"unlocking" a once editable PDF

I distribute an editable PDF application form. About 90% of the forms come back to me in a state that is still editable and I can easily export the data and merge it into a spreadsheet. About 10% come back as "locked" and no longer able to be edited. It is obvious that some users have confusedly used the "Typewriter" tool to complete the form (which I am assuming is a hopeless case), but others have typed in the fields properly and then "locked" the form somehow and I cannot extract the data. Is there any way I can revert those forms to their original editable state? This problem is extremely frustrating and results in me wasting a lot of time manually extracting the information from the PDF.

Thank you for your reply. I can't actually post a sample because the files are application forms, but I could email one. Where should I send it?
I think I was wrong about my assumption of some applicants using the Typerwriter tool, because all of these problem documents so far say that that they do not have comments. With Preview (Mac), I can see that a document has actualled been "locked," but "unlocking" it does not really do anything.
Alyson

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