Have you ever been given a PDF document, only to find you can’t read it on your device of choice because it’s password-protected? Most universities nowadays make course material available in PDF format. However, some insist on making their material password-protected, in order to prevent unauthorized users from reading it.
Unfortunately, the password protection can cause other issues:
- Preview’s full-screen “Slideshow” view will display a blank screen (rdar: 7757682)
- Not all iOS apps can open encrypted PDFs (although iBooks and GoodReader have both recently been updated to support this feature)
- PDF Passwords aren’t saved – so you’ll need to look it up and enter it each time
But if you have the correct password and can open the PDF file, there’s a (slightly tricky) way to store a non-password protected copy for personal use. There are a few different ways you can do this, but after trying out several methods, I believe this is the easiest.User CarlRJ over at MacOSXHints.com came up with this great, single-line command that does the job nicely (it’s further down on OSXhints in a comment below the original hint).
Make sure you have a postscript-capable printer installed and configured. Then:
- Open your PDF document using the required password
- Go to System Preferences > Print & Fax, select “Open Print Queue” and pause your printer
- Now go back to your PDF and print the document. Select “Add to Queue” when asked.
- Next, open the Terminal and paste this command and enter your OS X account password when asked:
sudo -s "cd /var/spool/cups; /usr/sbin/chown -v `id -u`:`id -g` d* | xargs -I@ mv -iv @ ~/Desktop/nopassword_@.pdf"
All done! You should now see a copy of your document on your desktop that can be opened without requiring a password.
Please note: This hint is provided for educational purposes only.
Hey, you seem to know all there is to know about MACs. So i have a question and I’m desperate. My boyfriend has an ibook G4 and I was using it..and the unthinkable happens. I broke it?? The screen went from safari to this all blue screen, then it switched to green, then red, then white, then a grey kinda, then white i think with little lines running vertically. It wouldn’t allow me to do anything. I just held the power button until it shut off.
He’s a graphic designer and has thousands of dollars of design software on it, along with so many pictures. I feel terrible. Can I ix it? Can you help me please?
ANy help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jaylene
Hey Jaylene,
It doesn’t sound like a problem that you could have caused… that sounds like a logic board issue that is fairly common with iBooks.
I’d take it to the Apple Store and ask at the genius bar – even if they can’t fix the machine, they should be able to rescue his data and transfer it to a new Mac.
Good luck!
Adrian