How to open password-protected PDFs on Android.

Work on Android with encrypted PDFs. Learn how to open password-protected PDF files on Android devices.

Many people work and study on Android devices — and those tasks often include viewing PDF files. Occasionally, you may receive a password-protected PDF that contains sensitive information. But can you open documents like that on Android? The short answer is, yes, you can.

Read on to discover how to open a password-protected PDF file on Android.

Open the file with the right password.

It’s very easy to open password-protected PDF documents even on Android if you know the password. Any mobile PDF readers worth their salt support passwords and can unlock the files. Simply open the PDF document and enter the password when your Android device prompts you for it.

Remove the password from the PDF.

If your Android PDF reader doesn’t support password protection or you don’t know the password, you may be able to remove it entirely. When you think about removing passwords from PDF files, it might initially feel a bit iffy to you. In fact, you may even wonder if it’s legal.

Don’t worry, though — there are perfectly valid reasons to remove PDF passwords. You may have just forgotten the password to PDFs you protected yourself. Another common reason is that the information on the document has gone public and doesn’t need protection anymore.

PDF editing software, like Adobe Acrobat Pro, can remove PDF passwords and more on Android devices and computers. There are also online PDF password removers, but it’s best to avoid them as they could compromise information security.

Of course, you should never remove passwords from PDFs you don’t have the right to read. Doing so is not only wrong, but it could even be illegal. But as long as you’re doing it for the right reasons, removing the password is an acceptable way to open password-protected PDFs on Android.