Why can't I adobe pdf print a password protected pdf in acrobat xi? I was able to in acrobat 9.

[stylist_sign_w_acrobat_9]

Why can't I adobe pdf print a password protected pdf in acrobat xi?  I was able to in acrobat 9.

[stylist_sign_w_acrobat_9]

This is the error I get:  "This PostScript file was created from an encrypted PDF file.

Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted."  I tried to remove the security but it prompts for me to enter a password which I don't know because it's rom another sender.  All I'm trying to do is adobe pdf print it so it becomes a standard pdf that I can then edit as I please.  So easy to do in Acrobat 9 but not working in acrobat xi?

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

As far as we at Adobe know, refrying (i.e., distilling PostScript output from a protected PDF file) has been prohibited by design for many years and Acrobat versions.

If you were able to produce a non-protected PDF file via this mechanism, what value would there be to password protection in PDF at all?  NONE!!!!

If you want / need a non-protected version of a protected PDF file, you obviously need to remove the protection by providing the password.

By the way, other Adobe applications similarly restrict you from playing such games. For example, you can't place pages from a protected PDF file into an InDesign document without the password.

Sorry, this is a necessary feature. Contact the author of the protected PDF file for the password. If the author is willing to let you modify the PDF file, the author will gladly provide the password to remove protections. If they won't provide the password, you obviously now know that they really want the PDF file protected!

Adobe cannot assist you here!

          - Dov

[mchlmichaell]

This is an oddly aggressive response from an Adobe staff member - I don't understand how this is warranted.

Is it possible the original poster is trying to do something without nefarious intentions? I'd say so. I'm building a form that I need to have flattened but that I also need protected from editing by our technicians. I can't use the flatten button without the admins entering the password into each form (needlessly time-consuming); I can't add a Print Form button without the file giving me an error.

How DOES one password protect a file while retaining some of the functionality that would allow one to combine tens or hundreds of documents into one report?

I'm sorry, but your answer was rude and unnecessarily aggressive. If you were a random forum user, that's one thing, but as someone on Adobe's staff? I think not.

[Test Screen Name]

You cannot set a password and allow files to be combined in the normal way. What security setting should the result have? The strongest? The weakest? The first? The last? None? Only good choice is "you cannot do that".

You seem to want a magic "take off passwords because it suits me" feature. That's not the design aim of passwords, surely. And of course, these untrustworthy technicians could use the same trick...

[Dov Isaacs]

We are really sorry that you found our original response to a question from another user over a year ago “rude and unnecessarily aggressive.”

The original question asked why behaviour of Acrobat changed from Acrobat 9 to Acrobat 11. We answered that. The behaviour did not change one iota in terms of allowing “refrying” of PDF files by printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance, a behaviour that has existing for probably over 20 years now. This is not conjecture. This is fact.

The OP was very clear in terms of what he wanted to do, remove security without knowing the password, i.e. using “refrying” to defeat Acrobat/PDF security. This may not be “nefarious” but …

You present a use case that is perfectly reasonable and I recommend that you post a query as to possible solutions to your particular issue in one of the other Acrobat forums (other than one associated with printing) and hopefully someone who has had similar issues to yours may suggest a creative solution. This may imply “flattening” (I assume you mean moving the forms responses into the base PDF content? Or something else?) separate from form submission. Normally when a form is submitted, the receiver extracts the contents of the form fields, something that cannot be done if the fields are flattened into the base PDF content. Then perhaps you could have a batch process that turns off the security, flattens the form fields into the base content (I assume you are using JavaScript for this?), and then re-protects them again. Just a thought!

But again, we can't open up a gigantic loophole in PDF security just for convenience.

          - Dov