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Oct 28 2008

Unlocking Secured PDF

Posted by: Colin in Technology, tags:

This is not about a cheap Chinese student looking for get-arounds to pirating. It’s just once a while, we encounter secured pdf files that we get denied to copy/paste/print its content even for good deeds.

I have tried a bunch of approaches, including:

  • Print the pdf using free 3rd party pdf writer such as Cutepdf to get the unlocked version: This doesn’t work for me.
  • Use Advanced PDF Password Recovery Application:  This works, but you have to pay in order to get the full version of apdfpr.
  • Use the Free PDF Unlock Online Utility: This works like breeze.I upload the pdf, and get back the unlocked version! Note you have to use IE7 so that the unlocked version can be saved.

So, here comes to my recommendation:
if you need a quick dirty hack, and the file is not classified or super sensitive, you can get it done easily using ensode’s free online service. And it works!

*Repeat: I’m not teaching you how to pirate proprietary documents. And I don’t get paid by ensode to promote their service. I have faith that you will use this trick properly for the good!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 2:04 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

20 Responses to “Unlocking Secured PDF”
  1. Rach says: December 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    You smart Asian ♥ Thank you!

  2. alistair says: April 21st, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Thanks, the ensode service works well

  3. Pelinne says: May 15th, 2009 at 4:17 am

    It works well and it’s been very helpful, thank you!

  4. andy says: May 29th, 2009 at 8:22 am

    thanks man! Chinese are SOO SMART!!!

  5. koko says: June 30th, 2009 at 5:54 am

    thank you. It works well

  6. rags says: August 4th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    Too kool..

  7. Derek says: August 27th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Thanks for doing this but it didn’t work on mine!

  8. Derek says: August 27th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    Tried it again and it worked! Thanks

  9. Johnny Wind says: September 21st, 2009 at 4:51 am

    Soo useful..! My document still opens and says (SECURED) in the headline, though it is not! I am now able to print it – made me puzzled in the beginning, but well.. it works! All happy! Wee..

  10. sadf says: September 24th, 2009 at 10:10 am

    Another solution (on unix)

    1. pdf2ps secured.pdf unsecured.ps
    2. ps2pdf unsecured.ps unsecured.pdf

  11. Yalif says: September 29th, 2009 at 4:53 am

    Yes! It works! Thanks!

  12. Sonal says: October 15th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    I have to modify type font and spacing for special education students and this saves me so much work! THANK YOU!

  13. Great says: October 22nd, 2009 at 2:41 am

    GREAT actually works

  14. ithelpcrew.com says: November 13th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    does not work for me in FF3.5.5 or IE8 (i don’t have IE7 and don’t want to install it). It uploaded my PDF successfully so the only question i have is, where o where is my secured PDF???!

  15. ZZ says: November 25th, 2009 at 3:10 am

    thanks a million. greetings from another chinese dude~

  16. aditi says: January 18th, 2010 at 4:44 am

    luv u luv u luv u luv luv u luv u luv u!!! thanks a million gaziilion.. no words r enuf.. luv u thanks sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much muah!!!

  17. Yoana says: April 20th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    Works Great! Thanks for posting!

  18. Bob says: April 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Anything for PDF files over 5MBs? My secured PDF is 10MBs.

  19. Luke says: April 23rd, 2010 at 9:58 am

    This was helpful. Thank you.

  20. ban says: April 28th, 2010 at 12:21 am

    yeah really work it.really helpful..haha
    thnx man.

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