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Control how long PDFs can be accessed and used with PDF expiry. Automatically expire PDFs without useless PDF expiration date scripts – expiry controls are always enforced and cannot be bypassed.
Creating PDF files that expire with Safeguard is very simple. Right-click on your PDFs in Windows File Explorer and select the menu option ‘Make Secure PDF‘.
In Safeguard Secure PDF Writer, choose the expiry options you want to apply:
You can select multiple expiry options – a fixed date and a number of days from first use, a number of views and/or prints. Which ever option is reached first will cause the PDF to expire.
Expiry days, views, and prints are allocated on a user basis – so the same PDF file can expire at different times for individual users.
Once you have chosen your PDF expiry options, press the Publish button.
You might want to set a PDF document to never expire or for user access to it to cease automatically on a given date.
You can expire PDFs on an individual user basis in the Safeguard Administration System – different users can be given different access periods to the same PDFs.
Expire PDFs on a specific date
Expire PDFs after a number of days after first open
Expire PDFs after a number of views
Expire PDF files after a number of prints
Expire user accounts on a fixed date
Revoke access to users and PDF files instantly
There are many reasons for creating PDFs that expire and why you may want to expire both documents and users. Each has specific effects and controls, but they are not mutually exclusive and can be used in combination, and some may be changed after publishing the document or adding the user.
There are many reasons for creating PDF files that expire or even expiring both a document and a user. Document expiry and user expiry each have specific effects and controls that are not mutually exclusive and can be used in combination.
Why have expiring PDF documents?Locklizard PDF DRM offers a number of ways of using expiry to automatically cease access to documents. But why would you want PDFs to expire?
Document ExpirySafeguard’s expiry options enable document publishers to automatically expire PDFs so they can no longer be used after a certain amount of time. The following options are available:
These options can also be used together so that you can enter, say, a number of days/views/prints and a fixed date, with whatever occurs first causing the document to expire. You may, for example, want a user to be able to use your documents for a 15-day trial period but have those documents expire on a fixed date regardless of whether the trial period has been used or not.
How to set an expiration date on a PDFTo create a PDF file that expires on a date:
In the Safeguard Writer Expiry tab, select ‘Document Expires at” and then from the date selection dialog, select an expiry date (the date the PDF will expire on).
The PDF document will expire on this date for all users.
You can edit the PDF expiration date in the Safeguard Admin system if you want to change it at any stage.
How to set a PDF expiry date for individual user accessYou can set an expiry date on a PDF for individual users – in this case, access to the PDF can be set to expire at different dates for each user.
This is done from the Safeguard Administration system when granting user access to a PDF document:
You can use this method to control PDF expiration regardless of whether you have set an expiration date on a PDF or not.
If a document also has a fixed expiry date then the ‘Until date’ cannot exceed that – in other words, you cannot extend access beyond a document’s expiration date.
How to set PDF expiry in daysTo create a PDF file that expires after a number of days from first use:
In the Safeguard Writer Expiry tab, select ‘Document Expires after” and then enter the number of days after which the PDF will expire.
The PDF document will expire after the number of days you enter here from when it was first opened. This will be different for each user if they first open the document on different dates.
How to make a PDF expire after a number of opens (views) or printsYou can make a PDF expire after a number of opens or prints – this is allocated to each user, so each user is given the number of opens or prints you set here.
In the Safeguard Writer Printing & Viewing tab, select the number of print copies and views allowed.
If you set both a view and print limit then expiry of the document will occur when whatever is reached first.
User ExpirySafeguard’s PDF protection gives you total control over when individual user access to your PDFs expire. You might want to set your PDFs to never expire but have user access to them expire.
Publication ExpirySafeguard’s PDF protection enables you to control expiry to groups of documents (publications) on an individual user basis. Different users will often require document access at different times (and for access to expire accordingly) depending on when they first purchased a product (say a training course) or when they were first given access to documents.
A user, for example, may have subscribed to one of your publications for a year, and all documents in that publication are accessible to them for a year. After a year, they will still be able to view their existing documents, but not any new ones that are published after their subscription period has ended unless, of course, they subscribe for an additional period.
Users can be given access to multiple publications, each with its own expiry period.
Revoke PDF accessBeing able to revoke PDFs is an important part of any document security solution.
While PDF expiry options happen automatically when a certain time frame is reached, you may want to manually revoke access to PDF files to terminate access instantly.
There may be times when:
Safeguard’s PDF protection enables you to:
You can revoke access to PDFs at any time no matter where your PDF files are located.
NOTE: To revoke PDF access instantly the document must be set to check with the administration system each time it is opened. If you have created PDF files that only check with the administration system every n days then PDF revocation will only take place once a check has occurred.
PDF self destruct, self deleting PDFs & self destroying PDF filesThe ability to create a self-destructing, self-destroying, or self-deleting PDF file or document sounds like something out of a Mission Impossible movie – but it’s easily achieved using expiry controls to time limit PDF document access. The end result is to make PDF files inaccessible after a period of time – the PDF file does not self-destruct or self-delete, it just can no longer be opened.
