Lock PDF’s by adding a Password

Lock PDF’s by adding a Password through the Files app on the iPhone

Did you know you could lock a PDF on the iPhone? When you lock it, the only way you can open it is by adding a password. This is all done through the Files app on the iPhone. Learn how to lock a PDF by adding a password in this video for the iPhone.

Video TranscriptIn this video, we’re going to look at how we can lock a PDF on the iPhone. We can lock a PDF through the Files app by adding a password. The only way that you’re going to be able to open up that PDF is by typing in the password. Let’s see how we do this. Let’s go to my iPhone.

Now the way that we do this is through the Files app. So we first have to make sure that we place that PDF that we want to place a lock on. We need to place that in the Files app. I have a PDF in the Files app, so let’s go ahead and tap on Files, and I’m looking at all of my Recent Files.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the Files app, the Files app is basically just a directory. If I go down to browse here, you’re going to see I have a number of different locations for my folders. This particular PDF that I want to lock is located in iCloud Drive. So I tap on iCloud Drive and I have all of these different folders. I have a folder called PDFs, and that’s where that PDF is. So the first thing we need to do is make sure that that document, that PDF, is in your Files app, which is basically just a directory.

So I’m going to tap on PDFs here. We have this Hot Cocoa Mix. This is a super secret hot cocoa mix. So I want to make sure that no one else can open it without knowing what the passcode is. Well the first thing we need to do is we need to open it up. So I’m going to tap on this. It is now open. It’s open in the Files app.

Now being that it is open in the Files app, if you go down to the bottom where we have our share, you’re going to see an option for locking it. All I have to do is just tap on this and then I enter in the password. So let’s just go with hot cocoa. You cannot see the keyboard because I’m entering in a password. So I’m doing this through AirPlay and it’s hiding the keyboard. So you can’t see what the password is, but basically what I’m doing is I’m typing in hot cocoa. So now I just tap on Done and have applied a passcode to that document. So now let’s close this. I tap on Done to close it.

First thing your going to notices is this PDF now has a lock on it. This tells us that this PDF is locked. I want to open it. Watch what happens when I open it. I need to enter in what the password is. So now I type in here hot cocoa. Again, you cannot see the keyboard because it is hidden being that I’m doing this through AirPlay, I’ve typed in the password and we can see that PDF.

Now, what about unlocking it? Well, unfortunately you cannot unlock it on the iPhone. The way that you would do it as share to your Mac and then open it up in the Preview app on the Mac and export it out. When you export it out, you can export it without a pass code. So that’s basically how you unlock it. You have to do it through the Mac.

So that’s how you add a passcode to a PDF on the iPhone, as well as how you can remove it on the password. You open up the PDF in the Files app, go down to the share icon, and then you’re going to see the option to add a passcode, just type in a passcode. And that passcode will be applied to that PDF any time in one wants to open up that PDF, they’re going to have to type in the passcode to remove a pass code. You transfer that document over to your Mac, and then you open it up in the Preview app and export it out, export it out without a password.

So that’s how you lock a PDF by adding a password on the iPhone.