Family photos, important emails, and bill accounts can be locked away when someone dies. A few settings, done today, prevent that.
Published October 2026 · Last reviewed: October 18, 2026
Most families have a plan for the house and the bank accounts. Far fewer have a plan for the phone, the photo library, or the email account where every bill and password reset lands. Apple, Google, and Facebook now let you name the people who can reach your account after death. Each takes a few minutes to set up.
Quick takeaways
- Apple’s Legacy Contact gives a chosen person access to your iCloud data after your death.
- Google’s Inactive Account Manager shares data with up to 10 people after a period of inactivity you choose.
- Facebook lets you pick a legacy contact to manage a memorialized profile.
- Never store passwords in a will. Keep a separate, secured list and tell your executor where it is.
What to know
Without these settings, families often have to go through a lengthy request process, and some services will not hand over content at all. Passcodes are the biggest barrier: a locked phone can hold the only copies of years of photos and the two-step login codes for other accounts.
Legacy settings do not hand over everything. Apple’s Legacy Contact, for example, can reach photos, messages, notes, files, and device backups, but not purchased movies, music, or books, and not the passwords and payment cards stored in iCloud Keychain.
What families can do
Apple (iPhone, iPad, Mac)
- Open Settings, tap your name, then Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact > Add Legacy Contact.
- Choose a family member or someone from your contacts. They do not need an Apple device.
- Share the access key by iMessage or print it and store it with your estate papers. Your contact will need the key plus a death certificate to request access.
- Requires iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, or macOS 12.1 or later.
Google (Gmail, Photos, Drive)
- Go to myaccount.google.com/inactive to open Inactive Account Manager.
- Choose how long your account must be inactive before the plan starts.
- Add up to 10 trusted people and pick which data each one may download.
- Write the message they will receive, and decide whether Google should delete the account afterward.
In Facebook’s settings, look for Memorialization settings. There you can choose a legacy contact to look after your memorialized profile, or ask for the account to be deleted after your death. A legacy contact cannot log in as you or read your messages.
Everything else
- Write down your accounts (email, phone carrier, banks, utilities, subscriptions, cloud storage) without the passwords.
- Store passwords in a password manager. Most offer an emergency access or family sharing feature; set it up for your spouse or executor.
- Keep your phone’s passcode with your estate documents, in a sealed envelope or a safe.
- Review the list once a year, or whenever you change phones.
Talk about it
- “I set you up as my legacy contact. If something happens, here is where the access key is.”
- “Where do you keep your passwords? If you were in the hospital, could we pay your bills?”
For aging parents, frame it as protecting family photos and making things easier for everyone, not as a conversation about death.
When to get more help
An estate planning attorney can add digital assets to a will or trust and name who is allowed to manage them. Most states have adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which honors the choices you make in tools like these.
Free printable
- Digital Legacy Planning Worksheet (PDF): A two-page worksheet so your family is not locked out of what matters.
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