Can't open a PDF password protected file with Affinity Designer;

[pisksix]

My company sends me PDF files password protected. I normally use preview to read and print them, but I am unable to remove the password.

I thought using Affinity Designer may be the solution; however, even after entering the password, Affinity Designer is simply not opening the file.

The password is 15 characters long. After typing it in, the document preview remains with that red question mark, and at no time does the open button become available.

I am on a Mac mini 2; using MaxOS Sonoma 14.4; Affinity Designer using Affinity Designer 2.4.

I cannot give you the file that I can't open, because it contains confidential information.

I select open, the window PDF options pops up, the page preview shows a document with a red question mark, and the password field is highlighted in blue. I enter the password, press return, nothing happens.

 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, pisksix said:

My company sends me PDF files password protected. I normally use preview to read and print them, but I am unable to remove the password.

I thought using Affinity Designer may be the solution;

The solution to what?

It sounds like your company normally sends you these files, and you normally use Preview. Is that not working? You shouldn't need to remove the password for that process as Preview supports password-protected PDF files.

[pisksix]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The solution to what?

It sounds like your company normally sends you these files, and you normally use Preview. Is that not working? You shouldn't need to remove the password for that process as Preview supports password-protected PDF files.

As I clearly stated, I want to be able to remove the password, or at least change it to something which is not 15 characters. The passwords are never the same, and cumbersome to remember.

That being said, I am not expecting you to challenge the rationale of my request. I was simply reporting that I don't seem to be able to open a password-protected PDF document on Affinity Designer.

[Old Bruce]

Are you able to open the file in Preview? Are you absolutely certain you are using the correct password while trying to open the file with Designer? I don't know of a character limit on passwords and the Affinity applications.

[Ldina]

@pisksix I'm on a Mac running Ventura. 

I opened an unprotected, 8-page PDF Brochure I previously designed using Acrobat Pro, added PW protection (in Acrobat Pro) and saved it as a PDF with a new name. I then opened this PW protected PDF in Affinity Designer, entered the PW and it opened perfectly. I wanted to be sure Designer was protecting properly, so I exported this file to PDF with a new name and generated a different PW when saving. Just to be sure it worked, I then opened this file in Designer and it opened with the new password just fine. 

So, I am able to do what you said you wanted to do. Perhaps I am doing something different. In both Acrobat and Designer, I set PW protection for changing, printing and copying data. I did not require a PW to open. FWIW.

[kenmcd]

1 hour ago, pisksix said:

As I clearly stated, I want to be able to remove the password, or at least change it to something which is not 15 characters. The passwords are never the same, and cumbersome to remember.

Depends on what they have done to it.

An Owner password is easy to remove.
A User password is not.

Do you have to enter the password to even open the file to view in a PDF viewer or editor?
If Yes, that means there is a User password.
With a User password they may enable viewing and printing, and at the same time disable editing.
When you open the PDF in Affinity it is being opened to edit.

If it has an Owner password which is set to prevent editing, that is easy to remove.

Some tools may be able to reset or delete the User password, once opened.
I have seen the claims, but have not tested this (have not had the need to).

They may also Sign or Certify the PDF which means it requires the related certificate to change or edit.
I have not seen any way around these (and I've tried).
(very annoying when scans of 300 year old documents are signed - so you cannot even add bookmarks)

PDF viewers/editors will usually have a Security tab in the Document Properties which may show us what is in there.
So a screenshot of that may be helpful.

If you can print it, you should also be able to print it to a new PDF using a PDF printer.

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, pisksix said:

That being said, I am not expecting you to challenge the rationale of my request. I was simply reporting that I don't seem to be able to open a password-protected PDF document on Affinity Designer.

I am not challenging your request, just trying to clarify what problem you were trying to solve as that was unclear.

Designer V2 can Open PDFs that have a password, but:

1. Whether it can be done or not may depend on the exact characteristics of the password security/encryption algorithms the creator of the PDF has chosen. We would need to see one of the PDFs to see what algorithms were used, to determine if Designer can handle that form of security/encryption. Or at least a screenshot of the Security tab as mentioned above.
2. And (as I mentioned) PDFs can have passwords for Opening (Viewing), or for Editing (printing, copying, changing). If you are Opening the PDF in Designer that is really opening it for editing, and they may have given you a password that allows viewing but not changing the PDF. In that case, it might work with Preview but not with Designer.

If you try to Open the PDF in Designer, and nothing happens (except perhaps the preview box shows something other than the red question mark) then you probably have a password that doesn't allow editing of the PDF. You might try using File > Place in Designer instead. That will give an error message if you don't have the password that allows editing.

---

One comment (and perhaps a bit of a challenge to your request): if the problem is that the password is 15 characters and inconvenient, that is something I would suggest discussing with your company. It's their data, and for security reasons they may want the password to be that long, and may not want you removing it.

[Hangman]

23 hours ago, pisksix said:

The password is 15 characters long. After typing it in, the document preview remains with that red question mark, and at no time does the open button become available.

If the User Password has been entered correctly in the PDF Options window you should see a Preview of the PDF rather than the red question mark.

If the PDF also has a Permissions Password, e.g., to Allow Printing but prevent Copying Content or Content Modification then the Open button will remain disabled. You would require the Permissions Password to open the PDF in Designer...

It sounds like your company provides you with the User Password allowing you to Open and Print the file in Preview, Acrobat Reader or any other PDF Reader but you may find they've restricted certain other permissions quite possibly for good reasons... As mentioned above you can check the Permissions by looking at the Security Settings in Acrobat Reader (Cmd D) and then select the Security Tab.

23 hours ago, kenmcd said:

Depends on what they have done to it.

An Owner password is easy to remove.
A User password is not.

It is extremely easy to remove the User Password using the Command line (something you can't do in Preview) since it's been provided to you by your Company... but removing the User Password in the Command Line will also remove all the Permission Restrictions which may be in place for a reason so it depends on whether or not your Company are happy for you to do so?

Note: Removing the User Password using the Command line will incorrectly show Document Assembly and Page Extraction as Not Allowed in the Acrobat Reader Security Settings but correctly as Allowed in Foxit PDF Reader.

23 hours ago, kenmcd said:

If you can print it, you should also be able to print it to a new PDF using a PDF printer.

Not so if a different Permissions Password is used for the PDF, certainly not in Preview at least so while you can Print the PDF if Print Permissions are Enabled you can't print it to a new PDF and bypass or change the password.