Platform Legacy Tools Setup: Flip the Switch While You Still Can

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Apple, Google, and Facebook each have a setting that decides what happens to your account after you’re gone. They take minutes to configure — and they only work if you do it in advance. Afterward, the door is locked and your family is left negotiating with support forms. Here’s how to set each one, and what to do about the accounts that offer no switch at all.

Part of the Deliberate Digital Legacy resource library. This is a practical, self-help technical guide — not legal advice. Platforms change these menus and steps regularly, so treat the steps below as a map, not a guarantee, and confirm the current flow on each official page before relying on it.

The one idea: a legacy tool is a switch only you can flip — and only beforehand

Most big platforms will not hand your account to your family after you die. What they offer instead is a setting you configure now that tells them what to do later — who gets your data, whether the account is memorialized or deleted, and on what timeline.

These settings matter for a reason beyond convenience: as covered in the companion guide RUFADAA, Plain and Simple, a legacy tool you set legally overrides your will. It’s the strongest lever you have over your digital estate. It’s also the easiest to skip — which is why families so often discover, too late, that the switch was never flipped.

One expectation to set from the start: most of these tools give someone the ability to retrieve your data or manage a memorial — not to log in as you or inherit the account. You’re arranging a handoff, not a transfer.

Apple — Legacy Contact

Apple’s Digital Legacy program lets you name a Legacy Contact who can access the data in your Apple Account (iCloud photos, files, notes, and more) after you die.

To set it up (iPhone or iPad):

  1. Open Settings and tap your name at the top.
  2. Tap Sign-In & Security, then Legacy Contact.
  3. Tap Add Legacy Contact (authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode).
  4. Choose someone from your Family Sharing group, or tap to pick anyone from your Contacts.
  5. Choose how to share the access key — send it as an iMessage, or print/save a copy.

(On a Mac: Apple menu → System Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact.)

How it works: your Legacy Contact needs two things to get in after your death — the access key you shared and a copy of your death certificate. They then request access at Apple’s digital-legacy site. You can name more than one contact, and they don’t need to own an Apple device.

What it does not cover: Legacy Contact access generally excludes your iCloud Keychain passwords, licensed media (purchased movies, music, books), and payment information. Save the access key somewhere your contact will actually find it — a copy with your estate documents is ideal.

Google — Inactive Account Manager

Google’s tool is the most flexible of the three. Rather than triggering on death, it triggers on inactivity — it’s a “if I stop using this account for X months, do the following” plan.

To set it up:

  1. Go directly to myaccount.google.com/inactive (or: Google Account → Data & privacy → scroll to “Make a plan for your digital legacy”).
  2. Set the waiting period — how long of no activity before the plan triggers: 3, 6, 12, or 18 months.
  3. Confirm a recovery phone and email — Google warns you (by text and email) before anything fires, so a long vacation can’t trigger it by mistake.
  4. Add up to 10 trusted contacts, and choose per contact exactly which services they can download from — Gmail, Drive, Photos, YouTube, and so on.
  5. Optionally, set a Gmail auto-reply, and choose whether the account is deleted after the window closes.

How it works: if the account goes inactive for your chosen period, Google notifies your contacts, verifies each by their phone number, and gives them a download link for the data you assigned — for about three months. Crucially, contacts never get your password and can’t log in as you — they get a one-time data export, nothing more. (Personal accounts only; not Google Workspace.)

This is the single most comprehensive legacy tool any major platform offers. If you set up only one, make it this one.

Facebook — Legacy Contact

Facebook lets you name a Legacy Contact to manage your profile once it’s memorialized (shown with “Remembering” above your name). You must be 18 or older to set one.

To set it up: open Settings & Privacy → Settings, then find Memorialization (on current Facebook this sits under Accounts Center → Personal details → Account ownership and control → Memorialization). Choose a friend as your Legacy Contact — and decide, while you’re there, whether you’d prefer the account memorialized or permanently deleted.

What a Legacy Contact can do on a memorialized profile:

What they cannot do: log in as you, read your private messages, or alter your past posts. This is memorial caretaking, not account ownership. And the key planning signal: if you don’t name a Legacy Contact, a memorialized account can’t be changed at all — so the family loses even this limited management path.

The accounts with no switch — and how to cover them

Here’s the part most guides skip. Most platforms offer no advance legacy tool at all — only memorialization or deletion that a family has to request after death, or nothing. Planning for these looks different.

The catch-all: password-manager emergency access. For every account without a native legacy tool, a password manager is the backbone of your plan. Good managers (such as Bitwarden or Dashlane) include an emergency access feature: you designate a trusted person, set a waiting period, and if you don’t decline their request within that window, they gain access to your vault. Combined with a written inventory, this is what actually reaches the long tail of accounts — the bank logins, the domain registrar, the Microsoft email — that no platform will hand over on its own.

The frame worth keeping: legacy tools handle a handful of big platforms. A documented credential plan handles everything else — and everything else is most of your digital life.

The master principle: keep it in sync with your will

Because a platform legacy tool overrides your will (see RUFADAA, Plain and Simple), these settings aren’t a substitute for estate planning — they’re a part of it that has to agree with the rest. If your will leaves your accounts to one person but a legacy tool names another (or auto-deletes), the tool wins. Set them together, and revisit both whenever you change either.

Quick recap — your setup checklist

References

Platforms change these flows often — confirm the current steps on each official page before relying on them.

Go deeper in this library

Outside the US, the platform tools are the same, but the legal process your family follows will differ — check your local law.

Deliberate Digital Legacy provides practical, self-help technical guides. We do not provide legal advice or estate execution services. Platform steps and policies change without notice; always confirm on the official source. For legal drafting or complex estate matters, consult a qualified attorney.