What happens to Apple Books e-books when the owner dies

No. Apple's page on the data a Legacy Contact can access names four excluded categories: purchased content such as movies, music, and books; subscriptions and in-app purchases; payment information for Apple Account or Apple Pay; and information stored in the account holder's iCloud Keychain. Apple's Legacy Contact pages say the same thing in one sentence: "Inaccessible data includes movies, music, books, or subscriptions you purchased with your Apple Account, and data stored in your iCloud Keychain (payment information, passwords, and passkeys)." A Legacy Contact can reach iCloud-stored data such as photos, messages, notes, files, and device backups, but not the purchased Apple Books library.

While the deceased's Apple Account and Family Sharing group remain active, family members may still see Book Store titles the deceased purchased through Purchase Sharing. Apple states that when a member leaves or is removed from a Family, the remaining members may no longer be able to access that member's Content, and that content shared by a departing member cannot be used from their collection — "You can purchase it again." The iCloud Terms state that account rights terminate at death and that the account may be terminated on receipt of a death certificate. Apple publishes nothing specific about a deceased organizer, so the honest description is that shared access ends with the account rather than passing to anyone. Each member keeps only the books bought under their own Apple Account.

Apple documents no such outcome. The court-order path, used when no Legacy Contact was designated, is how a requester named as the rightful inheritor asks Apple for access to the deceased's Apple Account and its data in the U.S., Israel, and other locales. Apple does not describe it as a route that makes purchased books transferable, and the Media Services Terms state that no portion of the Content may be transferred except as expressly permitted. Apple also states that only one person can request access to a deceased person's Apple Account.

Apple maintains a purchase history for every Apple Account, documented at reportaproblem.apple.com and, on a signed-in device, under Apps & Purchase History in the App Store, and Apple's billing receipts are emailed and searchable in the deceased's own mail as "receipt from Apple" or "invoice from Apple." Apple also states that hiding a title does not remove its record from purchase history. Apple publishes no executor-facing route that produces that history on request, so an estate letter asks for it as a discretionary disclosure. A list of purchased titles is an inventory record; it does not make the titles transferable.

Apple Books is one service within the deceased's Apple Account. The deceased-account pathways (Legacy Contact and the court-order process) run at the account level and cover iCloud data, and Apple lists purchased content among the categories they do not reach. For the account-wide steps, Activation Lock, and the full Digital Legacy setup, see the Apple Account estate guide at /digital-assets/apple/.