MacBook pro 2017 saved pdf asks for owners password

PDFs can be saved (by anyone) with password protection. That can be a password required to open the document, and/or an 'owner password'. Whoever saved that file applied an owner password to it. The Owner Password can be used to restrict printing, form filling, etc.

For more details, see: Password-protect a PDF in Preview on Mac - Apple Support

Above is correct.

The “owner” password controls the ability to change PDF-internal permissions.

The “owner” password is whatever the creator of the PDF set it to, and that password is entirely unrelated to macOS passwords or macOS security.

Ask the author of the PDF to provide another copy of the PDF with the required PDF permissions available.

nongradyrj wrote:

So, lesson learned - before you complete any form from the net, ensure you can save/download with answers before form completion...

Yes, with any 'fillable' form always edit a field then save, close and reopen to make sure the edits stick. A few years ago, I did run across a fillable pdf that could not be persistently edited with Preview but could with Acrobat Reader.

Also, there is a known bug with Preview and PDFs with fillable forms. Sometimes filling out the form will cause the PDF password to apply to the entire PDF instead of just the base document. Best to use another app instead of Preview.

Plus the Preview app tends to have odd behavior. I was adding some annotations to a PDF the other day and the some of them saved, but others did not. Some of the Apple built-in apps are absolutely terrible (TextEdit, Preview, Disk Utility).

@neuroanatomist is correct that frequent saves, close document, reopen document to make sure the edits have stuck.