The short answer
Drop the PDF on the tool below. The form shows its title, author, subject, keywords, the app it was created with, the PDF producer and the dates, and a box on the side shows facts such as the number of pages and whether the file has XMP metadata. Press Remove all metadata to delete everything, or change the fields you want and press Save changes. Then download the new copy.
To clean many files at once, open the Remove PDF metadata page, drop all the files and download them as a ZIP.
Try it here: PDF metadata editor
Open the full tool pageWhat PDF metadata contains
Metadata is information about the document rather than in it. Readers show it under File, Properties, and search engines and document systems use it to label files. The standard fields are:
| Field | Typical content | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Report Q3 or a file name | Typed by the author or copied from the file name |
| Author | Full name of the computer user | The account name in Word, Pages or another app |
| Subject and keywords | Short description, tags | Typed by the author, often empty |
| Created with | Microsoft Word, InDesign | The app the document was written in |
| PDF producer | The PDF library or printer driver | The software that wrote the PDF file |
| Created and modified | Date and time with time zone | Set automatically on save |
Why it can be a problem
Most of the time metadata is harmless, but it can reveal more than you planned. A CV made from a template may still show the name of the person who made the template. A contract sent to a client may carry a colleague's name as author or an old project title. The creation date can show that an offer was prepared weeks earlier, and the software fields reveal exactly which programs and versions you use.
Journalists, lawyers and anyone sharing documents anonymously should always remove metadata. For everyone else, a quick look before sending an important file is enough. It takes less time than writing the email that goes with it.
Two copies: Info and XMP
PDFs can store metadata twice. The older information dictionary holds the fields in the table above. Newer files also contain an XMP block, a small piece of XML that can hold the same fields and much more, such as editing history, document IDs and the names of embedded files. Some programs read Info first, others XMP. If you change only one of them, the old title can keep appearing.
When you save changes, the tool writes your values to the information dictionary and replaces the XMP block with a new one that contains the same values. If the file is marked as PDF/A, an archive format that requires XMP, that mark is copied to the new block so the file stays recognisable as PDF/A. Remove all metadata deletes the information dictionary, every XMP block in the file including those attached to pages and images, and private data that design apps store.
Making sure it is really gone
Many tools remove metadata by unlinking it. The entry disappears from the properties window, but the old bytes stay in the file, either as unused objects or in an earlier revision that the PDF format keeps when a file is edited and saved incrementally. A simple text search in the file can still find the author name.
This tool writes a completely new file. Old revisions are not carried over and every object that the document no longer uses is left out, so removed values cannot be found in the bytes. To check, open the downloaded copy in a reader and look at the document properties, or search the file for the old author name with any text search tool.
What metadata removal does not cover
- Text on the pages: a name in a header or footer is content, not metadata. Use Redact PDF to remove it.
- Metadata inside embedded photos: images placed in the PDF can carry their own EXIF data. Extract and clean them with the EXIF remover if that matters.
- Comments and form fields: these stay. Flatten or delete them in the PDF editor if needed.
- File system data: the file name and the dates your computer shows belong to your device, not to the PDF.
- Password protection: protected PDFs must be unlocked with the known password first.