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What Are the Top Methods for Unrestricting PDFs and Printing Protected Files?

In today’s digital sphere, information is mostly shared and disseminated through documents, specifically PDFs. As a widely-utilized format, PDFs provide us with the convenience of sharing documents regardless of the device or platform of the recipient. For document authors, one popular feature of this format is its ability to be restricted or protected, allowing for controlled access to information. However, this feature can pose a problem when you need to edit, copy data, or print a protected PDF file.
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This article seeks to provide an overview of some of the top methods for unrestricting PDFs and printing protected files. It's important to remember that the restrictions placed on PDF files often exist for sound reasons, including copyright protection, ensuring document integrity, and maintaining privacy. Thus, it's necessary to only unrestrict PDFs where you are authorized to do so.
If you find yourself frequently dealing with this situation, here are some methods you might find helpful.

**1. Using Adobe Acrobat**

Adobe Acrobat is the official software for reading and editing PDF files. If the PDF is protected with a password, however, you will need the password to unlock it. Once you have the password:

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

2. Go to "File" and after that, click on "Properties."

3. Click "Security" in the Properties dialog box.

4. Choose "No Security" in the Security Method drop-down menu to eliminate the password.

5. Click "OK" to the alert box and another "OK" to close the "Properties" dialog box.

6. Lastly, save the changes.

While this method is pretty straightforward, it's only useful if you already know the password.

**2. PDF Password Remover Tools**

If you do not know the password, then you will have to decode or remove the password using specific tools. There are numerous software and online tools available that can help you with this.
For instance, PDF Password Remover is an easy-to-use tool that can help you to unrestrict PDFs. It's a standalone software, so you don't need to install Adobe Acrobat or any other third-party application to utilize this program.

**3. Google Drive**

Google Drive can also be a handy tool for printing protected PDF files. You will have to upload the protected file to your Google Drive account, open the file with Google Docs, then you’ll be able to print it. This method may not work for files with highly restrictive encryption.

**4. Converting PDF to Other Formats**

Another way to bypass restrictions is by converting the PDF to other formats such as Word or Excel. There are multiple online tools that can assist you with this, including online2pdf, SmallPDF, and IlovePDF. These websites have a user-friendly interface and can convert your PDF files quickly. Some of them also offer the option to remove the restrictions while converting the files.

**5. Using Online Unrestrict Tools**

Online tools like PDF2Go, PDF.io, and iLovePDF can help you unlock your PDF files. They can remove restrictions for printing, editing, and copying. Just upload your PDF file, and these tools will decrypt it for you. However, be cautious. Uploading sensitive data to such platforms can pose a security risk.

**6. Print to PDF**

It's not so much of unrestricting a PDF, but a workaround to print the PDF. You open your protected PDF, go to print and select the "Print to PDF" option. It may allow you to create a new copy that you can print. However, it might not work on all protected PDFs, especially those with strong protection.
In addition to these solutions, your business might also benefit significantly from evolving technologies that primarily focus on specific needs, such as PDF usage analytics or PDF tooling. Platforms like HelpRange are built to deliver real-time analytics for your shared files while also providing features for document protection. Disregarding whether the document is downloaded, printed, or even forwarded to a third party, you can still track it. Additionally, you can choose when and how long a document is accessible to someone.
This unique feature set can be immensely useful to tackle not only document sharing or tracking issues your business might face but also helps maintain sanity when dealing with document protection.
In conclusion, unrestricting PDFs and printing protected files poses an uphill battle, but it's not impossible. Understanding the reason for the protection can guide you in choosing the most responsible and effective method. Simultaneously, we need to be incredibly cautious to ensure that in the process of unrestricting, we don’t unknowingly compromise our data integrity or violate any ethical or legal boundaries.

Check out HelpRange

HelpRange is "Next-Gen Documents Protection & Analytics Platform". HelpRange represents the cutting-edge platform for document access controls and in-depth analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.