How to use PDF security
- Choose Protect, Unlock, Watermark or Redact PDF in the Pro tools.
- Enter the required password or text, then confirm the upload. Only unlock files you are authorized to access.
- Download and inspect every affected page. For redaction, compare the output with the original before sharing.
A few useful details
Password protection adds an access barrier. Unlocking requires a valid password. Watermarks add visible text. Redaction removes matched selectable text by flattening affected page content to images; it is not a complete automated sensitive-data discovery system.
What to know first
Redaction matches selectable text and can miss words in scans, images or unexpected text encodings. The redacted result is no longer text-searchable. Verify all sensitive content manually.
Pro uploads are limited to 50 MB per file and 50 PDF pages. OCR, including automatic OCR during conversion, is limited to 20 pages. Each successful file uses one operation. Review the current plan allowance before processing a batch.
Answers for this task
How do I password-protect or unlock a PDF?
Choose Protect PDF to set a password. Choose Unlock PDF only when you know the correct password and have permission to change the file. Keep an original copy and test the exported document.
Can I redact text in a PDF automatically?
Dropshift removes matching selectable text that you specify; it does not discover every sensitive detail. Scanned text, images and complex pages require manual review before sharing.
Common questions
Can it recover a forgotten password?
No. The unlock tool requires the correct password and authorization to modify the document.
Does redaction find every sensitive detail automatically?
No. You specify the text. Inspect the entire result; scanned text, images and other content may require a different redaction workflow.