Apple Legacy Contact and Google Inactive Account Manager: set both up in 15 minutes
Without these two settings, a family can lose every photo on a phone and every email in a Gmail account. Step-by-step for Apple's Legacy Contact (and its access key) and Google's Inactive Account Manager, plus what to store in the vault.
Apple and Google will not hand a locked account to a grieving spouse because they ask nicely — both require either a court order or a setting you turned on while alive. The settings are free and take minutes. The catch is that Apple's produces an access key the family must still have years later, which is exactly what a vault is for.
Apple: Legacy Contact
- On an iPhone or iPad with iOS 15.2 or later: Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact → Add Legacy Contact. (Mac: System Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security.)
- Pick a person (they don't need an Apple device). Apple creates an access key — a long code — and offers to send it by Messages or let you print it.
- Store the key: in HearthVault open Planning → Digital legacy → Legacy contacts → 'Record in vault' under Apple, paste the key and the contact's name. Executors and partners can see it in an emergency; nobody else can.
- Tell the contact where it lives. After a death they go to digital-legacy.apple.com, enter the key and upload a death certificate; Apple grants a separate login for three years.
Google: Inactive Account Manager
- Go to myaccount.google.com/inactive and click Start.
- Choose how long Google should wait with no sign-in before acting — 3, 6, 12 or 18 months — and confirm the phone number and recovery email Google will warn first.
- Add up to 10 trusted contacts. For each, tick exactly which products they may download (Gmail, Photos, Drive, Calendar, YouTube…). Optionally write the message they'll receive and set an auto-reply for your Gmail.
- Decide whether Google should delete the account three months after sharing. Many families prefer 'no' so photos stay reachable while the estate settles.
- Record it in HearthVault (Planning → Digital legacy → Legacy contacts → Google): the contact's name, the window you chose and what's shared, so your executor knows an email from Google is coming and isn't a scam.
If nothing was set up
- Apple: a court order naming the person as the rightful inheritor of the deceased's digital assets is required; without it Apple can only delete the account. See the Apple Support link below.
- Google: submit a request through Google's deceased-user form with a death certificate and your ID; Google reviews case-by-case and rarely releases content, though it may close the account or release funds.
- Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and others each have their own memorialisation or closure forms — the Bereavement Pack in HearthVault lists them.
Review once a year
Legacy contacts drift: people divorce, move abroad or pass away first. The yearly check-up asks whether both settings still name the right person and whether the Apple key in the vault still matches the one in Settings (you can view it there at any time).
Record your legacy contacts where your family will actually find them.
Create your vault- How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account · Apple Support
- Request access to a deceased family member's Apple Account · Apple Support
- About Inactive Account Manager · Google Account Help
Where this guide states a rule, deadline or dollar figure, it comes from one of the references above. Links open the primary source so you can check the current wording.
This guide is general information about personal records and planning, not legal, tax or financial advice. Laws vary by state; talk to a licensed professional about your situation.
