Open password, just click “OK” to remove it.
- If the PDF has a permissions password to edit, then enter the password into the box and click “OK.” Click “OK” again to confirm your desired action.
What to do if you forgot the PDF password?
If you forgot or simply don’t have the password, there is not a way to recover it.
There are some options that you can use to basically create a copy of the old document. Please note that some interactive elements might be removed if you use this option.
This is risky but might be worth a shot if you’re out of options.

How to create a new copy of a PDF with Adobe Acrobat DC:
- Open the PDF in Acrobat DC.
- Select File > Print.
- Choose Adobe PDF as the printer in the popup box.
- Click Print.
- Type a new name for your file and click Save. You can now edit the new version of your PDF.