Dealing with someone's online accounts after they die

Today, much of a person’s life is online: photos, messages, emails, subscriptions and money. After a death, families often don’t know where to start, or worry about losing precious pictures. This guide explains how to find accounts, what the main platforms offer, and how to protect memories without breaking the rules.

Key points

• Make a list first. Find out what accounts and devices the person had.
• Don’t log in with their password. Use each provider’s bereavement process.
• Save photos and files before closing anything. Once an account is deleted, content may be gone for good.
• Memorialise or close social media accounts, depending on what the family wants.
• Tell the bank before cancelling payments, and never use their online banking.
• Plan your own digital legacy with legacy contacts and a safe list of accounts.

Start with a list

Before contacting anyone, write down what you know. Look through bank statements for regular payments, check post and paperwork, and ask family. Common things to look for:

• phones, tablets and computers;
• email accounts;
• social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and LinkedIn;
• photo and cloud storage, such as iCloud, Google Photos or Dropbox;
• online banking, savings, investments and payment services such as PayPal;
• subscriptions, like streaming, music, apps, news, gyms and memberships;
• shopping, loyalty and gaming accounts;
• websites, domain names, online shops or cryptocurrency.

Accounts with money or value are part of the estate, so the executor needs to include them. See do I need probate?

A word about passwords

Even if you know the person’s password, don’t use it to log in. It usually breaks the provider’s terms, and accessing an account without authorisation can be an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Logging in may also trigger security checks that make the official process harder. Never use their online banking or move money; only the executor, working with the bank, can deal with accounts.

The official routes below are slower, but they’re safe and lawful.

Social media and big platforms

Many other services have their own help pages for deceased users. Search the service’s help centre for “deceased” to find the right form.

Memorialise or close?

A memorialised profile can be a place where friends share memories and messages, often for years. Others find it painful to see. There’s no right answer. Talk as a family, and remember that some platforms let you download content before the account is removed.

Email accounts

Email is often the key to finding other accounts, bills and subscriptions, but the same rule applies: use the provider’s deceased-user process rather than logging in. Google and Apple, above, handle Gmail and iCloud Mail. Other providers have their own forms. Where email is the only record of something important, the executor can ask the provider what they’re able to release.

Phones, tablets and computers

• Keep devices safe and switched off until you’ve decided what to do. They may hold photos and important information.
• Locked devices can be very hard to open without the passcode, which is one reason legacy contacts matter.
• Cancel the phone contract by contacting the network provider. Any unpaid handset balance is usually a debt of the estate; see dealing with debts after a death.
• Wipe devices before selling, donating or recycling them, once you’ve saved what you need.

Online banking and money

Tell each bank or building society about the death. The free Death Notification Service lets you notify several financial firms at once. The bank will usually freeze accounts in the person’s sole name, which also stops direct debits and standing orders.

Online payment accounts, investment platforms, betting accounts and cryptocurrency are all part of the estate. Cryptocurrency can be especially hard to recover without the person’s keys or recovery phrase, so look carefully through their papers.

Subscriptions and recurring payments

• Cancel subscriptions with each provider, even if payments have stopped, so they don’t keep billing or chasing the estate.
• Check annual renewals, such as software, insurance or memberships, which may appear only once a year.
• Ask for refunds of any payments taken after the death.
• Leave cloud storage until last. Cancelling a photo or storage subscription could delete files.

Saving photos and memories

Photos are often what families care about most. To protect them:

• request data before asking for any account to be closed (Google says it can’t provide content after closure);
• download what’s shared on social media, where the platform allows it;
• copy photos from devices you can open onto a computer and a backup drive;
• share copies with family, so memories aren’t held in one place.

Planning your own digital legacy

You can make things much easier for the people you leave behind:

• Set up legacy tools: a Facebook legacy contact, an Apple Legacy Contact and Google’s Inactive Account Manager.
• Keep a list of your accounts in a safe place, and tell your executor where it is.
• Don’t put passwords in your will. In England and Wales, anyone can order a copy of a will once probate is granted.
• Record your wishes for social media: memorialise or delete?

For step-by-step planning, including what to tell your executor, see SwiftWill’s guide to planning your digital legacy. You can also record your wishes with our funeral wishes tool and read about funeral wishes and your will.

Next steps

• Understand the estate: do I need probate?
• Money owed on phones and subscriptions: dealing with debts after a death
• Sorting belongings and devices: clearing a home after a death
• Tell government departments at once: Tell Us Once
• Work through everything else with our when someone dies checklist.