Two sensitivity labels on PDF file

With PDFs, a sensitivity label can exist in two places:

• Embedded inside the PDF content (written as PDF metadata)
• Applied at the file level (for example via SharePoint, OneDrive, or Office integration)

Office applications only manage the file-level sensitivity label. Once a label is applied there, Office allows you to change or downgrade it, but it does not expose any option to remove embedded label metadata from the PDF itself.

PDF editors, on the other hand, can modify the internal structure of the PDF and therefore are sometimes able to remove or overwrite the embedded label information. That is why you were able to remove labels using a PDF editor but not via Office.

From a Purview perspective, this is expected behaviour:

• Office can only control file-level labeling
• Embedded PDF labels can only be removed by tools that can rewrite the PDF structure, or by relabeling the file in a supported way (for example re-saving through Office or applying a different label)

If label removal or downgrade is a requirement, the safest approach is to standardize where labels are applied (Office or SharePoint) and avoid mixing embedded PDF labeling with file-level labeling. Hope this helps!