What happens to an Apple TV account when someone dies
Apple publishes its own process for a deceased person's account; a written request goes in through Apple's support ticket system.
Under Apple's terms, an Apple TV account closes when the holder dies and nothing in it passes to anyone.
Apple publishes its own process for a deceased person's account: Request access to a deceased family member's Apple Account; a written request goes in through Apple's support ticket system. The request takes 5 documents.
What to do
- •Billed by Apple: cancel it through Apple Support, as in the next step.
- •Billed through Google Play: cancel it in the Apple TV app on the Android device or at play.google.com.
- •Billed through Amazon: cancel it with Amazon.
- •With a Legacy Contact access key, the Legacy Contact requests access with the key and the death certificate.
- •Without an access key, request access with a court order naming the requester as the rightful inheritor. Only one person can make the request.
Required Documents
- Death certificate: Apple requires and verifies legal documentation, generally including a death certificate, and does not ask for a certified copy; requirements vary by country or region.
- Legacy Contact access key: where the deceased designated a Legacy Contact. A Legacy Contact request takes the access key plus the death certificate, and Apple cannot access or replace a lost access key.
- Court order naming the requester as the rightful inheritor: where there is no Legacy Contact access key. The order names the requester as rightful inheritor of the deceased's personal information. Apple states this applies in the U.S., Israel and other locales; some jurisdictions accept alternative documentation.
- The deceased's Apple Account email or phone number
- Proof of the requester's authority over the estate: for the subscription-cancellation and purchase-history requests. Letters testamentary, letters of administration, or the equivalent.
What Apple Inc.'s terms say at death
- Section IV.D, No Right of Survivorship
“Except as allowed under Digital Legacy and unless otherwise required by law, you agree that your Account is non-transferable and that any rights to your Account or Content within your Account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate your Account may be terminated and all Content within your Account deleted.”1
What Apple Inc. says happens7
- Who owns the asset
The iCloud Terms, Section IV.C "No Conveyance," state that nothing in the agreement conveys any interest, title or license in an Account.1
- Purchased content and licenses
The Apple Media Services Terms, which govern the Apple TV app and iTunes purchases, allow content to be used only for personal, noncommercial purposes, and redownload runs only to devices signed in with the same Apple Account.2
Content may not be available for redownload once it is no longer offered, and Apple may remove content at any time, for instance when it loses the right from the content provider, after which it cannot be downloaded or accessed from Apple.2
Apple's list of what a Legacy Contact can access excludes purchased content such as movies, music and books, along with subscriptions and in-app purchases, payment information and iCloud Keychain, so Digital Legacy does not deliver the Apple TV library or subscription.3
- What carries over to a new account
On approval, a Legacy Contact receives a special Legacy Contact Apple Account, and the account holder's original Apple Account no longer works.4
- Deletion and data retention
A Legacy Contact can access the Legacy Contact account for three years from when Apple approves the first Legacy Contact account request, after which the account is permanently deleted.4
- Subscriptions and billing
The Apple TV plan automatically renews until cancelled, so it keeps charging the payment method on file until the cancellation is completed, including while a request is pending.5
Apple states that "You can't cancel a family member's subscription," so a Family Sharing organizer or member has no self-service route to it.6
A subscription billed through Google Play is cancelled in the Apple TV app on the Android device or at play.google.com, and one billed through Amazon is cancelled with Amazon. Cancelling works slightly differently in Israel and South Africa.7
- Verifying the requester
Apple requires and verifies legal documentation before it assists with a deceased person's account: generally a death certificate, and possibly a court order or other documentation. Requirements might vary by country or region.8
- Court orders and legal process
In the U.S., Israel and other locales, a requester without a Legacy Contact access key can request access with a court order naming them as the rightful inheritor of the person's personal information. Only one person can request access.8
Other companies and product lines involved3
Not in Apple TV's published guidance10
- How long a request takes
- A mailing address for a written request
- A path to refund a balance to the estate
- An estates email address or fax number
- A death or survivorship provision in the Apple Media Services Terms
- What happens to a Family Sharing group when the organizer dies
- A way to make a family member owner of the subscription or library
- An estate exception for purchased media
- A studio or distributor reason for titles that cannot be shared
- A document list specific to a deceased Apple TV subscriber
Sources8
A written request to Apple can ask it to transfer the accounts to a named family member, provide purchase and transaction records for the estate inventory, close the account and preserve the account while the estate is opened.
The value that can still be kept is what the account holder moved while alive: Apple allows family pooling.
Digital Assets Recovery Letter for Apple TV drafts that request from the estate's details.
Sources
Data sourced from Apple Inc. primary sources (12 pages reviewed). How we research.
Apple TV estate claims
Apple Support (deceased family member's Apple Account)
Website
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