Preview is automatically assigning password to saved PDF files

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Level 2

185 points

Preview is automatically assigning password to saved PDF files

I use preview to open and split PDF files. Normally it works great. Today however it is assigning passwords to all my saved PDF's and now I cannot re-open them after saving because they are somehow being password protected! I have opened the preferences area and there is no way to make Preview automatically assign a password! What the heck is going on here? I have work to complete and I cannot move forward.

UPDATE: iMac is running Monterey and preview 11.0 - - Just tried this on my MacBook Air running Catalina and Preview 11.0 and the message is [document "..." could not be saved as "..."] I suspect there is a problem with Preview 11.0

Posted on Jan 24, 2022 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

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Peter Mars Author

Level 2

185 points

Jan 24, 2022 3:30 PM in response to PRP_53

I made a "master" and a "copy" so I could try this several times without permanently locking myself out of my own file... the "copy" is the one I just Opened and then saved in Preview. No export, no save as..., just "save". You can clearly see the padlock icon. Surely I am not the only one this is happening to. On two different macs, both running Preview 11.0

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Answer 2

Peter Mars Author

Level 2

185 points

Jan 24, 2022 2:57 PM in response to PRP_53

Can I remove preference files like in the old days? I assure you Preview is creating passwords on it's own and not able to save a file on the MacBook Air. I have tried saving to a folder, and to the desktop.

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 8

47,174 points

Feb 14, 2022 5:56 PM in response to Peter Mars

What a coincidence. I was just experiencing this problem a few minutes ago.

Preview is not assigning a password. The files were already password protected. But Preview (in Monterey) is doing something strange to the file and causing the password to be required to re-open the file. I don't know why these files were password protected in the first place, but they definitely were.

My solution was similar. I opened the (original) files using Master PDF Editor and used the "System Print" feature export the files to PDF again. This destroys the fill-in forms, but I can just add text boxes. Master PDF Editor is able to edit the files and re-open, unlike Preview, but I wasn't able to figure out how to put a signature in. I suppose I could have filled in the forms using Master PDF Editor, then expired, and then added the signature using Preview. But I was getting a bit frustrated by then.

In any event, this was yet another tricky PDF problem solved by Master PDF Editor.

PDF is a vile, evil file format.

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Answer 4

Peter Mars Author

Level 2

185 points

Jan 24, 2022 2:39 PM in response to VikingOSX

I also have an iMac running Mojave 10.14 with Preview 10.1 - - - just tried saving the same file and it works perfectly! All 3 of these macs are on our local home network, no one else on it.

Both my iMac and the MacBook Air had updates within the last week. The older iMac running Mojave has not.

Seems obvious that I need to remove Preview 11.0 and re-install 10.x

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Answer 5

Jan 24, 2022 2:16 PM in response to Peter Mars

I use Preview most days on Big Sur 11.6.2, or macOS Monterey v12.1 and it has never automatically assigned any password to my saved PDFs. I simply cannot reproduce this issue. If you are saving these PDFs on a shared storage area, is it possible that someone else is setting that password?

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Answer 6

PRP_53

Level 10

85,717 points

Jan 24, 2022 2:47 PM in response to Peter Mars

Peter Mars wrote:

I also have an iMac running Mojave 10.14 with Preview 10.1 - - - just tried saving the same file and it works perfectly! All 3 of these macs are on our local home network, no one else on it.

Both my iMac and the MacBook Air had updates within the last week. The older iMac running Mojave has not.

Seems obvious that I need to remove Preview 11.0 and re-install 10.x

Not possible

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Answer 7

Peter Mars Author

Level 2

185 points

Feb 14, 2022 4:45 PM in response to Peter Mars

I found a work around. I tried a free online PDF size reducer and it reformatted the files. I now do this before I open and save in Preview. So far so good!

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Answer 8

PRP_53

Level 10

85,717 points

Jan 24, 2022 2:23 PM in response to Peter Mars

Same here and can not reproduce as per previous posting

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Preview is automatically assigning password to saved PDF files

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