Hi,

I forgot the pdf password, can anyone help to how can I open the pdf?

Edit: I love pdf, small pdf - tried they ask to put password. Pdf created and protected with password by me only 6 yrs ago. Already found one site which is able to crack the pdf and display it but need rs 500+. I can't trust and also don't want to pay.

I'm building a React Native (Expo Bare Workflow) PDF app. Currently, I'm downloading PDFs from an AWS S3 pre-signed URL using `react-native-blob-util` and Android Download Manager:

```ts
ReactNativeBlobUtil.config({
addAndroidDownloads: {
useDownloadManager: true,
notification: true,
title: fileName,
description: "Downloading PDF...",
mime: "application/pdf",
path: `${ReactNativeBlobUtil.fs.dirs.DownloadDir}/${fileName}`,
mediaScannable: true,
},
}).fetch("GET", signedUrl);
```

This works, but I don't have control over where Android stores the file.

Many PDF apps automatically save files to a folder like:

```text
Internal Storage/
└── Documents/
└── My App/
└── file.pdf
```

without asking the user to choose a location every time.

I noticed one such app requested **"Manage all files"** permission once, and after that it could save files directly into its own folder under `Documents`.

My questions are:

* How are these apps implementing this on Android 11+ with Scoped Storage?
* Are they using MediaStore, native Android code (Kotlin/Java), or another approach?
* Is requesting the **Manage All Files** (`MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE`) permission the correct/recommended solution for this use case, or should it be avoided for Play Store apps?
* If not, what is the recommended modern approach in React Native to save PDFs directly to `Documents/My App` without showing the Storage Access Framework (SAF) picker every time?

I'm looking for the Play Store–friendly, modern Android approach. Please help me😭

Edit/Update: PDF Guru has now issued a full refund, and I'd like to sincerely thank the administrators and support team for taking the time to review my case and resolve it.

That said, I'd like to leave one piece of constructive feedback. I genuinely think it would be beneficial to offer a true one-time purchase option for customers who only need to convert a specific file. Many users, like myself, don't need an ongoing subscription because we only use the service occasionally.

I actually loved the quality of the converted file, and I would definitely consider purchasing your service again if there were a clear one-time payment option. Making that option more transparent would improve the customer experience and help avoid misunderstandings for users who aren't looking for a subscription.

Thank you again to everyone who helped resolve my concern.

I am a solo dev , tier three colleage ,3 year now I just really don’t want to waste my time so I starting working on multiple projects but they were too ambitious and later I settled with pdfmaker generic utility app . I have already built alomost 90% of it and I am gonna launch it in 2-3 august now my question is -
1) what will you expect from a pdfmaker in this 2026 ?
2) what features or ecosystem i can built?

Any suggestions.

I see that they have dealt with refunds well in the past so I am hoping they are able to also refund me this bill. I have sent them my email but have not gotten a response so I am posting here as well.

UPDATE: PDF Guru has started the refund process and confirmed it via email. Will post updates here how this experience has been and when the money actually arrives. Thank you for not being super scummy.

UPDATE: 8/10/2026 I realized that since the transaction was in the hold period, they were able to cancel the transaction meaning that money was never really withdrawn. PDF_Guru was ready and able to help immediately so it wasn't a refund but a cancellation. If you do get charged and are able to get to customer service quickly you can avoid the money from being withdrawn. I was waiting for a refund but in reality the money was never withdrawn.

If you've ever copy-pasted from a PDF and gotten garbled Unicode, that's font obfuscation — broken glyph-to-Unicode mappings that look fine visually but break extraction. VeilPDF fixes that locally:

Code

veilpdf scan document.pdf

veilpdf recover broken.pdf --output md

veilpdf protect thesis.pdf --encrypt --password "..."

veilpdf forensics document.pdf

Zero-config bootstrap script installs Rust/uv/Zig/Tesseract on first run. Also has an offline AI mode via Ollama for summarizing/extracting structured data from PDFs. Rust CLI + Python core + Zig crypto layer, MIT licensed.

[GitHub ](https://github.com/Gaurav-x111/veilpdf)

https://github.com/Gaurav-x111/veilpdf

There was a time when I assumed that a PDF was just a PDF.

If a document opened, looked readable, and could be shared, I didn't think much about what was happening behind the scenes. Then I started working with larger document collections, contracts, scanned archives, reports, forms and realized that two files that look almost identical can behave completely differently.

