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Clean PDF: Remove Metadata & Hidden Data

Remove hidden author names, comments and edit history before you send.

Select PDFs

PDF, up to 20

Files stay on your device.0 bytes uploaded

Send a PDF without what’s hidden inside it

A PDF carries more than its pages. The author’s name and the software that made it sit in its properties; reviewers’ comments, attached files and scripts ride along; and a file edited with “incremental save” can still hold the earlier version of every page you changed. Clean PDF shows you what your file is carrying, then takes it out: document properties and XMP metadata, comments and markup, attachments, scripts, hidden layers and old versions, with form answers flattened into the page. The pages you see are kept exactly as they are, and the whole job runs in your browser.

  • Your files stay on your device

    Clean PDF runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded — not the file, not even its name.

  • Free, with no sign-up

    No account, no watermark on your files and no daily limit for normal use.

  • Up to 20 files at once

    Each file can be up to 100 MB. Large or scanned files simply take a little longer.

  • Works on every device

    Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, in any modern browser. Nothing to install.

Clean PDF, step by step

  1. 1

    Select your PDF — you’ll see what it’s hiding.

  2. 2

    Choose what to remove (everything is on).

  3. 3

    Press Clean and download the clean copy.

Good to know

Details stored inside the file about the file: the author’s name, the title, the app it was made with (Microsoft Word, say), the PDF software, and the dates it was created and changed. PDF readers show them under Document Properties, and anyone you send the file to can read them.

Some apps save changes by adding them to the end of the file instead of rewriting it, so the old text and pages are still inside, just no longer shown. Clean PDF always rewrites the file with only what you see, so those earlier versions are gone.

No. Text, pictures and layout stay exactly as they are, and the text stays selectable. Only what’s attached to the pages — comments, fields, scripts — is removed or, for form answers, drawn into the page.

It turns form answers and fields into ordinary page content, so they can’t be changed by retyping a field. It doesn’t lock the file: anyone with a PDF editor can still change any PDF. To limit that, add a password with Protect PDF.

No — it removes what’s hidden in the file, not what’s visible. To black out names or numbers on the page, use Redact PDF, which also removes metadata.

Yes, but removing its metadata means it no longer meets the PDF/A archive standard, which requires XMP metadata. Turn off Document properties to keep it.

Each file can be up to 100 MB, and you can add up to 20 files at once. Large or scanned files simply take a little longer.

Yes. It runs in any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, with nothing to install. You can also add pdfconva to your home screen and open it like an app.

No. This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Yes. Every pdfconva tool is free, with no sign-up and no watermark on your files.

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