Digital Life After Someone Dies: What to Do With Their Accounts

When Darren died, I couldn’t access his phone. I also couldn’t get into his Hotmail account or his computer. I didn’t know his passwords. Nothing.

It was only after he died that I realised quite how much information was sitting inside all these things. You don’t necessarily think about somebody’s digital life until they are no longer there to unlock their phone, tell you a password or explain which email address they used for something.

Need the Checklist Now?

You shouldn’t have to wade through lots of information to find it. Use the quick links below to download the checklist now.

Don’t Start Deleting or Resetting Things

This is probably the biggest thing I would say: don’t immediately start deleting, cancelling or resetting things.

A phone isn’t just a phone. An email account isn’t just an email account. There could be photographs and videos you want to keep. Emails might help you work out which banks, pension providers, insurance companies or subscription services they used. Their phone number might still be needed for verification codes. Their computer might contain documents you didn’t even know existed.

At first, I had no access to Darren’s work contracts or any of that information. You don’t know what you might need yet. Before you start closing accounts, cancelling a mobile number or resetting a device, try to work out what is actually there and whether anything could be lost.

Start With What You Know

What phone did they have? Which email addresses did they use? Did they have a laptop, computer or tablet? Where did they keep their photographs? Did they use cloud storage or a password manager? You might know the answers to some of those questions, but you probably won’t know them all. Write down what you know, what you think may exist and what you can’t access.

Also look for information they may have left elsewhere, such as:

• Notebooks or address books
• Files kept with important paperwork
• Password managers
• Saved passwords on another device
• Recovery codes
• Details of cloud storage
• External hard drives and memory cards
• An Apple Legacy Contact access key
• Information left with a solicitor or executor

We eventually found Darren’s laptop password in a work notebook. Once we could access his laptop, we were also able to get into his email.

Keep the Phone Number and Email Account Active

Before cancelling a mobile contract or closing an email account, consider whether it is still connected to other services. A phone number or email address may be used for:

• Password resets
• Two-factor authentication codes
• Bills and renewal notices
• Bank or insurance correspondence
• Travel bookings and tickets
• Shopping accounts
• Household services
• Social media
• Cloud storage

You may not be able or entitled to operate all these accounts, but knowing that they exist can help you contact the organisations concerned through their official bereavement procedures.

Their Email Can Tell You a Lot

If you are legally entitled to access their email, it can potentially give you clues to an awful lot of their digital life. Bills. Subscriptions. Insurance. Shopping accounts. Household services. Financial providers. Renewal notices. Tickets and bookings.

It may help you discover accounts and arrangements you didn’t know existed. But don’t assume that because you can physically access an account, you are automatically entitled to change things, move money or continue operating it on the person’s behalf. If you are unsure, contact the provider or ask the solicitor dealing with the estate. Sometimes, you simply need to know that something exists.

Be Careful With Locked Phones

Darren had only put a code on his phone the week before he died. We tried several combinations, but none of them worked. Eventually, the phone became unavailable and we couldn’t try again in the usual way.

With an iPhone, repeated unsuccessful passcode attempts can lead to a security lockout. Apple cannot remove the passcode lock without erasing the device because its contents are protected by passcode encryption. Resetting the phone may allow the device to be used again, but it permanently deletes the data held locally on it. Apple explains what happens when an iPhone has to be reset.

Because of this, stop before repeatedly guessing a passcode or resetting the phone. Contact Apple Support first and try to establish whether photographs or other information may already exist in iCloud, on another device or in a separate backup.

Access to an Apple Account is different from unlocking the physical iPhone. If the person appointed an Apple Legacy Contact, that person can request access to certain information stored in the Apple Account. They will normally need the Legacy Contact access key and a death certificate.

If no Legacy Contact was appointed, Apple may require a death certificate, court order or other legal documentation before it can provide access to certain account data. Even then, Apple cannot unlock a passcode-protected device without erasing it. Apple provides guidance on requesting access to a deceased person’s account.

And Then There Are the Photographs

Photographs and videos may be sitting in places you haven’t even thought about:

• Their phone
• Their laptop or computer
• iCloud Photos
• Google Photos
• OneDrive
• Social media accounts
• Shared albums
• External hard drives
• USB drives
• Memory cards
• Old phones or tablets
• Photographs sent to family and friends

Don’t lose something you can never get back because you were trying to tidy up accounts. There is plenty of time for tidying up later.

When we eventually reset Darren’s phone, we could access the photographs that had made it to the cloud, but the most recent ones we recovered were from around six months before he died. We had to accept that any later photographs stored only on the phone may have been lost. We also had to remind ourselves that, at least, we still had all the photographs we were able to recover.

Digital Life After Someone Dies Worksheet

I’ve created this free printable worksheet to help you work through some of this without trying to keep everything in your head.

It covers:

• Phones and PINs
• Computers, laptops and tablets
• Email accounts
• Passwords and password managers
• Two-factor authentication
• Photographs, videos and files
• Social media
• Subscriptions and online services
• Online financial accounts
• Household accounts managed online
• Things you know exist but can’t access
• Things to check before deleting, cancelling or resetting anything

Download the Digital Life After Someone Dies Worksheet

This is a practical resource based partly on my own experience after Darren died. Access rights and provider procedures will depend on the account and individual circumstances. Check the provider’s official bereavement process and seek legal advice if you are unsure whether you are authorised to access or change something.

Related Guidance

If you are also trying to identify banks, pensions, insurance, property and other parts of the estate, see There Is No Will. What Do I Need to Find?.

For a broader look at what may need attention during those first few days, see The First Week After Someone Dies.