How to Delete Pages From a PDF (Acrobat and Mac Preview)

Taking pages out of a PDF is a ten-second job once you know where the tool hides. The part that goes wrong is what happens afterwards: you save over the only copy, or you find the pages were locked and nothing will delete. Here are the routes for Acrobat on a computer, the Acrobat mobile app and Preview on a Mac.

Delete pages in Adobe Acrobat on desktop

1. Open the PDF and select All tools, then Organize pages. The page thumbnails appear in the document area.
2. To remove a single page, hover over its thumbnail and choose Delete from the context menu.
3. To remove several pages, use the Pages Selected field. Type the page numbers separated by commas, such as 2, 4, or a range such as 6 to 8, or pick an option from the dropdown.
4. Select Delete pages in the left pane and confirm with OK.
5. Save the PDF.

Adobe points out that deleting pages keeps the rest of the document's structure intact, including bookmarks and links. So if your PDF has a clickable contents page, the links on the pages you keep carry on working.

Delete pages in the Acrobat mobile app

On a phone or tablet, open the PDF in Acrobat, choose More tools, then Organize pages, and tap the pages you want to remove. On Android you tap Delete and confirm with a second tap; on iPhone and iPad you tap Delete from the bottom menu. Adobe notes the mobile page tools need an Acrobat plan, so if the option is greyed out, that's the reason.

Delete pages in Preview on a Mac

1. Open the PDF in Preview.
2. Choose View, then Thumbnails (or Contact Sheet if you'd like bigger previews).
3. Click the page you want to remove. Command-click to pick several.
4. Press the Delete key, or choose Edit then Delete.

Apple adds a detail worth knowing: when you delete a page, every annotation on that page goes with it. If you'd highlighted or commented on a page you're removing, those marks are gone as well.

Two rules that stop the job working

Problem	Why it happens	What to do
Delete is greyed out or fails	The PDF has editing restrictions	In Acrobat go to File, Document Properties, Security to see what's allowed
You can't remove every page	A PDF must keep at least one page	Leave one page, or make a new file instead of emptying this one
Pages gone after you save	Saving overwrote the only copy	Use Save As with a new name, or duplicate the file first

The first one is the most common. Adobe's advice is to check the Security tab under Document Properties before you begin, because a PDF can be locked against edits. If so, you'll need an unlocked version from whoever made it.

Delete or extract: which do you want?

Deleting changes the file you're working in. If you want to keep the original and end up with a smaller version, you're really after a copy with certain pages left out. In Acrobat that's usually clearer as an extract job, which pulls the pages you want into a new PDF and leaves the original alone. My guide to sending a file so it arrives intact covers the sending side once your trimmed version is ready.

A quick checklist before you save

• Scroll through the thumbnails once more and check you've selected the right page numbers, not the printed numbers on the pages.
• Printed page numbers and PDF page positions often differ when a document has a cover, so go by the thumbnail order.
• Save with a new name if the file matters, for example adding the word trimmed to the end.
• Open the saved file and check the first and last page, because those are the ones people forget.

If you deleted the wrong page

Don't panic, and don't close anything yet. If you haven't saved in Acrobat, close the file without saving and reopen your original. If you've saved over it, look for a backup, an email attachment or a cloud copy of the earlier file. On a Mac there's an extra safety net: Preview keeps earlier versions of a document, and Apple says you can go back by choosing File, then Revert To, then Browse All Versions and finding the one you want. It's worth knowing before the day you need it.

When the page you want to remove is a scan

Scanned PDFs behave exactly like any other when you delete a whole page, so the steps above work. The difference is in what's on the page. A scan is a picture of a sheet of paper, so you can't remove one paragraph by deleting a line of text. If you only need to hide something on a page rather than lose the whole page, that is a redaction job, not a deletion job, and it needs a different tool.

Deleting pages from a long document without losing your place

With a big report the thumbnails get tiny, and it's easy to select the wrong run of pages. Work in two passes. First, delete the obvious blocks, such as a title page you're replacing or an appendix nobody needs. Second, save, reopen and scan what's left. Doing it in two steps (the same habit helps when you're making a PDF from a blog post, as in my guide to converting a blog post to PDF) means one slip never wipes out the whole afternoon.

My verdict

In Acrobat, use Organize pages, pick the pages and delete them. On a Mac with no Acrobat, Preview's thumbnail sidebar does the same job in a few clicks. In both cases, work on a copy, because deleting and saving can't always be undone afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

How do I delete pages from a PDF?

In Acrobat, open the PDF, choose All tools then Organize pages, select the pages, choose Delete pages, confirm and save. In Preview on a Mac, show Thumbnails, select the pages and press Delete.

Why can't I delete pages from my PDF?

The PDF may have editing restrictions. In Acrobat, check File, Document Properties, Security to see what's allowed.

Can I delete all the pages in a PDF?

No. Acrobat requires at least one page to remain in the document.

Does deleting a page remove links and bookmarks?

Acrobat keeps the document's structure, including bookmarks and links, on the pages that remain. In Preview, annotations on a deleted page are removed with it.

Can I delete PDF pages on my phone?

Yes, in the Acrobat mobile app: More tools, Organize pages, tap the pages and tap Delete. Adobe says it needs an Acrobat plan.