How to unlock a PDF file?

While you may easily download a PDF document, editing or printing the same has a lot of hassles associated with it. Most of these files are secured, which restrict us from making modifications to the documents. If you want to unlock a PDF file for editing, continue reading this article.

There are two kinds of secured PDFs.

• User locked: You would require a password for viewing it’s content.
• Owner locked: A password is needed to copy or edit or even print the document.

It must be noted that it is impossible to unlock a user locked PDF unless you have its password.

Let us move forward and figure out how to unlock a secured PDF file.

Choose your Browser

Open up Google Chrome. It is the only browser that can be used to remove the password from your PDF document.

Log in to your Google Drive

Open Google Drive. If you are not logged into your Google account yet, you would need to enter your login credentials to get things started.

Upload the PDF to your Drive

Simply click on your PDF file and drag it into your Google Drive or you can also do it manually by clicking the option 'New" on the top right corner of your Google Drive Window. Click on 'File Upload' and select the pdf you want to import and click 'OK' to get it uploaded.

Open the file

Once the upload is complete, double-clicking the PDF document inside Google Drive would open up the file within your browser.

Remember, in case your PDF is 'user-locked', a password would be required to see its content.

It's time for Print Screen

The next step would be opening the "Print Screen". Once your PDF reveals itself, you may press either 'Ctrl+P' for Windows or 'Command+P' for Mac, depending on your system. A "Print" window should pop up by now.

Choose a destination for your document

You can see a 'Change' option beneath the "Destination" segment on your browser's (Chrome) left side. Click on the 'Change' option and a menu would appear.

Save the PDF

Click the option 'Save as PDF'. You would find this option under the segment, "Local Options" just inside the "Select a Destination" menu.

Download the file for editing

On the top-left corner of the browser's window, you would find a blue 'Save' button. Click on this option to download the PDF document to your desktop as an unsecure file.

Now you can successfully edit, print, or copy text from the document without any hassles.