Digital Legacy Setup Guide

1. Apple Digital Legacy: add a Legacy Contact on iPhone

A Legacy Contact is a person you nominate who can request access to your iCloud data after your death. Without one, Apple generally requires a court order — and families often never recover the photographs at all.

• ✦On iPhone or iPad: Settings → tap your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact.
• ✦On Mac: System Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact.
• ✦Tap Add Legacy Contact, choose someone from your contacts, and confirm with Face ID or your passcode.
• ✦Share the access key with them — send it in Messages, or print a physical copy and store it with your will.
• ✦Add more than one contact if you can. A single key held by one person is a single point of failure.
• ✦Tell them what to expect: they will need the access key plus a copy of your death certificate to make a request.

2. Google legacy contact: set up Inactive Account Manager

Google's tool works differently: instead of acting after death, it triggers after a chosen period of inactivity — typically three, six, twelve or eighteen months.

• ✦Go to myaccount.google.com and open Data & privacy → More options → Make a plan for your digital legacy.
• ✦Choose the inactivity period after which the plan should run.
• ✦Add a phone number and a backup email so Google can warn you before anything happens.
• ✦Nominate up to ten trusted contacts and choose exactly which data each of them receives — Drive, Gmail, Photos, YouTube and so on.
• ✦Write the message they will receive. Say plainly what the files are and what you would like done with them.
• ✦Decide whether the account should be deleted afterwards. Deleting removes shared albums and YouTube videos others may rely on.

3. Legacy contacts for Facebook, Instagram and other accounts

Apple and Google are the two largest vaults, but a family's history is scattered across many more. A complete digital legacy plan records them all.

• ✦Facebook: Settings → Memorialisation to appoint a Legacy Contact, or choose permanent deletion.
• ✦Instagram: accounts can be memorialised or removed by an immediate family member with documentation.
• ✦Microsoft, Dropbox and most password managers have no legacy contact at all — plan for these manually.
• ✦Keep an inventory of accounts and where the recovery details live, stored with your will rather than in an email draft.
• ✦Review the list once a year. Platforms change their policies more often than families change their plans.

4. Legacy Contact greyed out or missing? Fix setup problems

Most digital legacy setups fail quietly, months before anyone needs them. These are the faults worth checking today.

• ✦Legacy Contact missing from Settings: the option needs iOS 15.2 or later, two-factor authentication switched on, and an Apple Account set as the device's iCloud account.
• ✦Two-factor authentication is off: turn it on in Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Two-Factor Authentication. Apple hides Legacy Contact entirely until it is enabled, and it can take a day before the option appears on every device.
• ✦You use a security key or Advanced Data Protection: keep two-factor on and check that your trusted phone numbers are current, otherwise you can lock yourself out while adding the contact.
• ✦The option is greyed out: accounts under 13, managed education or business accounts, and child accounts in Family Sharing cannot nominate a legacy contact.
• ✦Age restrictions on the person you nominate: a Legacy Contact must be 13 or older, and anyone under 18 in some regions cannot receive the key — choose an adult you trust instead.
• ✦Google's plan needs an adult account too: Inactive Account Manager is unavailable on supervised, under-13 and most Workspace-managed accounts, so a personal Gmail account is usually the right place to set it up.
• ✦Your contact never received the access key: it is only delivered if they are on iOS 15.2 or later — otherwise print the key and store the paper copy with your will.
• ✦The key was lost: remove the contact and add them again to generate a fresh key. Old keys stop working once you do.
• ✦Google's plan never triggers: it only runs after the full inactivity period with no sign-in on any device, so a phone quietly syncing Gmail keeps resetting the clock.
• ✦Google warnings go unseen: the recovery phone and backup email must be current, or the plan can run on an account you are still using.
• ✦Nominated contacts receive nothing: check each contact's email is right and that the specific data types — Photos, Drive, Gmail — are actually ticked for them.
• ✦Photos live only on the device: iCloud Photos or Google Photos backup must be on, otherwise there is nothing in the account for anyone to inherit.
• ✦Re-check every setting once a year, and after each major iOS or Android upgrade, since platform changes can reset parts of the plan.

5. What Apple and Google legacy access still cannot preserve

Legacy contacts hand over files. They do not hand over meaning — and meaning is the part that actually disappears.

• ✦Inherited data arrives as an undated, unlabelled dump. Nobody knows who is in the photographs.
• ✦Access is conditional on a platform's ongoing policy and on the account continuing to exist.
• ✦Voices, explanations and the stories behind each image are almost never captured anywhere.
• ✦A curated archive — files plus the story, dates and names attached to them — is what survives a generation.
• ✦Memorivos exists for that second layer: exhibits your family can walk through, not a folder they must decode.

Frequently asked questions

What is digital legacy planning?

Digital legacy planning is the process of deciding what happens to your online accounts, photographs, documents and digital assets after you die. It usually includes naming legacy contacts on Apple and Google, recording account inventories, and leaving instructions so family historians can preserve the stories behind the files.

What is Apple Digital Legacy?

Apple Digital Legacy lets you nominate a Legacy Contact who can request access to your iCloud account data after your death, using an access key plus a copy of your death certificate. Without one, Apple usually requires a court order.

How do I add a Legacy Contact on iPhone?

Open Settings, tap your name, choose Sign-In & Security, then Legacy Contact. Add someone from your contacts, confirm with Face ID or your passcode, and share or print the access key.

How does Google Inactive Account Manager work?

Google Inactive Account Manager runs after a chosen period of inactivity — three, six, twelve or eighteen months. It notifies up to ten trusted contacts and shares only the data types you selected, and can optionally delete the account afterwards.

Why is the Legacy Contact option missing or greyed out?

The option needs iOS 15.2 or later with two-factor authentication switched on. Child accounts, accounts under 13, and managed education or business accounts cannot nominate a Legacy Contact.

What happens if my Google plan never triggers?

The plan only runs after the full inactivity period with no sign-in on any device, so a phone quietly syncing Gmail keeps resetting the clock. Keep the recovery phone and backup email current so warnings reach you.

How can family historians protect photos after someone dies?

Start by setting up Apple Digital Legacy and Google Inactive Account Manager so the files remain accessible. Then keep a separate, labelled copy of the most important photographs with names, dates and stories attached, because inherited accounts often arrive as an unlabelled dump.

Does account inheritance preserve family memories?

Only partly. Inherited data arrives as an unlabelled dump of files with no names, dates or stories attached. A curated archive keeps the meaning alongside the files, which is what survives a generation.

How does Clara's curation help after digital legacy setup?

Once Apple and Google legacy tools have preserved access, Clara, the AI-powered curator inside Memorivos, organises the files into a private memory museum. It groups photographs by person and event, suggests dates and locations, and helps you record the voice or story behind each image so the next generation understands the memory, not just the file.