Most of us now keep our lives in accounts we do not really own. Photos sit in iCloud or Google Photos, letters live in Gmail, money moves through apps, and decades of conversations sit inside Facebook and text messages. When someone dies, their family often discovers that these records are not automatically passed on. Some are deleted after a period of inactivity, some are frozen, and some can only be opened with a court order.
This guide explains what normally happens, platform by platform, and what you can do now so the people you love are not left guessing. Policies change, so treat this as a starting point and check each company's help pages for the latest rules.
The default: nobody inherits your passwords
The basic problem is simple. Terms of service for most online accounts say the account is personal and non-transferable. Logging in as a dead relative, even with the right password, can break those terms and in some cases privacy laws. So families are usually pushed toward each company's official process, which may only offer to close or memorialize the account rather than hand over its contents.
In the United States, most states have adopted a law called the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA). In plain terms, it sets an order of priority:
- What you chose inside the service's own tool (for example, Google Inactive Account Manager or Apple Legacy Contact) comes first.
- What your will or other legal documents say comes next, if you did not use an online tool.
- The company's terms of service apply if you left no instructions at all.
Even under this law, an executor usually gets a list of who you communicated with, not the content of your messages, unless you clearly gave permission. That is why the settings you choose now matter so much.
Google: Gmail, Photos, Drive and YouTube
Google deletes personal accounts that have not been used for two years, under a policy it began enforcing in late 2023. If you die without planning, your family has a limited window before email, photos and documents may disappear.
Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you decide what happens instead. You choose a waiting period, up to ten trusted people, and which data each of them may download. You can also tell Google to delete the account afterwards. Without it, family members can submit a request about a deceased user's account, but Google decides case by case and may only close the account.
Apple: iCloud photos, messages and backups
Apple's Legacy Contact feature lets you name people who can request access to the data stored in your Apple Account after you die. Each contact needs an access key that you generate, plus a death certificate. Without a Legacy Contact, Apple generally requires a court order before it will release anything, and a locked iPhone can be impossible to open.
Legacy Contacts can reach photos, messages, notes, files and backups, but not passwords stored in iCloud Keychain or media you bought.
Facebook and Instagram
Facebook lets you either name a legacy contact or ask for your account to be deleted after your death. Once Facebook is told about a death, the account can be memorialized: the word "Remembering" appears next to the name, and the profile stays up as a place for friends to share memories. A legacy contact can manage tribute posts and change the profile photo, but cannot log in or read private messages.
Instagram can also memorialize accounts, or remove them at the request of verified immediate family. There is no option for family to log in and download everything, so if photos matter, save copies while you are alive.
X (Twitter), LinkedIn and other social sites
X does not memorialize accounts. A family member or an authorized person can ask for a deceased user's account to be deactivated, but X does not give access to the account. LinkedIn accepts requests to close or memorialize a deceased member's profile. Smaller sites vary widely, and many simply leave dormant accounts in place until they are cleaned up for inactivity.
Microsoft, Yahoo and other email providers
Many email services close accounts after a long period of inactivity and permanently delete what is inside. Microsoft and Yahoo generally will not hand over the contents of a deceased person's mailbox without a legal process. If you rely on one of these for important records, the safest step is to forward or back up what matters somewhere your family can reach.
Money, crypto and subscriptions
- Bank and brokerage accounts pass through your estate in the usual way, or directly to anyone you named as a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary.
- PayPal, Venmo and similar apps will usually close the account and release the balance to the estate once they receive a death certificate and proof of authority.
- Cryptocurrency is the hardest case. If nobody has the keys or recovery phrase, the funds are effectively gone forever. Write down where the recovery information lives and make sure the right person can find it.
- Subscriptions keep charging until someone cancels them. A simple list of recurring payments saves your family months of surprises.
Your phone is the master key
Two-step verification codes, banking apps, photos and contacts all tend to live on one phone. If nobody can unlock it, many other accounts become hard to reach as well. Consider writing your phone passcode down and storing it with your will or in a sealed envelope with someone you trust. A password manager with an emergency access feature is another good option, because it can unlock everything else after a waiting period you choose.
A 30-minute checklist
- Turn on Google Inactive Account Manager and Apple Legacy Contact.
- Choose a Facebook legacy contact, or choose deletion if that is what you would want.
- Back up photos you care about to a drive or shared album your family can open.
- Make a short list of your important accounts, without passwords, and keep it with your will.
- Tell one person where your password manager or recovery information is stored.
- Add a sentence to your will about your digital assets. Our guide on organizing important documents for your family shows where it fits.
Beyond accounts: what do you want people to know?
Accounts hold records, but they do not say what you wanted. Families are often left wondering about things nobody ever wrote down: how you wanted to be remembered, whether you wanted a memorial page, and the bigger questions people rarely discuss. For a fuller plan for photos, voice recordings and stories, see our digital legacy planning guide.
Some people also want to record their answer to a question no account setting covers: if science could ever bring people back, would they want to return? If that is on your mind, Revival Registry is one simple, private place to write that answer down. Whatever you decide, the most valuable thing you can leave is clarity.