Participant

Question

Please HELP - Asking for password on a file I created and I didn't set a password

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 13, 2023
6 replies
11800 views

I just downloaded the trial version of Adobe to combine my PDF files. Now when I open them they are asking me for a password when I didn't create them with one. Now I can't edit them, print them or combine them.

R

Rcn37714670sxes

Participant

I'm having the same problem!

Steps:

Opened file from original email without a password.
Saved to my Mac into a folder.
Filled out boxes that the author gave me permission to enter information for.
Saved to my Mac and was prompted to rename the file.
Opened the new-named file in Mac Preview to add two text boxes for required information I wasn't given permissions to edit in the PDF.
Saved again.
Closed all the files.

Now, the file cannot be opened without a password that I didn't set.

I recreated these steps with a file named "Test.pdf" and resaved as "Test with responses.pdf" and the same issue has occurred. This a reproduceable bug.

R

Rcn37714670sxes

Participant

Possible solutions:

The team that created the doc should remove restrictions to particular fields.
The team that created the doc should try their password.
Both the team and the user should look for an Adobe patch, download, and then install it.

A

ali_5081

Participant

Hello, Adobe, You seem not to understand the exact nature of this problem.

This is test case.

Download Lic 700 and LIC 702 and LIC 995 from web. These are child care licensing files provided by state.

Then try to use combine file to combine these files. It will ask pasword for the files to include in combine. just hit cancel and let it load the files. Look in the page where the 3 files are ready for combining. You will notice"!" on all 3 files and will no allow the combine to work.

Here is the screen shot:

Adobe, Please resolve this issue.

A

Aaron36178220urly

Participant

In the past I've found success with "printing" the password-protected acrobat file to "Save as PDF" printer option and that new file opens without requiring password. Works great for bank statements as well. 😉

E

eduardotabio

Participant

Is Adobe really not saying ANYTHING about this? These are files that people are creating or dowloading from govermnet websites or whatever, are now protected by passwords you didn't create after having spent hours filling them out. DOES ADOBE HAVE NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS MASSIVE LOSS OF PRODUCT?

try67

Community Expert

Are you opening the PDF files in any other application?

Can you provide a sample file that demonstrates this issue?

Can you post a screenshot of the exact window you're getting when you try to open the file?

E

eduardotabio

Participant

I will make time to respond with my own work and the inability to open these files without some PC/Android friend sending them to me, but in the meantime, how about this?

D

daledesilva

Participating Frequently

I just experienced this myself. I didn't create my file, however, I downloaded it previously, viewed it many times on macOX and edited it many times on PDF Expert on iPad. Then suddenly one day it had a password and I couldn't get in.

Below are the details as well as sample files of before and after the password magically got applied.

I use Dropbox and PDF expert on iPad, so either one of those could have created the issue.
I also upgraded osX to Sonoma since accessing the file last, but the file doesn't seem to have been edited after that according to the dropbox edit dates.

There are two PDF files in the same folder that this has happened to - situation was the same for both.
One of them I never edited.

In the one I edited, I created annotations on the PDF many times with PDF Expert and was always able to open it again on computer and in PDF Expert. Then today, I went to open the files and found that they asked for an unknown password. I got this same result in...
Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Acrobat, and Acrobat Reader (Installed from Adobe today) on Mac osX Sonoma 14.1
I also got it in Chrome on Windows 11 (Didn't try any other apps).
I also got it trying to open the files directly in Dropbox in a browser on both Mac Chrome and Windows Chrome.

I've tried the password 'password' and my computer pin, but no dice.

I was luckily able to find an earlier version of one of files through Dropbox that still works properly.
Interestingly, the new version with password is 15mb and the original version is 3.9mb.

I've attached both files.

Please reply and figure out where this problem is coming from Adobe, as no one should have to go through this - it could have been much worse for me.

Before_password_randomly_applied.pdf

After_password_randomly_applied.pdf

try67

Community Expert

Both files are secured. The first one has a file-edit policy (to prevent any changes to it, beside printing), and the second has a file-open policy as well, which requires entering a password to view it.

Are you getting these files from an external source? If so, you need to ask them if they changed the way they create the files, and for the password to open them. If you're creating the files yourself, exactly how are you doing it?

D

daledesilva

Participating Frequently

What makes you think that Acrobat was involved in doing that, though?

I didn't know that it was Acrobat doing it. Actually, since I never opened it in Acrobat I was pretty confident it wasn't. The reason I added to this post, though, was because it was a similar issue and Adobe owns the file format, so an Adobe forum seemed like the best place to post.

Note, I've since found the culprit program - I'll post it below.
Thanks for your help

try67

Community Expert

How did you create the files?

kglad

Community Expert

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