Names Left in PDF Comments and Markup: How to Remove Them and What to Watch For

Published: Oct 19, 2026 | Updated: Oct 19, 2026 | About (Japanese)

Key points

Know that comments keep a name
Choose to remove annotations
Check in the saved PDF

When you add comments, sticky notes or highlights to a PDF, your name and the date and time can be recorded with them.

What counts as markup

Sticky notes and comments (text balloons)
Highlights, underlines and strikethroughs
Handwritten markup
Shapes and stamps

Together these are called "annotations".

What happens when you remove them

The comments and markup disappear (they are removed from the file too).
Links (the parts you click to jump to another page or website) stay.

Steps

Choose the PDF in View and Remove PDF Properties.
In the "Annotations" row, check the number of annotations (links are not counted).
Under "Comments and markup (annotations)", choose "Remove (keep links)".
To remove the properties too, also choose "Remove everything".
Tap "Create the PDF" and save.

Notes

Removed markup cannot be restored. Check that it is fine to remove before saving. Keep the original PDF.
Markup that has been burned into the page picture (as an image) is not removed.

Use "View and Remove PDF Properties (Author, Title)" (free)

Tools that go well with this

Black Out (Redact) Parts of a PDF: Drag over the parts of a PDF you want to hide and black them out. Redacted pages become images, so the text underneath is gone.
Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.
Extract or Delete PDF Pages: Keep only the pages you need, or remove the pages you don't.

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