← Guides

How to unlock a file

Updated 3 June 2026

When a file won’t let you edit, copy or open it, you’re looking at one of two completely different things — and knowing which one decides how (and whether) you can unlock it.

1. A restriction you can remove instantly

Most “locked” files aren’t encrypted at all. They carry a small flag that politely asks the app to make them read-only:

• An Excel sheet you can see but not edit
• A Word document set to “restrict editing” or read-only
• A PDF you can open but can’t print or copy from

These flags aren’t security — they’re a convenience setting, and they can be removed in seconds. Our free, in-browser tools strip them without a password and without uploading your file anywhere:

2. A password that genuinely encrypts the file

If a file demands a password just to open it, it’s truly encrypted. There’s no flag to remove — the contents are scrambled, and the only way in is the password itself.

• If you know the password, our PDF and ZIP tools will decrypt the file and save an unprotected copy.
• If you’ve forgotten it, the password has to be recovered by computation. That’s our pay-on-success recovery service — you only pay if we get it back.

How to tell which you have

Try to open the file:

• It opens, but you can’t edit/print/copy → it’s a removable restriction. Use the matching free tool above.
• It asks for a password before it’ll open → it’s encrypted. Use the tool with your password, or request recovery if it’s lost.

A note on doing this legally

Only unlock files you own or are authorised to access. Removing a restriction from your own spreadsheet, or recovering a password to your own archive, is a routine task — but these tools aren’t for getting into someone else’s files.