The short answer: Legacy contact settings on Apple, Google, and Facebook only hand your family limited, time-boxed access to your photos, not full ownership. To make sure your family keeps your photos and videos after you die, turn on the platform’s legacy tool, keep your own backup copies in at least two separate places, and name where those copies live in your will or a document your family can find.
A legacy contact is a person you name inside Apple, Google, or Facebook’s own settings, who can request limited access to parts of your account after you die. It is not a will, and it does not hand over your whole account.
What does Apple’s Legacy Contact give your family?
Apple’s Legacy Contact can open your iCloud Photos after you die, but Apple explicitly blocks it from anything you licensed rather than owned: purchased movies, music, books, subscriptions, and everything stored in iCloud Keychain, including your saved passwords and passkeys (Apple’s Legacy Contact rules). Those categories never transfer, no matter what your will says.
To get in, your Legacy Contact needs two things: the digital access key you shared with them while you were alive, and a copy of your death certificate submitted to Apple. Once Apple approves the request, access lasts only three years from approval, then Apple permanently deletes the data.
Read What Happens to Your Apple Account When You Die? Digital Legacy Explained for what else does and doesn’t transfer.
What does Google’s Inactive Account Manager give your family?
Google lets you name up to 10 trusted contacts through its Inactive Account Manager, but each contact only receives the specific data categories you picked for them, such as Photos, not full access to your account. If you never selected Photos for someone, that person cannot get your photos this way.
When a trusted contact is notified and downloads your library through Google Takeout, the download link expires after 7 days and works at most 5 times. Each archive file is capped at 50GB and arrives as a Zip or Tgz file, sent to email, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box.
Read What Happens to Your Google Account When You Die? Gmail, Photos and Drive for everything else this setting covers.
What does Facebook’s Legacy Contact give your family?
Facebook’s legacy contact can only download an archive of your photos, posts, and profile information if you switched on the ‘allow download’ setting before you died (Facebook’s legacy contact permissions). If that setting was never turned on, there is no way for your legacy contact to get the archive afterward. They can never read your private messages or log in as you.
| Platform | Time limit | Required for access |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 3 years after approval, then deleted | Access key plus death certificate |
| Takeout link: 7 days, 5 downloads max | Category pre-selected by you | |
| No fixed deletion date in Facebook’s policy | ‘Allow download’ switched on beforehand |
Does your will override these platform settings?
In most U.S. states, the platform wins, not the will. Under RUFADAA, the digital-assets law most states have adopted, a platform’s own tool, such as Apple’s Legacy Contact or Google’s Inactive Account Manager, legally takes priority over instructions in your will. A setting you picked years ago in an app overrides a later-dated will that says something different.
If you never set up an online legacy tool and your will says nothing about digital assets, RUFADAA drops fiduciary access down to the platform’s terms of service, usually written to keep third parties out rather than let them in.
If you are drafting your own will with an AI tool, check that it names your digital assets and where your photo backups live, not just property and guardianship. Read Writing a Will With ChatGPT: What It Can (and Can’t) Do before you rely on one for this.
How to make sure your family keeps the photos
A legacy contact setting is a start, not the whole plan. The 3-2-1 backup rule is the standard defense against losing photos to one broken phone, one theft, or one locked account: keep 3 total copies of a file, on 2 different types of storage, with 1 copy kept somewhere else.
- Turn on the legacy contact or Inactive Account Manager setting on every account that holds your photos: Apple, Google, and Facebook.
- Make your own copy outside those accounts, on an external hard drive, a second cloud service, or both.
- Keep one of those copies somewhere physically separate from your home, with a relative or in a second cloud account.
- Write down where the copies live, in your will or in a document your family can find, like a Vault: End of Life Planning your executor already has access to.
The Library of Congress’s guidance for personal archives recommends checking once a year that your files still open, and replacing your storage media every five years, since drives and memory cards fail quietly. A drive that no longer opens holds nothing useful.
Frequently asked questions
Who should I choose as a legacy contact?
Anyone you trust with your photos, not necessarily your next of kin. Apple, Google, and Facebook let you name someone outside your immediate family, which helps if you want a partner or chosen family to receive them instead. Read Tips for LGBTQIA+ Estate Planning for more on naming who you want to inherit access.
What happens if I never set up a legacy contact?
Without an online legacy tool, RUFADAA in most U.S. states falls back to the platform’s terms of service, typically written to restrict access rather than grant it. Your family may need a court order and months of waiting, and some photos may never come out.
How many backup copies of my photos do I need?
Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 total copies, on 2 different types of storage, with 1 copy kept somewhere separate from your home. That way, one broken laptop, one theft, or one locked account cannot cost your family every photo you have of them.
Can my family get my photos right after I die?
Not usually right away. Apple and Google require a death certificate or a waiting period before releasing anything, and download links expire within days. Your own backup copies, kept outside these accounts, are what your family can reach immediately.
This article is general information, not legal, medical, or financial advice. Laws on digital assets vary by state and country, so consult a licensed professional in your jurisdiction before relying on a platform setting or will language.
Last reviewed: August 2026
