I’m new to Hazel. I’ve downloaded a bunch of bank statements which are protected by password. I want Hazel to read it’s content and move them into different directories. Hazel can’t read protected PDF, am I right? What are my options of filing these PDFs?
Whose password? Yours? Your bank’s?
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The bank set the password into the PDF statement they sent me. It’s usually my birthdate or an identity card number.
Thanks. I’m not comfortable installing something like that program but I’ll try it out. I thought I missed out some settings in Hazel. I didn’t expect that sending password protected bank statements is unique to banks in my country.
It’s common when that type of information is emailed. Otherwise the account details to none snooping on the wire. Almost all the accounts I use just send a notice that a statement is available and I can then visit the website to download the statement.
You may find some help in this post
I use this to save a local copy of those password-protected PDFs.
I would not recommend this to deal with very sensitive data though. Those items are best dealt with by manually sorting them.
Thanks to you guys, I have downloaded Homebrew and QPDF and is able to strip the PDF off the password. Useful tip - QPDF has a replace file parameter right after stripping the password, so, essentially, I was left with the same file. In the same Hazel rule, I renamed the file by adding XX at the end of the filename and then, used another Hazel rule to read its contents and file it away. Thanks guys!
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Not exactly, I am using Hazel to run QPDF to remove the password from the PDF. So, Hazel is useful to automate this piece of task.
But, if you mean why bother with an unprotected bank statement? Then yes, I was wondering the same. Why do I want to use Hazel to file these statements away when I could search for the file in my emails? In fact, the more I automate, the more I’m wondering the advantage of filing locally, as compared to just leaving them alone in my email Inbox. I can always search for the statements if I need them.
Is there a way to automatically detach the attachment when an email from the bank is received? That would be useful if I don’t have to manually save them into Downloads for Hazel to work on. I’ll research this later.
I ran into the same problem with Chase bank.
When you go to download a statement it gives you the option to download as a PDF or open as an accessible PDF. An accessible PDF does not have the password.
