Remove 'active contents' from PDF file that was converted from LaTeX?
In pretty much the same situation you described, I was able to "clean up" the PDF using GhostScript:
gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=clean.pdf dirty.pdf
The company website accepted clean.pdf without complaints.
There are many embedded objects that can be flagged in a pdf with active content that may be seen by others as a threat in a pdf.
The simplest way to restructure to a dumbed down pdf is to use "windows print to pdf" to "reprint" as a simplified pdf much the same as you did for outputting word to pdf.
A quick and easy solution can be
- Simply open your pdf file in any modern web browser, say Google Chrome.
- Select 'Print' option to bring up the print menu.
- Change the Destination as 'Save as pdf' (in Google Chrome)
- Save the pdf in a new location on your system.
This uses Chrome's pdf wrapper which kind of repacks the pdf without any hyperlinks or Macros or perhaps any other active content.