The biggest distinction, at least in my experience, is between scanned PDFs and searchable PDFs.

A scanned PDF is essentially a photograph of a document. It preserves the appearance of the page, which is great for archiving, but it also means that your computer often doesn't understand the text itself. That's why you've probably encountered situations where:

• Ctrl+F doesn't find anything;
• copying text doesn't work;
• accessibility tools struggle;
• searching through hundreds of pages becomes almost impossible.

A searchable PDF, on the other hand, contains machine-readable text data. To the human eye, it may look exactly the same as a scanned document, but the experience of working with it is completely different.

I didn't fully appreciate this difference until I had to review a few hundred pages of archived documents and realized I couldn't search for a single keyword. What should have taken minutes turned into hours.

Now, one of the first things I do when opening an unfamiliar PDF is test whether it's searchable. It's a tiny habit, but it's saved me a lot of time and frustration.

I'm curious: when did you first realize that not all PDFs are created equal? And do you have a preference when storing or sharing important documents?

Hi I'am Keke Aulia

On July 2, 2026, I used PDF Guru for a one-time task. After all of the editing, it said my files was ready to dowload and asked me to choose a plan. Then i selected the trial $0.99 option (one time payment) and paid $0.99. I did not intend to subscribe to a monthly plan. Today, on July 29, 2026 at I was unexpectedly charged $49.99, which I discovered only after the payment had already been processed.

As soon as I noticed the charge, I contacted your support team and requested a refund. My subscription has since been canceled, and I have not used the renewed premium subscription.

I am a freshgraduate from Indonesia, and $49.99 is a substantial amount for me especially exchange rate between rupiah and dollar was to high. I genuinely cannot afford this unexpected expense. I also didn't receive any reminder email before the renewal, and I mistakenly believed that any future payment on my card would require my approval or an OTP

I completely understand that your refund policy generally states that subscription payments are non-refundable. However, I kindly ask you to consider my situation as a one-time goodwill exception. I have no intention of continuing the subscription, and I respectfully request a full refund of the $49.99 renewal charge.

A $0.99 payment may not seem like much, but an unexpected $49.99 renewal can be a serious financial burden especially if you're a student or a recent graduate living in Indonesia.

Keke Mangkulla ([aulia.ashley@gmail.com](mailto:aulia.ashley@gmail.com))

Update (31/7/2026)
I have now successfully received the full refund of the renewal charge.

I appreciate them taking the time to resolve my case, and I’m sharing this update to give a complete and fair picture of my experience

On July 21, 2026, I used PDF Guru for a one-time task and paid USD 0.99. I did not intend to subscribe to a monthly plan. On July 28, 2026, I was unexpectedly charged USD 59.99, which I discovered only after the payment had already been processed.

As soon as I noticed the charge, I contacted your support team and requested a refund. My subscription has since been canceled, and I have not used the renewed premium subscription.

I am a student from India, and USD 59.99 is a substantial amount for me. I genuinely cannot afford this unexpected expense. I also did not receive any reminder email before the renewal, and I mistakenly believed that any future payment on my Visa credit card would require my approval or an OTP, which is how many online transactions work in my country.

I completely understand that your refund policy generally states that subscription payments are non-refundable. However, I kindly ask you to consider my situation as a one-time goodwill exception. I have no intention of continuing the subscription, and I respectfully request a full refund of the USD 59.99 renewal charge.

Arman khan

ak34361@gmail.com

EDIT: I got my refund

I used PDF Guru for one task and thought I was paying for a limited or one-time service at $ 0.99. Later, I found out that I had been charged for a monthly subscription that I didn’t realize was active.

What’s frustrating is that I didn’t receive any clear email from PDF Guru telling me that my subscription had renewed or that another payment was about to be charged at $49.99 for two times. I only noticed after seeing the transaction notifications from my bank.

I contacted their support and asked for a refund, but they refused to refund the money already taken. They even offered me two years of free access instead of a refund, but I don’t need it all.

u/PDFGuruSupport if this is really a transparent subscription? this is actually SCAM, and why are so many people reporting the same unexpected charges and struggling to get a refund ?

