PDF properties are not the same as the page
You can redact a name on page 1 and still ship Author: Jane Doe in the Info dictionary. Clients, counsel, and applicant-tracking systems often display those fields. A PDF metadata remover has to rewrite Info and, where possible, leftover incremental-update objects — not just tell you the title looks clean.
Hidden revisions
Some PDFs grow by appending changes. Deleted paragraphs can still sit in older objects. ScrubFiles rebuilds the document so those leftovers are not an easy recovery. This is not a forensic guarantee against every PDF trick, but it is the difference between “I cleared the title” and “I actually saved a new file.”
Word, Excel, and encrypted files
Upload .docx or .xlsx and we will refuse them. Export to PDF first, then drop that PDF. Password-protected PDFs cannot be rewritten in the browser until you decrypt them locally. We do not attempt to break encryption.
How to remove metadata from a PDF
01
Drop the PDF
Up to 25 MB and 100 pages on the free homepage tool. Encrypted PDFs are rejected until you unlock them.
02
See Author and leftover objects
If your name is in Author or Creator, you will see it. Hidden revision leftovers are listed when we can detect them.
03
Download the rebuilt PDF
The download is a rewritten document, not a “save as” that keeps the old trailer. Send that copy.
Questions
How do I remove the author name from a PDF?
Drop the PDF on ScrubFiles, confirm Author/Creator in the report, and download the rewritten file. Export from Word to PDF first if you still have a .docx.
Does this flatten the PDF or change how it prints?
We rebuild the file to drop metadata and leftover objects. Layout should stay the same for ordinary text PDFs. Unusual forms or signed PDFs may not be a fit — keep a copy of the original.
Is PDF sanitizing enough for a confidential contract?
It removes easy metadata leaks. It does not redact visible clauses, comments drawn as annotations you meant to keep, or attachments you forgot. Read the pages.