What happens to an Apple account when someone dies

“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. Contact iCloud Support at https://support.apple.com/icloud for further assistance.”¹

Apple emails a confirmation of receipt, also emails the Apple Account for which access was requested, reviews and verifies each request before approving access, and emails again when the review is complete or more information is needed.²

Where the deceased had Advanced Data Protection turned on, the Legacy Contact also signs in to an Apple device with the Legacy Contact account and authorizes web access by tapping a notification sent to that device.^{2, 3}

Apple requires and verifies legal documentation before assisting with a deceased person's account: generally a death certificate, and it might also require a court order or other documentation, with requirements varying by country or region.⁴

On approval Apple issues a separate Legacy Contact Apple Account with its own new password, so the survivor never uses the decedent's credentials, and the decedent's original Apple Account stops working.^{2, 5}

Apple cannot access or replace a Legacy Contact access key that has been lost or misplaced, so a missing key routes to the court-order path rather than to a reissue.²

Activation Lock is removed automatically once a Legacy Contact request or an account deletion request is completed; otherwise Apple might be able to help remove it. Devices must be erased and restored before use with another Apple Account.⁶

Apple cannot help remove a device passcode lock without erasing the device.⁶

A Legacy Contact can reach iCloud Photos, Notes, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Messages in iCloud, call history, files in iCloud Drive, Health Data, Voice Memos, Safari bookmarks and Reading List, and anything in an iCloud Backup.⁷

Four categories are excluded: purchased content such as movies, music and books; subscriptions and in-app purchases; payment information for the Apple Account or Apple Pay; and information stored in iCloud Keychain.⁷

End-to-end encrypted categories such as health data and voice memos are unlocked with the access key, which the Legacy Contact may be asked to enter again for that data.²

iCloud Keychain is carved out because the keying information released to a Legacy Contact does not include what is needed to decrypt the decedent's iCloud Keychain.⁵

Some data reached by court order may be end-to-end encrypted and Apple is not able to decrypt it; the requester may then be prompted for a device passcode for the decedent's Apple device or other information.⁴

With no access key, Apple states that in the U.S., Israel and other locales a court order naming the requester as the rightful inheritor of the deceased's personal information is the route, and that only one person can request access to a deceased person's Apple Account.⁴

France, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand accept alternative documentation and a different process instead of a court order.⁴

Legacy Contact access runs three years from the date Apple approves the first Legacy Contact account request, after which the account is permanently deleted.²

The iCloud Terms reserve the right to delete backups for a device that has not backed up to iCloud for 180 days.¹

A request to permanently delete a deceased person's Apple Account and its data starts on Apple's Digital Legacy deletion site and needs the requester's own Apple Account, the Apple Account to be deleted and the legal documentation for the country or region.⁴

Deletion is permanent and forecloses a Legacy Contact request or a court-order request that has not yet been made.⁴

The iCloud Terms (Section VII.B) allow Apple to terminate an account that has been inactive for one year, on 30 days prior notice by email.¹

Purchased content does not pass to an heir on either path: the Media Services Terms license it rather than sell it, and Apple names it as data a Legacy Contact cannot access.^{8, 7}

When the Family Sharing organizer's account is terminated, family members lose access to shared subscriptions and to content the organizer purchased; each member keeps their own purchases.⁹

Apple Pay and Apple Cash balances are not part of Digital Legacy; Apple Cash and person-to-person payments have their own line on the Contact Apple Support page.¹⁰

An Apple Cash balance, which Digital Legacy does not cover¹⁰

Transferring the Account Holder role on an Apple Developer account¹¹