Remove PDF Metadata
Processed in your browser — your files never leave this device.
This strips the hidden metadata from a PDF: the author, the software that made it, the revision dates and the title it carries internally. A PDF knows things about itself that are not printed on any page. It usually carries a title given to it by whatever produced it, an author name lifted from the account on the machine that made it, the exact software and version used, and timestamps for when it was created and last edited. A CV exported from a work laptop can name your current employer in the producer field. A contract reused as a template can still carry the previous client's name in the title. This page reads out what your document is carrying, then removes it — the visible pages are left exactly as they are.
How to use it
- Add your PDF. You are shown what was found: title, author, the software that made it, and the dates.
- The Info dictionary and the XMP record are both cleared — the second is the one most tools forget.
- Timestamps are reset to now rather than deleted, because a document with no dates at all makes some readers complain.
- Download the cleaned file. Every page, image and font is untouched; only the hidden properties changed.
Examples
- A CV exported from a work laptop, with the employer's name out of the producer field
- A contract reused as a template, with the previous client's name out of the title
Frequently asked questions
- What does a PDF say about me?
- More than the pages show. Open any PDF's properties in a reader and you will usually find a title, an author, the application that produced it and its version number, plus creation and modification timestamps accurate to the second. The author is very often a real name or a work username, because it comes from the account signed in to the machine. The producer string names your software and can imply your employer. None of this is visible when you read the document, which is why it survives so many rounds of sharing.
- Does this change how the document looks?
- No. Metadata lives in its own structures in the file, entirely separate from the pages, so clearing it cannot affect the layout, the fonts, the images or the text. Nothing is re-rendered and nothing is recompressed. Open the cleaned file beside the original and they are identical to look at — the difference only shows up in the document properties panel.
- What is XMP, and why does it matter?
- XMP is a second copy of the document's properties, stored as XML rather than as a simple list, and it is where design and publishing software writes its own richer record. It matters because a tool that clears only the first store looks like it has worked — the properties panel goes blank — while the XMP packet sits in the file with the author name still in it. This clears both, which is the only way to be able to say the job is done.
- Does this remove text I redacted badly?
- No, and it is important not to assume otherwise. If you covered something with a black rectangle in another program, the original characters are still on the page and this tool does not touch page content at all. That is a different job, and we have a separate tool for it that deletes the text itself. Use that one first if anything on the page needs to disappear, then run the result through here to clear the properties.
- Is my document uploaded?
- No. The file is opened, cleared and re-saved entirely in your browser, on your own device. Nothing is sent to us and nothing is stored. You can test the claim by disconnecting from the internet after the page loads — everything still works, because there was never a server involved in the first place.