spacecruiser Author

Level 1

8 points

PDFs suddenly needing Password I don't have. No changes made on my part.

Sometime this year a change happened where all my PDFs can't be opened, due to needing a password. I didn't change anything. I have no idea what the password is. It's happening with both Preview and Adobe Reader.

1) Simply downloading a fillable PDF and emailing it without ever opening it brings the problem. The download site doesn't encrypt their PDFs, but the person receiving it is dealing with a password issue. If they download the PDF themselves, no problem.

2) I receive PDFs back when the other person downloaded themselves and can open it fine in Preview. Once I update it and save my changes, I can no longer access it without a password I didn't set nor have any idea of. If I duplicate the PDF, I'm not allowed to do that because of the password. I am totally stuck!

How do I get back to a world where I didn't deal with encryption and passwords on my PDFs? I can't find any global setting to undo this default security, which I don't need.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.5

Posted on Aug 1, 2023 03:34 PM

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spacecruiser Author

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Aug 1, 2023 04:43 PM

Already asked the source if they password protect. No. Never have. I've been downloading form them for years now. The person the PDF is intended for can download the same PDF and he doesn't have the password issue. If I send the doc to him, it is password blocked.

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spacecruiser Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 1, 2023 04:43 PM in response to razmee209

Already asked the source if they password protect. No. Never have. I've been downloading form them for years now. The person the PDF is intended for can download the same PDF and he doesn't have the password issue. If I send the doc to him, it is password blocked.

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Aug 1, 2023 04:18 PM in response to spacecruiser

spacecruiser wrote:

Sometime this year a change happened where all my PDFs can't be opened, due to needing a password. I didn't change anything. I have no idea what the password is. It's happening with both Preview and Adobe Reader.

1) Simply downloading a fillable PDF and emailing it without ever opening it brings the problem. The download site doesn't encrypt their PDFs, but the person receiving it is dealing with a password issue. If they download the PDF themselves, no problem.

2) I receive PDFs back when the other person downloaded themselves and can open it fine in Preview. Once I update it and save my changes, I can no longer access it without a password I didn't set nor have any idea of. If I duplicate the PDF, I'm not allowed to do that because of the password. I am totally stuck!

How do I get back to a world where I didn't deal with encryption and passwords on my PDFs? I can't find any global setting to undo this default security, which I don't need.

Ask the website/company you're downloading the pdf from, this isn't an Apple or Mac issue.

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PDFs suddenly needing Password I don't have. No changes made on my part.

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