

If that happens to you, you may lose your files forever. Devices get damaged, lost, or attacked by ransomware or other types of malware. Lastly, password-protected PDFs aren’t really safe on any device. Posting passwords in plain text in emails and chats defeats the purpose of encrypting PDFs in the first place. Like we already mentioned, sharing files and their passwords poses another challenge. If you’re using simple words as passwords, anyone can gain access to your documents with those tools. But just as password-addition programs are common, tools that crack passwords exist too. Most people want to encrypt and send a file quickly, so they won’t bother creating a unique password for each file. The main problem with password-protected PDFs is their password. Password-protected PDFs: what can go wrong? You can download your PDF then or repeat the process and encrypt one more file for free.


In Preview, open the PDF file you want to encrypt.You can password-protect your PDF on macOS using Preview, a built-in image and PDF viewer. We have four simple ways to encrypt a PDF for free. If you don’t want to pay that kind of fee, you don’t have to. That’s outrageous if all you need is to secure a few files. The world’s most popular PDF reader charges over $20/month to create password-protected PDFs.
