Sanitize a PDF Free Online
Sanitize PDF is a free, in-browser tool that strips the active content and hidden data out of a PDF without uploading your file. A PDF is a container, not just a picture of a page: it can carry JavaScript, actions that fire the moment the document opens, whole files embedded inside it, and layers of metadata describing who made it and how. This tool removes those structures and then shows you a line-by-line report of exactly what it found and stripped — so you are not asked to take the result on faith.
How to Sanitize a PDF
Upload PDF
Drag & drop or click to select your PDF file.
Pick a Preset
Safe, Strict, or Custom item-by-item control.
Sanitize
The document is rebuilt without the selected structures.
Review & Download
Read the removal report, then save the clean PDF.
Why Use TryDocsy to Sanitize PDFs?
No Upload Required
A file you don't trust is never sent to anyone's server — it is cleaned on your device.
Scripts & Auto-Actions
Removes document JavaScript plus /OpenAction and /AA open, close and print triggers.
Embedded Files
Strips attachments carried inside the PDF container.
Verified Removal Report
Every row is checked against a scan of your original, so nothing is reported that was never there.
Honest About Limits
We say plainly what this cannot detect instead of implying it is antivirus.
Free & No Signup
No account, no watermark, no file-size games.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The scan and the clean both run inside your browser, in JavaScript, on your own machine. Your file never leaves your device — a document you don't trust is never sent anywhere, and neither is a confidential one. There is no server-side processing step to opt out of.
What exactly gets removed?
Safe clean removes document JavaScript, /OpenAction and /AA auto-run triggers (the actions that fire when a PDF is opened, closed or printed) and embedded file attachments. Strict clean adds annotations, interactive form fields, image EXIF data, font metadata, document IDs, XMP streams and leftover revision data. You can also pick items individually.
Is this an antivirus?
No. Say it plainly: this tool is not antivirus and does not scan for malware signatures. It removes the PDF structures that malicious files commonly abuse. A payload obfuscated inside a page's content stream, an image, or a font program will not be detected. For a file you genuinely distrust, run a real antivirus scanner and open it in a sandboxed viewer as well.
Will the document still open normally afterwards?
Yes. The page content — its text, its layout and the images you can see — is rebuilt as-is, so the sanitized file opens and prints looking exactly like the original. Two caveats worth stating plainly. Strict clean removes annotations and interactive form fields, so comments and any answers saved in a form will be gone; because form fields are stored as annotations in PDF, removing annotations always removes the form with them. Strict also rewrites embedded JPEG bytes to drop their EXIF block and deletes font-descriptor entries such as FontFamily — the pixels and glyphs are identical, but those bytes are not byte-for-byte the originals. Use Safe clean, or the individual toggles, if you need any of that left alone.
How is this different from Remove Metadata?
Remove Metadata is privacy-framed: it targets the 20+ categories of hidden information that identify you, and it shows a risk score. Sanitize PDF is security-framed: its default preset strips only the active content that can run or fetch something — scripts, auto-launch actions and embedded files — and leaves the visible document alone. Both use the same underlying engine, so Strict clean here covers the metadata categories too.
Why does the report say nothing was removed?
Because the categories you selected genuinely weren't present in that file — which is the normal, healthy result for most PDFs. Every line of the report is checked against a scan of your untouched original, so the tool will not pad the list with removals that never happened, and it tells you plainly when there was nothing to do instead of handing you a pointless re-saved copy. Try Strict clean if you also want metadata and annotations checked.
