macOS – Remove metadata from PDF files

macOS – Remove metadata from PDF files.md

macOS - Remove metadata from PDF files

Inspired from: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3cbbor/tip_remove_author_data_from_pdf/

• Launch Automator.app

• In the menubar click File > New > Select Workflow then click Choose

• In the left pane search for the item Get Selected Finder Items It should be located in Library > Files & Folders > Get Selected Finder Items

• Click and drag the item Get Selected Finder Items into the right pane

• In the left pane search for the item Set PDF Metadata It should be located in Library > PDF > Set PDF Metadata

• Click and drag the item Set PDF Metadata into the right pane, just below the box Get Selected Finder Items

• In the right pane check all of the boxes (Title, Author, Subject...) in the box Set PDF Metadata

• In the menubar click File > Save...

  • For the field Save As, name your app as you want for example RemovePDFmetadata

  • For the field Where, make sure to select the folder Applications

  • For the field File Format, make sure to select Application

• In your Finder open the folder Applications

• Drag and drop the application you just created onto your Dock or onto the Finder's toolbar (while pressing the key ⌘ command)

• You can now drag and drop any PDF (one or more at the same time) on the icon of your application to remove its metadata

  The first time you do this, you may get a small window telling you that your application wants access to control "Finder.app", this is perfectly fine and you can click OK

thanks for sharing, this was really helpful!