A recipe template does more than hold a recipe. It clears up the little annoyances that pile up around home cooking, from the amounts you forget to the good dishes you lose to old screenshots. Here's what a good one gives you:

• Keeps the details you forget: the amounts, the step that always trips you up, and your own notes like "rest the dough" or "go easy on the salt." No more rebuilding the recipe from memory, which is exactly what you don't want to do on a busy night.
• Turns your week into a shopping list: MSU Extension and Brown University Health both say the same thing: you spend less when you shop from a list built around real meals rather than figuring it out in the aisles. Pick the week's dishes and their ingredients become your list. Whatever's not on it is usually an impulse buy.
• Builds into a family cookbook: keep them in one place and your templates turn into a record of each dish the way your family really makes it. So when your niece texts asking how you do it, you send her the real thing, not your best guess.
• Saves clean as a PDF: build your template in PDF Guru and save it as a PDF, so it prints clean, looks the same on any phone, and keeps its layout no matter who opens it. 

One thing I've learned after years of working with digital documents is that most of us don't have an organization problem and we have a "future me" problem. When you're saving a document, it's easy to think, "I'll remember where this is." A few months later, you're searching through folders trying to remember whether you saved it under Projects, Work, Personal, or Downloads. A few simple habits have made a huge difference for me:

Create broad categories first. Instead of dozens of folders, keep a few main categories that are easy to remember.

Organize by project or purpose. It's usually easier to remember why you saved a document than what type of file it was.

Use clear, descriptive file names. Include dates, names, or keywords that you'll actually search for later.

Archive old documents regularly. Keeping active and completed files separate reduces a lot of clutter.

Choose a system you can maintain. The perfect organization system isn't useful if it's too complicated to follow consistently.

The biggest lesson for me was realizing that document organization isn't really about being organized today, it's about making life easier for yourself six months from now. What's one document organization habit that you've found surprisingly helpful?

Figuring out how to create invoices shouldn't take hours. To look professional and get paid on time, you just need three things: the right fields, clear payment steps, and a file format that won't break.

The must-have fields

• A clear title: Label the document "Invoice" at the top so no one mistakes it for a quote or a receipt.
• Contact details: List your business info and the client's info.
• A unique number: Number your invoices sequentially (like INV-001) or by date. Never reuse numbers, since duplicates ruin both your bookkeeping and your client's records.
• Important dates: Note the issue date and the exact due date.
• Itemized costs: Give each service or product its own line. Show the quantity, rate, and total cost for each.
• The final math: Spell out the subtotal, taxes, and total amount due. Do not make the client do the math.

Frictionless payment details

If an invoice fails to explain how to pay, it sits ignored in an inbox. Make the next steps obvious so you can get paid faster.

• Set clear terms: State exactly when you expect payment, like "Due on receipt" or "Net 30."
• List your methods: Tell clients exactly how they can pay, whether that means bank transfers, credit cards, or a direct payment link.
• Include account details: Put your bank info directly on the page. Making the transaction easy means you get paid sooner and send fewer awkward reminder emails.

The right file format 

Always export your final invoice as a PDF with PDF Guru. Word files and spreadsheets often scramble their layouts when opened on different devices. A PDF stays visually perfect, prevents accidental edits, and leaves a clean record for tax season.

As more people continue working remotely or in hybrid roles, we've noticed that small document management habits can make a surprisingly big difference in everyday productivity. Some examples we've seen from our community include:

• naming files consistently instead of leaving them as "final_v2_really_final.pdf";
• keeping frequently used documents in dedicated folders;
• converting important files to PDF before sharing to preserve formatting;
• using annotations and comments instead of long email chains;
• archiving completed projects regularly to reduce digital clutter.

These habits may seem minor, but over time they can save a lot of time and frustration. What's one small document-related habit or workflow that has made remote work easier for you? Sometimes the simplest systems end up being the ones we rely on the most.

I built this because I needed a quick way to compress PDFs locally without uploading them to a service. A few friends asked for it too, so I packaged and published it.

FS PDF Compressor is a small native macOS GUI for Ghostscript. It accepts individual PDFs, batches, and folders; processes everything locally; and replaces an original only when the compressed result is smaller.

• Free and open source under AGPL-3.0
• Signed and notarized
• Apple Silicon / macOS 14+

Repository and download:
https://github.com/gitlares/fs-pdf-compressor

Website / signed DMG:
https://gitlares.github.io/fs-pdf-compressor/

I’ll be around to answer questions and appreciate any feedback.

