Apple’s Legacy Contact: who can open your photos and messages after you die
Give one trusted person an access key now. With a death certificate it unlocks iCloud data for three years, though not passwords or purchases
Everything in your Apple Account, from photos and messages to notes, files and device backups, stays locked after you die unless you have handed someone the means to open it. Apple’s answer is the Legacy Contact: a person you choose while you are alive, who can ask for access to that data after your death.
What your Legacy Contact will need
Two things: the access key your device generates when you add them, and your death certificate. Paperwork requirements can vary by country. They do not need an Apple device or an Apple Account, but they must be over 13, an age that also varies by country.
The key is the part people get wrong. Apple says it cannot look up or replace a lost access key, to protect the account holder’s privacy.
Adding one on an iPhone
- You need iOS 15.2 or later, and two-factor authentication turned on for your account.
- Open Settings and tap your name.
- Tap Sign-In & Security, then Legacy Contact.
- Tap Add Legacy Contact and pick someone from your Family Sharing group, or anyone in your contacts by phone number or email.
- Choose how to hand over the key: an iMessage, which their device stores automatically if they accept, or Print a Copy, on paper or as a PDF.
On a Mac the path is the same, starting from System Settings. You can return to the key at any time under the person’s name with View Access Key, and they can scan its QR code if they are next to you. Apple emails you to confirm each addition, and you can add more than one person.
What they can and cannot see
They get photos, messages, notes, files, device backups and more. They do not get movies, music, books or subscriptions bought with the account, or anything in iCloud Keychain: passwords, payment details and passkeys.
After a death
The Legacy Contact starts the request on their own Apple device, or on Apple’s Digital Legacy website if they have none, and uploads the death certificate as a PDF or image of at least 300 dpi. Apple reviews it, and on approval issues a special Legacy Contact account that opens the data on iCloud.com or lets them download it. The original account stops working, and Activation Lock comes off the devices that used it.
Access does not last: three years from Apple’s approval of the first request, after which the account is deleted for good. If you named several Legacy Contacts, any one of them can make decisions about the data alone, including deleting it.
Before you close Settings
Pick the person who will actually need the family photos and documents, check that the key reached them, and keep a printed copy with your important papers. Without a Legacy Contact or a key, a family is left with Apple’s other, separate routes to request access.
Photo: a hand holding a smartphone with a blank white screen, used as an illustration. Photograph by Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Apple Support, “How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account” (published 14 September 2026) and “Request access to an Apple Account as a Legacy Contact” (published 10 August 2026), both read on 1 November 2026.
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