PDFs and conversion

How to remove a password from a PDF on a Mac

Updated 25 October 2026 · 4 min read

If you know a PDF's password, Preview or Orrel can save a copy that opens without it. Here is how, and why neither can unlock a PDF without the password.

Banks, payroll systems and accountants often send PDFs that ask for a password every time they open. Once the file is safely on your own Mac, you may want a copy that opens straight away, to merge it with other documents or upload it to a form that cannot handle protected files. If you know the password, macOS can do it.

Two kinds of PDF password

• Opening password. Also called the user password. You cannot see the document without it. This is the one that encrypts the content.
• Owner password. Also called the permissions password. The PDF opens normally but may block printing, copying text or editing pages.

The steps below remove an opening password you know. Permissions are covered after.

Remove it in Preview

1. Open the PDF in Preview and enter its password.
2. Choose File › Export.
3. Give the copy a new name, such as adding "unlocked", so the protected original is kept.
4. Click Permissions.
5. Deselect Require Password To Open Document. If Preview asks for the owner password to change permissions, enter it.
6. Click Apply, then Save.

Open the new copy to check it no longer asks for a password before you delete or replace anything. If your Export dialog shows an Encrypt checkbox rather than a Permissions button, you are on an older version of macOS: untick Encrypt and save.

The Print to PDF route

Another approach is to open the PDF with its password, choose File › Print, then open the PDF menu at the bottom of the dialog and choose Save as PDF. The result is a new, unprotected PDF. It has drawbacks: links, bookmarks, form fields and other interactive parts can be lost, and if the file's permissions block printing, the option is not available at all. Use it when the Export route does not work.

Permissions passwords

If the PDF opens without a password but will not let you print or copy, it has an owner password. In Preview, choose File › Edit Permissions, enter the owner password and select the actions you want allowed, then click Apply. Without the owner password, the restrictions stay. Many reading apps honour these restrictions, but they are a request from the file rather than encryption, which is why our guide to password-protecting a PDF recommends relying on the opening password for anything private.

Before you remove a password

• Think about where the copy goes. An unprotected payslip or bank statement in Downloads is readable by anyone who can get at your files, including anything that syncs that folder.
• Keep the original. If you need to send it on securely, the protected version is still there.

How Orrel does it

Drop the protected PDF into Orrel's PDF workspace. Orrel asks for its password; enter it and the pages appear as thumbnails. Choose Save PDF and Orrel writes a new file beside the original, named with "unlocked", that opens without a password. The protected original is not changed.

• Unlock and merge. Add other PDFs or images to the same workspace, reorder, rotate or remove pages, then save one merged PDF without a password.
• Unlock and re-protect. Save a copy with a new password of your own instead, if you want to keep it locked but with a password you choose.
• Extract or split. Save only the pages you need, or every page as its own PDF.

Where Orrel stops

Orrel cannot crack, guess or bypass a PDF password. Without the password, the file cannot be opened in Orrel at all, and there is no way to recover a forgotten one. Orrel's unlock is for the opening password; it has no controls for individual permissions such as printing or copying, so use Preview's Edit Permissions with the owner password for those. Orrel arranges pages and does not edit text, forms or signatures, and some interactive features may not survive being saved again.