What happens to Apple accounts when the owner dies

Legacy Contacts can access: Photos, Messages, Notes, Files (iCloud Drive), downloaded apps, device backups, Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders. Apple's Legacy Contact request documentation states this also includes end-to-end encrypted data such as Health data and Voice Memos, which the Legacy Contact unlocks using the access key. They CANNOT access: purchased media (movies, music, books, subscriptions) or iCloud Keychain data (passwords, payment cards, passkeys). Access lasts three years before the account is permanently deleted.

On their own Apple device (Settings > their name > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact > Request Access) or on the web at [Apple's Digital Legacy site](https://digital-legacy.apple.com), providing the access key plus the death certificate. Apple emails a confirmation of receipt, reviews and verifies the request, and emails again when the review is complete or more information is needed. On approval, the Legacy Contact receives a separate Legacy Contact Apple Account for the deceased's data — the original Apple Account stops working — and Activation Lock is removed from devices that used it. Uploaded documents must be PDF, PNG, TIF, JPEG, or GIF at 300 dpi or better, flat and fully legible with all four edges visible. A request to permanently delete a deceased person's account instead is started at [Apple's Digital Legacy deletion site](https://digital-legacy-account.apple.com).

They do not pass to an heir. Two separate provisions produce that result. The iCloud Terms, Section IV.D ("No Right of Survivorship"), state that "any rights to your Apple Account or content within your Account terminate upon your death," except as allowed under Digital Legacy. And Digital Legacy does not allow it: Apple names purchased movies, music, books, and subscriptions as data a Legacy Contact cannot access. The Media Services Terms separately license content rather than sell it — apps are "licensed, not sold," under a nontransferable license. (The Media Services Terms themselves contain no death clause; the termination-on-death provision is in the iCloud Terms.) Family Sharing access to the organizer's purchases ends when their account is terminated.

No. Where there is no Legacy Contact access key, Apple requires a court order (in the US and other locales) naming the requester as the rightful inheritor of the deceased's personal information. Apple describes adding an inheritance plan to a will as something that "can simplify the process of acquiring a legal order" — it supports the court-order request rather than replacing it. The way to avoid the court order entirely is to designate a Legacy Contact during life. France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand accept alternative documentation instead of a court order.

If a Legacy Contact was designated, Activation Lock is automatically removed when Legacy Contact access is approved. Without a Legacy Contact, you can request Activation Lock removal from Apple Support with proof of purchase, or through the court order process. In all cases, devices must be factory reset to use with a new Apple Account.

iCloud Keychain (passwords, payment cards, passkeys) is explicitly excluded from Legacy Contact access in Apple's documentation, and because it is end-to-end encrypted Apple does not hold the keys to it. Unlike other end-to-end encrypted data such as Health and Voice Memos, which a Legacy Contact can unlock with the access key, Keychain is carved out entirely. If the deceased's passwords are only stored in Keychain with no separate password manager, those credentials are effectively inaccessible.