Sanitize troubleshooting: encrypted files, "already clean" results, broken form calculations, and info that's still visible

Solutions for the most common problems when cleaning a PDF with Sanitize. Everything Sanitize does happens locally in your browser, so every fix below can be retried as often as you like — nothing is ever uploaded.

"This PDF is password-protected, so it can't be opened to clean it."

Cause: the file is encrypted, and an encrypted PDF can't be parsed to strip its metadata. Sanitize shows this message with a Remove the password first → link.

Fix:

1. Open Unlock and drop the file there. You need the password you normally use to open it — Unlock removes a password you know; it doesn't crack one you've lost.
2. Drop the resulting -unlocked.pdf copy back into Sanitize and click Remove metadata.
3. If the cleaned file should be password-protected when you share it, add a fresh password afterwards with Protect.

Sanitize says the file is already clean

Cause: after the run you saw "This PDF had no metadata, embedded JavaScript or attachments to remove — it's already clean." That means none of the five categories (document properties, XMP metadata, JavaScript, embedded files, auto-run actions) were present — common for files that were already sanitized or generated by a minimal exporter.

Fix:

1. Usually nothing is wrong — you can still click Download clean PDF to get the re-saved copy.
2. Check your Downloads folder: if you see an earlier -clean.pdf duplicate, you may have cleaned this file before.
3. If a PDF viewer still shows a "title", note that many viewers display the file name when a PDF has no Title property. Renaming the file fixes that — metadata removal can't.
4. If the information you want gone is printed on the page itself (a name in a header, an email in a footer), that's page content, not metadata. Use Redact to remove it for real.

"Couldn't clean this PDF — it may be corrupted or in an unsupported format."

Cause: the bytes couldn't be parsed as a PDF. Typical culprits: an interrupted download, another file type renamed to .pdf, or genuine corruption.

Fix:

1. Re-download the file from its source and let the download finish completely.
2. Try opening it in another PDF viewer — if that fails too, the file itself is broken, not the tool.
3. Re-export from the original application, or open it in any viewer and use Print → Save as PDF, then clean the fresh copy. (A re-export stamps new producer metadata, so running Sanitize on it is still worthwhile.)

"That PDF is … MB. AttachKit caps drops at 100 MB"

Cause: the drop zone rejects files over 100 MB so a huge file can't freeze the browser tab while it's read and parsed locally.

Fix:

1. Shrink the file first with Compress, then clean the smaller copy.
2. Or split it with Pages and run Sanitize on each part.

A form stopped calculating or validating after cleaning

Cause: this is the cleaning working as designed. Form-field automation — auto-calculated totals, input formatting, validation messages — is implemented as embedded JavaScript attached to the fields, and stripping embedded JavaScript is one of the five things Sanitize removes (scripts can hide in field events, not just at the document level, so a thorough cleaner has to take them out). The fields themselves remain and can still be typed into; only their scripts are gone.

Fix:

1. Keep your original file for interactive use, and treat the -clean.pdf copy as the version you share.
2. Fill in and let the form compute its values before cleaning — the typed values survive; only the automation goes.
3. Or fill the cleaned copy manually in Fill and enter computed values yourself.

Personal details are still visible after cleaning

Cause: Sanitize removes hidden data — document properties, XMP, scripts, attachments, auto-run actions. It deliberately leaves the visible pages untouched, and it can't change the file's name on your disk.

Fix:

1. For names, addresses or other content printed on the page, use Redact — it removes the underlying content, not just the appearance.
2. Rename the downloaded file if the file name itself is revealing.
3. Internal links, bookmarks and normal web links are preserved on purpose; if a link target itself is sensitive, that's a content edit, not a metadata one.

Still stuck?

If none of this fixes it, contact support. Include the rough file size, where the PDF came from, and the exact message you saw. Because the file stays on your device, support can't see it — a screenshot of the error is the most useful thing you can share.