RemixPDF

Remove hidden data from a PDF, free

A PDF quietly carries the author's name, the dates it was worked on, and often the folder path it was saved from. This takes them out.

  • Take out the details the document carries invisibly.
  • Free
  • No signup
  • No watermark

Runs on your device

This tool is being built — the page below is a preview of what's coming.

What you have to hand while you work

Why it works

It shows you what is there before removing anything.

Author, title, subject, keywords, the software that made it, the creation and modification dates, and sometimes the full path of the folder it was saved from. You see the actual values in your document, not a description of what might be there.

This is not the same as removing text from the page.

Metadata sits outside the page content. If a name appears in a paragraph, cleaning the file will not touch it — permanently removing it is a different tool, and we say so here rather than letting you assume.

Choose what goes.

Dates and author are usually safe to remove. The title is sometimes load-bearing, because it is what a reader's software shows in the window bar, so it is a separate choice rather than part of a sweep.

Every PDF carries a set of properties that never appear on any page. The account name of whoever made it. The application and version. When it was created and when it was last touched. And, more often than people expect, the full path of the folder it was saved from — which can name a client, a matter number, an internal project or a person’s home directory.

None of that is visible when you read the document, which is exactly why it survives. A file goes out to a customer, or gets attached to a tender, or is published on a website, and the properties go with it. The author field alone has embarrassed a great many organisations, usually by naming somebody who was never meant to be associated with the document.

Cleaning it is a small job with one important condition attached: metadata is not page content. If a name is printed in a paragraph, this tool will not touch it, and no amount of clearing properties will. That distinction is worth holding firmly because the two get confused constantly. Sanitising a document’s properties is housekeeping; taking a name out of a sentence is a different operation with different consequences, and it has its own tool.

What this shows you is the actual values in your own file rather than a generic list of what a PDF can contain. Empty fields are not offered, because there is nothing to decide. The title is kept as a separate choice from the rest, because a reader’s software often displays the title instead of the filename — clearing it is usually right, but not always, and it should be a decision rather than a side effect.

Everything happens in this browser. Nothing is uploaded, the original file on your disk is untouched, and there is no signup or limit.


How it goes

  1. Open the PDF.

    It opens here, and the tool reads what the file is carrying.

  2. Look at the list.

    Every property with a value is shown, with the value. Empty ones are not listed, because there is nothing to decide about them.

  3. Tick what to remove.

    Or take the lot. The panel says how many properties will be cleared.

  4. Download it.

    Your original is untouched; the clean copy is new.

What you can check for yourself

Watch the network while you work — nothing leaves this device on the default path. Then go offline and keep working — it all still runs. The two-minute checks live at how your files are handled.

Frequently asked questions

Usually the author's name from the account that made the file, the software that produced it, creation and modification dates, and sometimes the full path of the folder it was saved from — which can name a client, a project or a person.

No. Metadata and page content are different things. A name printed in a paragraph needs the tool that permanently removes text; this one clears the document's properties.

Not the file, but a reader's software often shows the title in the window bar rather than the filename, so a document with no title may display as something unexpected. That is why it is a separate choice.

No. Those are page content and visible; removing them is part of markup, not sanitising properties.

Either order works. Compressing offers to strip hidden data as an extra, which is the same operation reached from a different place.

No — that is the point. The cleaned copy simply has no values in those fields.

Ready? Drop your PDF above and it opens right here.