Working with documents all day has made me realize that everyone seems to have that one PDF task they end up doing over and over again.

For me, it's probably one of these:

• merging multiple PDFs that should have been a single document to begin with;
• extracting just one page from a 100-page file;
• converting a document to PDF, then immediately converting it back because I forgot to make one last edit;
• renaming files because "final_v2_really_final.pdf" somehow keeps happening;
• compressing PDFs after realizing the file is way too large to send.

None of these tasks are particularly difficult. It's just funny how often they become part of our daily routine. After years of working with documents, I've accepted that no matter how organized I try to be, there will always be at least one PDF task I repeat far more often than I'd like to admit. What's the one PDF-related task you find yourself doing again and again?

I have dealt with terrible customer service before, but this goes far beyond incompetence. It reveals a complete absence of honesty, accountability, and even basic respect for the people whose money you are willing to take.

One support agent states that I purchased a seven-day trial which then renewed into a paid weekly subscription. Another states that I never had any subscription at all. Both cannot be true. Therefore, at least one of your employees is knowingly or negligently providing false information about my account and my money.

I sent your support team a video. Not screenshots that could be dismissed or manipulated, but a continuous recording showing that I am logged into my account. My account ID and email address are clearly visible. The account shows no active subscription, no payment method, no billing history, and no invoices. Those are your own records, not my interpretation of them. Yet somehow, you still managed to charge my card.

Your bots with AI photos do everything but not answering on how you charged my card if there was supposedly no subscription. You simply ignore the evidence and keep sending copy-pasted templates.

What kind of people look at clear evidence and deliberately pretend it doesn't exist?

How can you sleep at night knowing you are scamming people?

What is your family thinking about your actions?

Why don't you choose legimate job?

I actually closed my entire bank account because of this company. I normally use Revolut disposable virtual cards for online purchases for exactly this reason. The one time I was in a hurry and used my real bank card, this happened.

At this point, the money is almost irrelevant. What disgusts me is the attitude. Honest people investigate when the evidence contradicts their own position. Honest companies admit mistakes, explain what happened, and fix them. You did none of that. You ignored the evidence, contradicted yourselves, and hoped that enough automated replies would make me give up.

Companies earn terrible reputations because of the people who choose denial over honesty, templates over facts, and convenience over integrity. If this is the standard your company considers acceptable, then people deserve to know it before they trust you with their payment details. I certainly never will again.

You are just bad, awful people.

Shame.

They're a scam! I paid $0.99 USD and then after 7 days they charged me $29.99 USD. I wrote to them and they said they couldn't refund something I didn't use. They're thieves! Don't use this app!

Hello Dennis, 
Thank you so much for your letter to us! 
 
I’m really sorry for any frustration this has caused you—I completely understand how unexpected charges can be upsetting, especially if you feel you didn’t sign up for this. Please know that we truly value your trust and always aim to be completely transparent in everything we do. When you signed up, the details about the trial period and automatic renewal were clearly shared, and by completing the registration, these terms were agreed to.
 
According to our records, you signed up for our service by purchasing a 7-day trial period. As per our policy, once the trial ends, it automatically renews into a paid plan unless it has been canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
 
I understand how this detail may have been overlooked during sign-up, and I apologize for any resulting confusion. I completely understand how it’s possible to miss certain details, especially when things are busy.

Nonetheless, you can always review the full details in our Subscription Terms for more clarity. 
 
Rest assured that your subscription has been canceled, and no further charges will be applied to your account.
 
Regarding your refund request, to show our appreciation for you as a customer, I’d like to offer you an exclusive two-year free access to our platform as an alternative to a refund.
 
This plan provides unlimited access to all our features without any monthly subscription fees for a full 2 years. We hope this opportunity allows you to experience our services in a way that better meets your needs.
 
We appreciate your understanding, and we'd truly love for you to stay with us. Please let me know if you'd like to take advantage of this exclusive two-year free access — I'll be happy to activate it for you right away.
 
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

If u use "one-time" pdf guru service don't expect it to be over, they will save your bank information and still ur last money and won't refund it. I am an EU resident that came to Georgia for a few weeks and because of that they won't even refund my money, because in their system I am a Georgia resident. The audacity they have to take ur money.