This is the administrative task families least expect and most dread. It surfaces weeks later, usually when a birthday reminder arrives for someone who has died.
Before anything else: deletion is permanent and memorialisation is not. If there is any doubt, or any disagreement in the family, memorialise or leave it. You can delete later. You cannot undelete.
Save what you want first. Photographs, messages, posts — download them before you request anything. Several platforms remove the ability to access content the moment an account changes state, and families lose photographs this way every day.
Two options: memorialise or delete.
A memorialised account shows "Remembering" before the name, stops appearing in birthday reminders and suggestions, and keeps existing content visible to whoever could already see it. Nobody can log into it.
If the person named a legacy contact in advance, that person can pin a post, update the profile picture and respond to friend requests. They cannot read messages. If no legacy contact was named, a family member can still request memorialisation with proof of death, and a verified immediate family member can request deletion instead.
Worth doing while you are there: anyone can set their own legacy contact in Settings, in about a minute. Most people never have.
Owned by Meta and broadly the same: memorialise or remove. A memorialised account is frozen — content stays, nothing can be changed, and it stops appearing in public spaces like Explore. Removal requires proof that you are an immediate family member.
Instagram has no legacy contact equivalent. Nobody can manage a memorialised account.
Google's tool is set up in advance and is genuinely good: Inactive Account Manager. The person chooses how long an account must be inactive before it acts, who to notify, what to share with them, and whether to delete the account afterwards.
If it was never set up, a family member can submit a request for content or for closure. Expect it to be slow and to require documentation, and expect no guarantee — Google reviews these individually.
This is often the important one. Google frequently holds the photographs: years of Google Photos, and the email archive.
Apple
Apple has a Legacy Contact, set up in advance, which is the only straightforward route into an Apple ID. The nominated person gets an access key, and with it plus a death certificate they can reach photos, files, notes and backups.
Without one, access requires a court order in most cases. This is worth knowing while people are alive: an iPhone with no legacy contact can mean a family permanently loses every photograph taken in the last decade.
The others, briefly
- LinkedIn — will memorialise or remove a profile on request from someone who knew the person.
- X / Twitter — deactivation only, at the request of an immediate family member or estate executor. No memorial state.
- Subscriptions — streaming, storage, apps. These keep charging a card indefinitely. Go through a recent bank statement rather than trying to remember them.
What you will need
- A death certificate — nearly always, in some form.
- Proof of your relationship, for closure requests.
- Your own ID.
- The exact profile URL, not just a name. Names repeat.
Expect weeks rather than days. None of this is urgent, and none of it needs doing in the first fortnight. Save the photographs, then let the rest wait until you have the energy for paperwork.
Somewhere permanent instead
A memorial page you control does not depend on a platform's policy or on anyone's password.
Start their tribute