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Hi, I forgot my PDF owner password. Anyone know how to find it on my MAC? At some point I must have set a password to protect my documents but I forgot what it is. I looked in my passwords and key chain but don't see it there, though I'm not quite sure what to look for. I use Preview to work with my PDFs. This affects all PDFs that I create on my mac. I can't rearrange pages in my PDFs because of this. Any ideas?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.6
The password for a PDF is stored as encrypted data within the document itself. They only way it can get there (and apparently for all of your PDFs) is you set one when the document is saved. It can't happen on its own.
You're going to have to figure out what the password is to release the lock.
The author must have pulled it from the App Store. But as you've discovered, Preview can now merge PDFs by dragging and dropping pages from one to the other. Or simply rearrange the pages if you wish. Something, for a long time, you could only do in Acrobat Pro and a couple of other expensive PDF editors.
If you really need to unlock some of the files, there are ways to do it online. Some sites offer simply uploading the PDF and it removes the lock. You then download the converted/unlocked version.
Thanks for your reply Kurt. It inspired me to test different scenarios and figure out the cause. -- I see what you're saying, but that applies if the pdf is a document created in Preview. I use an old app called PDF-Suite to merge separate PDF documents into one, which I then view and work with through Preview. I think this is where the problem is. I just tried merging several PDF docs, using Preview and had no problem. And you're right there is a place to set your own password there. Then I tried to do that using my PDF-Suite app and it had the problem. So...that app is getting deleted! Used to work fine. Not sure why it doesn't anymore. Evidently I have the latest version. Although I also don't see this particular app on the Apple App store anymore.
Thanks! Yes, I love this new feature of Preview. Soooo helpful!
PDF owner password