By applying expiry controls to a PDF document, access to it will automatically cease after a given time period. This has the same effect as a self-destroying / self-deleting / self-destructing PDF file but is actually more secure since access is permanently removed. If a self-destroying PDF / self-deleting PDF file is copied to another device, what file have you actually destroyed or deleted? This is the same issue as the remote file deletion one – if a backup has been made then the deletion system is rendered useless. With PDF expiry, the DRM controls remain with the file itself, so even if a backup is taken, the backup file will also automatically expire.
See the section titled “Creating expiring PDF files: Expire PDF documents with Safeguard PDF security” which takes you through adding expiry controls to a PDF file.
Expired PDF files and PDF expiry messagesOnce a PDF file has expired it can no longer be opened. Users cannot unlock or open expired PDF files.
When a PDF file has expired, an expiry message is displayed:
The email address is replaced with your own one so users know who to contact once the PDF has expired.
In Safeguard Enterprise, you can customize the expiry message with your own text. Select the Messages tab in Safeguard Writer and enter your custom expiry message in the ‘show message’ dialog.
Alternatively, select the ‘navigate to URL’ option to load a web page in the user’s default browser once the PDF has expired.
Publishers selling PDFs may find customizing the PDF expiry message useful in soliciting for additional business once a PDF file has expired. For example, you might want to direct users to a web page that enables them to purchase additional access or a new version.
Can users remove PDF expiry or change the PDF expiry date?No. Safeguard PDF DRM enforces expiry controls for both online and offline files. Users cannot remove PDF expiry or change expiry dates.
Unlike useless PDF expiration date scripts, expiry controls are always enforced and cannot be bypassed.
Using an expiry date script to control PDF expiry is completely useless because:
And that is before you even consider the security issues of enabling JavaScript in PDF Readers – generally a bad idea since hackers use JavaScript to deploy malicious payloads in PDF files.
FAQs
No, PDFs protected by Adobe Acrobat do not expire. Though there are some third-party scripts and plugins that claim to offer expiry controls, they are typically either easily bypassed or represent a major security flaw. For more information see Adobe PDF Security Plugins.
It depends on what you used to apply the expiry and how it implements the controls. Adobe PDF expiry plugins can often be overruled by installing another plugin designed to break their security. On other occasions, users just need to update their Adobe Reader to the latest version or disable JavaScript in their reader and the controls will break. Alternatively, because Adobe Acrobat permissions are useless, the user can simply make a copy of the document before it expires.
Online PDF expiry solutions such as data rooms or cloud storage/collaboration platforms can usually be broken because they are enforced via JavaScript code in the browser. As this code is executed primarily on the client side, the user can modify or disable JavaScript using their browser’s developer mode or a browser plugin to bypass copying and expiry controls.
Expiry dates applied with Locklizard, however, cannot be removed. Users cannot make copies of the document via copy/paste, printing to PDF, screenshot, etc. and are unable to open their document once the expiry date has passed no matter what they do.
Yes, in fact, this is a common problem for libraries, which make use of Adobe Digital Editions. Calibre’s DeDRM plugin strips all controls from a protected PDF, including expiry, and allows the user to convert it into whatever format they like. This is basically a dream for pirates — they don’t even have to pay for an ebook to be able to share it for free on a mass scale. So, authors and publishers beware – partnering with any library that uses Adobe protection will not be good for your bottom line.
No. Once a PDF has expired it can no longer be opened.
You can, however, change the PDF expiration date on the Safeguard Admin system at any stage if you need to alter it – e.g. you need to extend the life of the document because of delays in delivering it or not updating it in time.
Definitely not. As well as being easy to bypass, expiry scripts require JavaScript to be enabled in the reader application. This is a tremendously bad idea because documents with malicious JavaScript can easily be distributed to users to execute malicious code. See PDF security issues.
Using Locklizard Safeguard, the document Publisher can change the expiry date after distribution for all users or just selected users. End users, however, cannot change the expiry date on a PDF.
You can unlock an expired PDF if it uses JavaScript for protection by disabling JavaScript in the application it is being viewed in.
You cannot open a PDF that has expired if it is protected with Locklizard Safeguard. We do not use JavaScript to enforce expiry, so it cannot be disabled or removed.
No. If you want to set PowerPoint to expire for example or make a Word document expire, then you have to convert it to PDF first and then add an expiration date using Safeguard.
Download PDF expiry software
Download PDF expiry software that uses US Government strength encryption and digital rights management controls to create expiring PDF files – automatically expire PDFs after a given period of time and revoke PDF documents instantly.
Safeguard PDF Security and Enterprise PDF DRM enable you to automatically expire PDF files and revoke PDFs instantly to ensure they remain totally protected regardless of their location.
Protect PDF files against copying, printing, editing, and unauthorized distribution. Lock PDF files to individual devices and locations so they cannot be shared. Watermark PDFs and track use.
Locklizard can also be used to expire spreadsheets that you have exported to PDF – see how do I set an expiration date in Excel to learn why Excel’s expiry options are inadequate.
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