PDF metadata viewer and remover — see it, then strip it
See what a PDF says about itself — author, the software that made it, creation and modification dates, and the XMP block most tools never show you — then download a copy with it removed. Your PDF is inspected and cleaned locally in your browser and is not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Runs in your browser — your input is not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Your files are processed locally in your browser and are not uploaded to ToolsNow.
Your PDF is inspected and cleaned locally in your browser and is not uploaded to ToolsNow. The cleaned copy is rewritten from the parsed document, so the pages, their order and their visible content are preserved — this was verified by extracting the text before and after and comparing it. Two details worth knowing: the XMP block is overwritten rather than merely unlinked, because simply removing the reference leaves the original XML readable in the file; and the rewrite discards unreferenced earlier revisions as a side effect, which is useful but is not a guarantee you should rely on. Removing metadata is one step, not anonymisation. The document text, its layout, its fonts, any embedded images and any attachments all remain, and any of them can identify a source. If the document must be genuinely anonymous, review the visible content as well — and remember that whoever you send it to may still know where it came from.
How to use
- Open a PDF. Drop it in or choose a file. It is parsed in the page.
- Read what is there. Page count, size, PDF version and encryption state, then every document-information field that holds a value, with a note on what each one usually means.
- Look at the XMP if there is any. A second metadata block in XML that often carries more than the basic fields, including editing history and identifiers that persist across saves.
- Remove and download. The cleaned copy is rewritten from the parsed document, so pages, order and visible content are preserved.
- Check what was removed. The tool lists each field and its old value, so you know exactly what was in the file you had been sharing.
Questions
What does removing metadata actually remove?
The document-information fields — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer and the creation and modification dates — and the XMP metadata block. That is all. It is a narrow, well-defined operation, and the tool lists exactly which fields it found and cleared rather than claiming a general clean-up.
Is that the same as anonymising the document?
No. Removing metadata is one step, not anonymisation. A name printed on the page is part of the page. Comments and annotations keep the names of whoever wrote them. Attachments stay attached. Form field values stay in the form. Embedded fonts and images carry their own identifying strings. The tool lists all of this on the page so the distinction is not left to a footnote.
Is this redaction?
No, and the difference matters. Redaction removes visible content from the page. This does not touch the page at all — it edits the file’s description of itself. If you need something on the page gone, that is a different job with different risks, and drawing a black rectangle over it in most PDF editors does not do it.
Why can it not open my encrypted PDF?
An encrypted PDF cannot be parsed without the password — the structure itself is encrypted, not just the viewing permissions. The tool detects this case and says so specifically rather than reporting a generic failure. Remove the password first and then clean the result.
Will the cleaned file look identical?
The pages, their order and their content are preserved — this was verified by extracting the text from a document before and after cleaning and comparing it. The file is rewritten rather than patched, so the byte size usually changes and the internal structure differs, but nothing you can see should.
Does it leave anything behind in the file?
Not from the fields it reports. One trap worth naming: simply unlinking the XMP block leaves the original XML sitting in the file as an orphaned object, readable by anyone who opens it in a text editor. This tool overwrites the block before unlinking it, and the automated tests search the output bytes for the original values to confirm they are gone.