Deep Metadata Sanitizer
See what a PDF carries besides its pages and take it out: document properties, XMP metadata, editing-program data and leftovers of earlier edits.
About This Tool
Deep Metadata Sanitizer shows what a PDF carries besides its pages, and takes it out.
When you add a file it lists what it found: the document properties that are set (title, author, dates, and custom ones such as a company name), XMP metadata packets — the document's own and those on its images, where a photo keeps its camera, date and place — data that editing programs store on pages and graphics, annotations, and objects left in the file by earlier edits that nothing in the document uses any more.
You choose what to remove. The file is then rebuilt without those things, so they are not in it at all, and the page lists what was removed. The pages themselves are not changed, and the structure that screen readers rely on is kept. Everything happens in your browser.
How to Use
Add the PDF
Upload one PDF. The page lists what the file holds that can be removed.
Choose what to remove
Properties and metadata, and editing-program data, are ticked to begin with. Tick comments, links and form boxes only if you want those gone too.
Clean and download
Press the button, read the list of what was removed, and download the cleaned file.
Use Cases
Before sending a contract
Take your name, your company and the program you used out of a file before it goes to the other side.
Publishing without a trail
Remove the camera, date and place that photos carry inside a PDF before you publish it.
Leftovers of earlier edits
Drop what earlier edits left in the file: pages and images that were replaced but never taken out.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from Remove Metadata?
Remove Metadata deletes the properties you tick. This tool also removes the metadata on images, custom properties, editing-program data and leftover objects, and it tells you what it found before and what it removed after.
Does it change how the document looks?
No. Pages, text and pictures are untouched. If you choose to remove annotations, comments, links and form boxes disappear, and forms can no longer be filled in.
What does it not remove?
Anything that is part of a page: text, pictures, and content on hidden layers stay. It does not remove watermarks, and it cannot open a password-protected PDF, which has to be unlocked first.