Restrict download of pdf.

Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. How to restrict user from downloading or saving pdf file? Asked 8 years, 10 months ago. Active 6 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 19k times. Improve this question. Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge. Ashwin Ashwin 1 1 gold badge 6 6 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. You mean you don't want to restrict the user to only downloading and saving files, but you want to prevent these actions?

How do you " open it by using JavaScript "? This whole application is garbage to be honest. How long has this been around without Microsoft addressing basic issues. The movement of folders for example. It is absolute hell. Whether you do it in modern view, or in file explorer, you either cannot access parent directories, or files just vanish without the system generating a debuggable error.

Microsoft is useless when it comes to questions such as this. It's infuriating. Then apply 'Restricted View' or 'View Only' per library or per folder. Not fun but it seems to work. Already tried. I am not sure if the people that give these suggestions out in the forums above not you, the links actually test their advice. I created a custom permission level and spent 3 hours individually trying different combinations of permissions.

Again, microsoft stated this is a known issue due to the fact that PDFs and other files have no server-side file handlers. There is no way to do this and actually limit downloading.

You can limit downloading for word files all day. Thank you for your suggestions however. And I have found, if you prevent the ability to download a PDfF you can still print it, which circumvents the download restriction as you can print it to another PDF etc etc. Turning on Information Rights Management does stop the ability to print the PDF, but then you can not read it in the browser as someone else has pointed out above.

Products 72 Special Topics 41 Video Hub Most Active Hubs Microsoft Teams. Security, Compliance and Identity. Microsoft Edge Insider. Azure Databases. Revoke access regardless of where PDF documents are located:. Add dynamic watermarks to viewed and or printed pages.

Comply with legislation by controlling access and use:. Protect IPR, reduce costs, ensure compliance, gain new revenue:. Safeguard PDF Security does what it says — it provides a manageable, cost effective uncomplicated way to secure PDF documents, your investment. Optionally lock users to locations — i. For example, you may want users to view protected PDFs on their mobile devices in the office but not at home.

Adobe was the first company that enabled Publishers of PDF files to restrict PDF editing, copying and printing, but controls could and still can be easily bypassed. The original PDF restriction controls provided to restrict PDF use were designed before many of the PDF generation software we use today were in their infancy, and many did not exist at all.

And that is why the ability to restrict PDF use has become more sophisticated over time. Domestic printing systems were often a dot matrix printer remember those? The focus was not on how to restrict PDF printing but getting it to work with all the emerging printing technologies.

And laser printers were expensive in every sense for many years. But all that has changed. Today making a high quality printed copy of a PDF document is trivial, and every PC has a key on it so you can get screen copies at the touch of a button. Adobe Acrobat and similar PDF Writer applications enable you to restrict PDF access, preventing only authorized individuals opening password protected PDF documents and restrict PDF use by applying a limited number of permissions Printing, editing, copying content, extracting pages, filling in forms.

See removing PDF passwords. They are therefore completely useless and provide NO protection. When we talk about the ability to restrict PDF files, what are we actually talking about? Preventing people from accessing a PDF document when they are not authorized to do so is achieved using encryption. A user must have a key to decrypt the PDF and use it.

Commonly passwords are used to restrict PDF access but they have many weaknesses which including managability and security — see removing PDF passwords. Certificates can also be used to encrypt PDF files but they have to be managed.

See using passwords or certificates to protect PDF files. A more secure and simple way to restrict PDF access is to use a licensing control system where keys are never exposed to users so they cannot be shared. This is what Locklizard use. If you want to restrict PDF sharing you have to stop authorized users from making copies of PDF files which they can then distribute. This can be achieved by locking documents to machines or devices so that when copied to another device they will not open.

The sharing of protected PDF files is of no advantage to users if the recipients do not have the keys that are required to open them. This is the core basis of any PDF DRM system — stopping use of any functions that could be used to modify or copy content. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How to restrict download and print and allow to read the PDF files?

Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 6 months ago. Active 4 days ago. Viewed 11k times. Looking for solution for PDF type files. Improve this question. John Zachariah 1, 1 1 gold badge 11 11 silver badges 29 29 bronze badges. Ramesh Ramesh 1 1 gold badge 3 3 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges.