A while back, I protected an important PDF document but forgot its password. Sadly, since I lost the PDF’s password, I couldn’t access the document anymore. This got me looking for all kinds of solutions to recover a PDF’s user password and access the document. Thankfully, I was able to find the perfect PDF password recovery tool from all kinds of solutions that are available. To help you do the same, I will let you know how to recover a PDF’s password using 5 different tools.
In this article
Method 1: Use LostMyPass to Recover a PDF’s User Password
If you have forgotten the password of a PDF file, then you can simply head to the website of LostMyPass to recovery it. The online PDF password recovery tool has unlocked millions of PDF files and has a good track record. As of now, it has a size limit on PDF documents (of 100 MB) and can’t unlock files that are bigger than that.
You can access a PDF’s user or owner password for free (via its week password recovery feature). Though, if the PDF file has a strong password, then you would have to pay $29 to extract its password. To learn how to recover a PDF’s password using LostMyPass, you can follow these steps:
Step 1: Upload the PDF Document on LostMyPass
Firstly, you can go to the website of LostMyPass PDF password recovery on any web browser and simply click on the “Upload” button. This will let you browse and load the password-protected PDF file from your system.
Step 2: Wait as LostMyPass would Unlock the File
Once the PDF is uploaded, the application will start performing the PDF document password recovery and will also display its estimated time on the screen.
Step 3: Download the Unlocked PDF File
After completing the process, LostMyPass will display the owner password of the PDF document and would also let you download the document from here. Just click on the “Download” button to save the unlocked PDF file to any preferred location on your computer.
Method 2: SmallPDF PDF Document Password Recovery Tool
SmallPDF is another popular online tool that is mostly used to convert and manage our PDF documents. It has also come up with an online solution to extract the owner password of a PDF on iPhone, Windows, Mac, or any other platform.
In case if you forgot the password of your PDF document, then you can simply upload it on the SmallPDF application. While the online tool would take a while to recover the password of your document, its results would be quite reliable. Here’s how to recover a PDF file’s password with the help of SmallPDF:
Step 1: Upload your PDF File to Unlock on SmallPDF
At first, you can simply go to the website of SmallPDF unlock tool on any browser. Here, you can click on the “Upload” button and choose to load your PDF document from your system’s storage. You can also upload your PDF files from Google Drive or Dropbox on SmallPDF.
Step 2: Start the PDF Processing on SmallPDF
Once the PDF document is uploaded on SmallPDF, you have to agree that you own the rights to unlock the PDF file. Simply agree to its terms and conditions and start the process for unlocking your PDF file.
Step 3: Download the Unlocked PDF File
Wait for a while and let SmallPDF process the PDF password recovery steps to unlock the document. In the end, it will notify you and would let you save the PDF document on your system by clicking on the “Download” button.
Method 3: Perform Lost PDF Password Recovery with iLovePDF
If you want to unlock multiple files and recover the PDF’s user password for free, then iLovePDF would be an ideal solution. The best thing about this online tool is that it can recover lost PDF password from multiple documents at the same time via its batch processing operation.
The overall interface of iLovePDF is also quite friendly. You can just upload the PDF documents that you wish to unlock on the interface and start its processing. In the end, you can simply download the unlocked PDF file on your system.
Step 1: Load the PDF File to Unlock on iLovePDF
If you want to get the PDF user’s owner password, then just head to the iLovePDF Unlock tool online. You can now load any PDF document from your system’s storage or a supported cloud-based platform.
Step 2: Start the PDF Unlocking Process on iLovePDF
Once the PDF document is loaded, you can view its details on the interface. If you want, you can also click on the “+” icon from the side to upload multiple documents. Now, you can click on the “Unlock PDF” button to start the PDF password recovery process.
Step 3: Save the Unlocked PDF Document on your Computer
You can now wait for a while and let iLovePDF unlock your PDF document by cracking its password. The time taken to recover a PDF’s user password would depend on the complexity of the password. Lastly, you can download the unlocked PDF document on your computer from here or can share it with others by generating its unique link.
Method 4: How to Recover a PDF’s Password with Soda PDF?
To recover a lost PDF password, you can also take the assistance of Soda PDF. The online tool supports the unlocking of PDF documents with a weak password instantly. Though, if the PDF document has a strong password, then you might need to get its premium version instead.
Whenever you forget the password of your PDF document, you can simply upload the file to the online tool of Soda PDF or can try its free Google Chrome extension. Here are some basic steps that you can follow to perform PDF password recovery with Soda PDF.
Step 1: Upload a PDF Document on Soda PDF
Go to the official website of the Soda PDF Unlock tool on any browser and click on the “Choose File” button. From here, you can upload a PDF document from your system’s storage or a cloud platform.
Step 2: Unlock the loaded PDF Document
Now, you can just wait for a couple of seconds as the Small PDF application would recover a PDF’s user password and will notify you once the process is completed.
Step 3: Save the Unlocked PDF Document
Lastly, Small PDF will notify you once the unlocking process is completed. You can now save the unlocked PDF document on your system storage directly from Small PDF and access it without any password.
Method 5: Do PDF Password Recovery by Small SEO Tools
Small SEO Tools is one of the most popular web-based solutions that is known to offer a wide range of applications. The website also has a dedicated feature to do PDF document password recovery with its unique brute force algorithm.
Without downloading any application on your computer, you can use this online tool to recover a PDF’s user or owner password. These are some simple steps that you can take to work with the Small SEO Tools PDF password recovery tool.
Step 1: Load the Locked PDF File
Once you go to the official website of the Small SEO Tools PDF Unlock tool, you can just drag and drop your file or choose to upload your PDF document from your system.
Step 2: Unlock the PDF Document
After uploading your PDF document, you need to verify yourself by entering the right answers to the captcha and can start the unlocking process.
Step 3: Download the Unlocked PDF File
Wait for a while as the online tool would try to unlock your document and will undertake the needed steps. After completing the process, it will notify you so that you can save the unlocked PDF file on your system’s storage.
Conclusion
I’m sure that after following this guide, you can easily do lost PDF password recovery without any issue. For your convenience, I have listed 5 ways to remove the user or owner password on a PDF document. Since all these solutions are available online, and most of them are free, you won’t encounter any issue to do a PDF document’s password recovery. Feel free to try these solutions and share this guide with others to help them perform PDF password recovery like a pro.