Planning Ahead
Apple Digital Legacy, Explained: Who to Choose — and What Happens If You Never Set It Up
Apple's Digital Legacy program decides one thing: whether your family gets your photos, messages, and notes — or faces a court order. Here's who to choose as your Legacy Contact, what they'll actually be able to access, and the one thing Apple will never hand over.
Somewhere in your iPhone's settings is a decision most people never make: if something happens to you, does your family get your photos, messages, and notes — or do they face Apple's legal department?
Apple calls it Digital Legacy. The person you name is your Legacy Contact. Setting it up is free and takes about three minutes — but the setup is the easy part, and Apple's own instructions already cover it. The real questions are the ones this page answers: who should you choose, what will they actually get, and what happens if you never set it up at all.
What is Apple Digital Legacy?
Digital Legacy is Apple's official way to pass on your iCloud data after you die. You name one or more people as your Legacy Contact; after your death, they can request access to your account by giving Apple two things — the access key generated when you set it up, and a copy of your death certificate. It's built into every iPhone running iOS 15.2 or later, which covers essentially every iPhone still receiving updates.
What happens if you don't set one
Without a Legacy Contact, Apple requires your family to produce a court order naming them as the rightful inheritor of your digital assets before it will grant access — a death certificate alone is not enough. That's not a horror story; it's Apple's own stated policy ("How to request access to a deceased family member's Apple account"). Court orders take months and legal fees — for photos that a three-minute setting would have handed over.
Who should you choose as your Legacy Contact?
The person who would realistically handle your affairs — usually a spouse or an adult child. Beyond that, two tie-breakers:
- Pick someone likely to outlive you. Naming a same-age sibling is common and understandable; naming an adult child is usually the more durable choice.
- Pick someone organized enough to keep the access key findable. The key is required years from now, on the worst week of their life. If they lose it, the whole arrangement quietly fails.
You can name more than one Legacy Contact — and for couples, you usually should: each spouse names the other plus one adult child, so the plan survives an accident that involves you both. The person doesn't need an iPhone, or any Apple device at all.
What your Legacy Contact can — and can't — access
| They CAN get | They CANNOT get |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos in iCloud | Saved passwords (Keychain is permanently excluded) |
| Messages, notes, mail stored in iCloud | Payment methods and Apple Pay |
| Contacts, calendars, reminders | Movies, music, books you licensed (purchases aren't inheritable) |
| Files in iCloud Drive and device backups | Anything only stored on a locked phone that wasn't backed up |
Source: Apple's official Legacy Contact documentation.
Read that right column again — it's the part nobody expects. Your passwords don't transfer. Ever. Your banking login, your email password, the streaming accounts that keep charging the card — Apple's Digital Legacy program deliberately excludes all of it.
How to set it up (3 minutes — Apple's guide does this best)
The short version: Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact → Add Legacy Contact. Choose your person, then share the access key Apple generates — send it to them and print a copy for your important papers. Apple's official step-by-step, including the Mac and iPad paths, is here: How to add a Legacy Contact.
If someone has already died: requesting Digital Legacy access
If you're reading this from the other side — someone named you as their Legacy Contact and they've passed away — the request happens at Apple's Digital Legacy portal: digital-legacy.apple.com. You'll need the access key and a copy of the death certificate; Apple reviews the request and then converts the account to a special legacy account you can sign into. If there's no access key and no Legacy Contact was ever set, the path is Apple's court-order process for deceased family members — slower, but it exists. And if you're handling everything right now, our checklist for after the death of a parent walks the whole first month, not just the phone.
Google's version: Inactive Account Manager
Using Android or Gmail? Google's digital legacy tool is the Inactive Account Manager: you pick trusted contacts and Google shares chosen data with them after your account goes quiet for a period you set. It's here: Google — About Inactive Account Manager. Same three minutes, same logic, same gap: it shares Google data, not your passwords to everything else.
The two gaps Digital Legacy leaves open
Gap 1: passwords. As above — no tech company hands your passwords to your family. The only way your family gets into accounts is if you wrote the access down somewhere they can find: a password manager with a shared master key, or a written list with your important papers.
Gap 2: everything that isn't Apple or Google. Your bank, your insurance, your utilities, your subscriptions — each has its own process, and none of it is covered by a phone setting. What covers it is old-fashioned: one organized place your family knows about — a family emergency binder is the standard way to build it.
That's the bigger project, and it's less work than it sounds — the full walkthrough is in our getting your affairs in order checklist (with a printable version).
Common questions
Can my Legacy Contact see my stuff while I'm alive?
No. Access only opens after Apple reviews a death certificate plus the access key. Setting a Legacy Contact changes nothing about your privacy today.
Does a Legacy Contact replace a will?
No — it's an access mechanism, not a legal document, and this page isn't legal advice. A will says who gets what; a Legacy Contact just makes sure your Apple data is reachable at all.
Does my Legacy Contact need an iPhone?
No. They don't need an iPhone, an Apple account, or any Apple device. Apple accepts the request through its Digital Legacy portal from any browser.
What if the person I chose changes?
You can remove or replace a Legacy Contact any time in the same Settings screen. Revisit it after any big life change.
