How do I prevent Acrobat DC from locking my PDFs automatically when I redact them?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 10, 2022
3 replies
1813 views

Even when I make a copy of an original PDF, move it a separate folder and redact that one, DC will lock the redacted PDF, the copy, AND the original. What's worse is it does it automatically and then asks for a password I never set and don't have. And because the original is locked, I can't use its redaction program to omit sensitive data. I've been using this program for two days now, but I can't find a solution in any of the FAQs and even Adobe's tech agents are unfamilar with the issue. Is it connected to the "enhanced security" feature? Normally, you're supposed to manually protect a PDF using the "Protect" program in DC, and there you can set a password for a document. But DC is just unilaterally doing it and asking me for a password I didn't set.

Anyone else have this issue?

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Correct answer PDF Redacter

For anyone interested I got around the problem by not using the "sanitize" feature. Program works as expected now. Thank you Bernd for taking the time to help me.

A

Angie298072650bc9

Participant

Where do I find the Sanatize feature?

P

PDF RedacterAuthorCorrect answer

Participant

For anyone interested I got around the problem by not using the "sanitize" feature. Program works as expected now. Thank you Bernd for taking the time to help me.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

What version of Adobe Acrobat DC? How does you redact the document?

P

PDF RedacterAuthor

Participant

Hello Bernd,

This is the version I'm working with:

Version: 21.11.20039.0
Creation Date: 2021/12/24

I redact documents by clicking on the redact option on the right hand side (I had to install the app through DC's menu first) then I use the drop down menu at the top of the screen under "Redact text and images" and select what I want to redact via "search for text" option. It will then ask me where should it start looking and I specify a folder I made specifically for redacting--containing copies of the original PDFs I'm working with. I then choose to redact the text I specify then I select the "sanitize document" option to remove metadata. If the redaction works as expected there's no issues, but sometimes it incorrect redacts and I'm unable to modify the DC's Redaction parameters as the PDF is locked. But the copy that the redacted version was created from is now locked meaning I can't redo a redaction, and somehow the original located in an entirely different folder also gets locked as well. I can't explain how this is happening as normally you have to select the "Protect" option before you can lock anything at all.

Thank you for your time.

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

> (I had to install the app through DC's menu first)

What does you mean with this?

The redaction tool doesn't locks the file.

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