When checking the document properties for a PDF in Adobe Acrobat, you may see following:

not allowed

Or when you were trying to organize pages, you were informed that the page extraction is not allowed in the source PDF documents.

Why did this happen, and how to fix this issue? Here you will find the reasons and 3 solutions for troubleshooting.

Why Page Extraction Is Not Allowed in Source PDF Documents?

Because the PDF file is protected with a permission password. A permission password, also known as owner password, is used to decide what users can do to the PDF file, for example:

  • Print
  • Insert, delete or rotate pages
  • Fill and sign a PDF form
  • Comment
  • Copy text, images or other content
  • Text access for screen reader devices for the visually impaired
  • Combine files
  • Extract pages
  • Create template page
    …

The more advanced the PDF editor is, the more specific the permission restrictions can be. And doubtlessly, Adobe Acrobat is the best and it supports all above restrictions Therefore, it is much possibly that this document is created and protected in Adobe Acrobat.

How to Solve “Page Extraction Is Not Allowed in Source PDF Documents” on Mac or Windows?

There are 3 solutions to fix the issue: easily remove the security in Adobe Acrobat if you have installed the app, or use another PDF editor that doesn’t support Adobe security settings, or extract the pages using a web PDF tool.

1# Remove Page Extraction Security in Adobe Acrobat

If the source PDF document is protected in Adobe, then you can remove the security to get rid of the restriction easily.

For users who have installed Adobe Acrobat, it is a obvious solution. While for users who have’s tried Acrobat, it is a good time to consider this program, especially when you need to work with PDFs very often. Though there are more and more free or affordable PDF editing programs, Adobe Acrobat is still the winner by offering the most tools to edit, create, convert, fill, sign, protect, review, compare, measure and print a PDF document, in the formatting, appearance you want.

  1. (Optional) Grab the free trial from Adobe Acrobat official website and install if you haven’t installed it yet.
  2. Open the file in Adobe Acrobat, it will show the file is secured as in the picture.remove pdf security 1
  3. Head to Protect a PDF > Remove security.remove pdf security 2
  4. Enter the permission password to remove the security.remove pdf security 3
  5. Confirm with OK.remove pdf security 4
  6. Then save the file. The page extraction will be allowed in your file.

2# Extract Not Allowed Pages in Free PDF Editor PDFgear

As Adobe has informed: not all third party apps will fully support and respect Adobe security settings, recipients using them might be able to bypass some of the restrictions you have set using Adobe products.

And PDFgear, the free PDF editing program is such a 3rd party app that can bypass the restrictions. As we tested, it can extract pages from a secured PDF without entering any password. But if there is an open (user) password, you have to enter the correct password to access your file first.

Actually, PDFgear has gained considerable fame these 2 years, because it is the first 100% free PDF editor that allows users to editing the texts in a PDF. Though it cannot match font, formatting in the editing, it is simple to use, free, and gives rich features (edit, convert, protect, organize pages, fill and sign).

  1. Open the secured PDF in PDFgear by drag and drop to the working area.extract pages free 1
  2. Head to Pages.
  3. Select all the pages that you want to extract by clicking on the page thumbnails. Then click Extract.extract pages free 2
  4. Rename the file and click Save.extract pages free 3

3# Fix Not-allowed PDF Page Extraction Online Free

If you want a solution that requires no software installation, and can be fixed free without paying for tools like Adobe Acrobat, there is another way to bypass the page extraction restriction: using online free PDF tools that support extracting pages from a PDF, even the file is encrypted.

As in my other posts for PDF solutions, still, I will give my vote to Sejda.com. It is a free PDF editor that helps users edit texts, images, hyperlinks and others in a PDF, just in a web browser. And it has many other tools, such as compressor, creator, converter, splitter, combiner, protector, unlocker, form filler. And all the tools are not in the same kit, they are separate pages navigating users to perform a specific task efficiently.

The page extractor is super useful, you can easily extract odd pages, even pages, specific pages with clicks, also you can discard the bookmarks for the original pages. However, like any other online free services, the free account has limits: free service for documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB and 3 tasks per hour.

  1. Navigate to https://www.sejda.com/extract-pdf-pages in your web browser.
  2. Upload the secured PDF.extract pages online 1
  3. Then select the pages you want to extract.extract pages online 2
  4. Or Discard bookmarks from More options if you need.extract pages online 3
  5. Click Extract pages.
  6. Download the file to your drive or storage device.

Other Words

And there is another solution for the issue, using a PDF Password Remover that is online or standalone to remove page extraction restriction. This kind of app is designed to remove both open and permission password restrictions from a PDF, when you don’t know the permission password for the source PDF document, or you need to decrypt a PDF that you’ve forgotten the open password. No matter whichever case you are in, you are allowing to remove the restrictions only when you have the legal rights to do so to your PDFs.