How to Unlock a PDF for Editing – Quick Guide

Written By
Shivansh Shukla

Published on
March 15th, 2025

1 minute Read

Summary: PDF (portable Document Format) files are a universal file format that is globally accessible. Users lock or encrypt their PDF files to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive content. Nevertheless, unlocking PDF files for editing has become a common task. But the question arises: How can I unlock PDF for editing? You don’t have to worry anymore. We are going to discuss different solutions, including native and PDF Unlocker Tool.

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Through this blog, we will discuss the effective techniques that can complete the task without hassle. Before that, you must understand why users want to unlock their encrypted PDF files.

Why Edit Secured PDF?

Encrypting a PDF file can help you avoid risk, unknown access, and other issues. However, users want to unencrypt their PDF due to the following reasons:

To keep the data updated, you might need to edit data. To do this in an encrypted PDF file, you must unlock it.
Removing passwords from the PDF file is necessary to print locked PDF files.
Unlock the secured PDF file if you want to extract text and images.
There are many PDF files with firms that need to be filled digitally. By chance, the PDF is encrypted, it will be difficult to do without removing the password.
Unlocking PDF files can help you Combine PDF Files on Mac without restriction.

How to Unlock PDF for Editing? – Reliable Methods

By reading the above section, you might now understand the different scenarios where users want to unlock their PDF files. To perform this process, read this section carefully as it offers all the possible solutions. Without wasting time, let’s discuss each of them along with their detailed steps.

#1 Edit Locked PDF – Free Method

In this section, we will be providing different manual approaches to finish this task for free.

Method 1. Using Google Chrome

First of all, choose a PDF file to unlock.
Then, right-tap on it – Open With – Google Chrome.
Afterwards, hit the Print icon from the top left-hand side.
Later, pick Save as PDF from the destination drop-down list. Hit Save.
Thereafter, assign the location to save in your system. Click Save.

Method 2. With Adobe Acrobat Tool to Unlock PDF File

To do this, install the Adobe Acrobat DC.
After this, tap File and choose the PDF file that you want to unlock.
Further, right tap on document – Properties.
Subsequently, search and tap Security – Change Security.
Later, enter the password of the encrypted PDF file – OK.
In the end, hit OK to unlock it.

With the above procedures, users can unlock a single PDF file at once. Also, there is no assurance of data security. Therefore, users avoid using these techniques for multiple PDF files. You might be wondering which method is best for it. To know about it, read another approach.

#2 How to Edit a Locked PDF? – Automatically

MacSonik PDF Unlocker for Mac is an advanced software that helps users remove passwords from encrypted PDF files permanently. With the help of this utility, users can unlock PDF for editing easily and smoothly. Additionally, users with no technical expertise can use it without any issues as it offers an easy-to-use interface. Moreover, it prevents data from loss or corruption during the time of removing the password from it.

Simple Steps to Edit Secured PDF

When you follow the given steps, you can easily unlock PDF files and edit them.

To begin, install and open the PDF Unlocker on your OS.
Next, click Select Files to add PDF files to unlock. Tap Open.
Afterwards, provide the location where you want to save in your system.
Later, type the password of the selected password-protected PDF files.
Now, press the Unlock tab to initiate the process.

Also Read – Convert Password Protected PDF to Normal PDF

Ending Statement

Once you read this blog, your query on how to unlock PDF for editing will be resolved. We discussed different methods to do so. You must read them thoroughly and pick the best. However, profession is the most recommended technique to unlock multiple PDF files in one go. Apart from this, you can use the manual way for a few PDF file unlocking.