QuickMergeRemove Metadata From a PDF — View and Edit It Too
Short answer: To inspect or remove hidden PDF metadata, open the document, review fields such as title and author, then export a cleaned copy. QuickMerge handles this in your browser without uploading the PDF.
See the hidden information inside any PDF — who made it, when, and with what software — then edit it or scrub it completely. Locally, in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
How do I see and remove the hidden metadata in a PDF?
Drag & drop a PDF file
or click to browse (one PDF at a time)
The Hidden Information Inside Every PDF
Every PDF carries a passport you can't see on the page: the document's metadata. It typically records who created the file (often the real name attached to your Windows or macOS account, or your company's registered Office license), exactly when it was created and last modified, and which software produced it. Many PDFs carry a second, richer layer called an XMP metadata stream that can duplicate and extend all of that. None of it is visible when you read the document — all of it travels with the file when you send it.
That's rarely what people intend. The freelancer quoting two competing clients doesn't mean to reveal that both quotes came from the same template file created months ago. The HR manager sending a rejection letter doesn't mean to include their full name. The whistleblower or the anonymous complainant certainly doesn't mean to sign their document invisibly. This tool shows you exactly what your PDF is carrying, lets you correct fields you want to keep (a proper title and author improve search and accessibility), and can scrub everything in one click.
And because metadata is precisely the kind of sensitive detail you wouldn't want on a stranger's server, this tool — like everything on this site — runs entirely on your device. The file is parsed locally by the open-source pdf-lib library; nothing is uploaded. Verify it yourself.
How to View, Edit, or Remove PDF Metadata
- Add your PDF. Drop it in the area above. The document's information fields appear instantly — read straight from the file, on your device.
- Review what it reveals. Pay particular attention to Author (usually a person's real name), Creator and Producer (which can reveal your software and sometimes your employer), and the timestamps. The note beneath the fields tells you whether the file also contains an XMP metadata stream.
- Edit, if you want to keep metadata. Change any field and click Download with Edited Metadata — useful for setting a clean, professional title and author before publishing a document.
- Or scrub everything. Click Scrub All Metadata & Download to clear every information field, reset both timestamps, and strip the XMP metadata stream entirely. The result is a copy of your document with the passport removed; your original file is untouched.
When to Scrub PDF Metadata
- Sending documents outside your organization: proposals, quotes, and reports often reveal author names, internal template origins, and revision timing.
- Publishing documents publicly: anything posted on a website will have its metadata read by search engines and anyone curious enough to check.
- Anonymous submissions: complaints, tips, reviews, and competition entries are only as anonymous as their metadata.
- Job applications: a resume "last modified" five minutes before the deadline, or authored by someone with a different name, tells its own story.
- Legal and procurement contexts: timestamps and authorship details can contradict a document's stated history.
What Scrubbing Does — and Doesn't — Remove
Scrubbing clears the document information dictionary (title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer) and resets its timestamps, and it removes the document-level XMP metadata stream. That covers where the overwhelming majority of identifying metadata lives. Be aware of the honest limits: it does not alter the visible content of your pages (a signature block or letterhead stays right where it is), it does not remove annotation authors on comments and markup, and it does not reach metadata embedded inside images placed in the document. For removing visible sensitive content, you need redaction, not metadata scrubbing.
How It Works in Your Browser
When you add a file, it is read into your tab's memory and parsed by pdf-lib, which exposes the PDF's information dictionary directly — the same fields a desktop PDF editor would show under "Document Properties." The tool deliberately loads the file with metadata-updating disabled, so simply opening a document here changes nothing. When you download, a new copy is written in memory with your chosen fields (or none), and handed to your browser as a download. No server ever sees the file, its metadata, or even its name.
Next steps
Related tools
- remove sensitive text from the pages — metadata is only part of what a document reveals.
- strip EXIF from photos — the equivalent operation for images.
What to do with the result
- encrypt the cleaned file — before sharing it externally.
Browse all PDF tools, or see every QuickMerge tool.
No completed size benchmark is published for this tool. See measurement coverage and limitations; stated upload limits are application guards, not tested device capacity.
Try a reproducible check
These downloadable fixtures are synthetic QuickMerge examples, with no customer data. They are small functional checks, not speed or size-limit benchmarks.
Document checks (PDF). Open the tool.
The source author is “QuickMerge synthetic fixture” and the title is “QuickMerge document checks”. Remove the metadata, download the copy and load that copy again to inspect the fields. Also check attachments and visible content separately; clearing the author is not complete document sanitization.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The file is read and parsed entirely in your browser's memory, and the edited or scrubbed copy is generated there too. Metadata inspection is exactly the kind of sensitive operation that shouldn't involve anyone else's server — which is why this tool, like every tool on this site, is built so that it can't. See our Proof of Privacy page for how to verify it.
Clearing supported information fields and the XMP stream is intended to keep the visible pages. Rewriting can change bytes and invalidate certificate-backed signatures. Inspect the downloaded copy, and check annotations, attachments and visible personal details separately; those are not all removed by metadata scrubbing.
It removes the document-level metadata, which is where PDFs identify their authors — but anonymity also depends on what's visibly in the document (names, letterheads, signatures), on annotation authors if the file contains comments, and on how you transmit the file. Treat metadata scrubbing as a necessary step, not the only one.
Good metadata is genuinely useful when a document is meant to be public and attributable: a proper title shows up in browser tabs and search results, and a correct author field helps accessibility tools and document management systems. Edit when you're publishing on purpose; scrub when the document should speak for itself.
No — an encrypted file's metadata can't be reliably read or rewritten without the password. Remove the protection in your PDF reader first, scrub the copy here, and re-protect it afterwards if needed.
Load the file, review what it holds, and scrub the fields — author, title, subject, keywords, creator, producer and the timestamps — then download the cleaned copy. The pages themselves are untouched.
The fields a PDF carries, and which of them cause problems
Inspect the properties stored in this particular file. Metadata may be absent, inherited from a template or changed by an export.
Author and creator are filled in from your software
Author, creator and producer fields may be written by the authoring software or inherited from a template. Their contents are not verified identities. Inspect and deliberately clear or replace supported values before sharing.
Dates are file properties, not proof
Creation and modification fields may reflect a template or export operation. They can be missing or incorrect and do not prove when the visible content was written. Check the exact fields retained in the saved copy.
The title field is what other systems display
Many readers and document management systems show the title field rather than the filename. If it was never set, it often holds whatever the original template was called — which is how a proposal ends up displaying another company's name in a browser tab. Editing it is quick and worth doing on anything client-facing.
Removing it is separate from redacting the content
Metadata sits outside page content. This site's raster redaction rebuilds a new PDF and does not copy the original document properties, but the new file may have producer or creation fields of its own. Compression and splitting behave differently and may carry properties forward. Inspect the finished file explicitly; for images, EXIF is the equivalent.