What happens to your iPhone photos when you die? Legacy Contact
Without a plan, the photos on an iPhone can outlive anyone’s access to them.
In short
With a Legacy Contact, someone you choose can request access to the data in your Apple Account after your death — including iCloud Photos and your iCloud Backup — using the access key you gave them and a death certificate. Access lasts three years. Photos in an end-to-end encrypted vault app stay locked unless they also have that vault’s secret.
Key takeaways
- Add one in Settings › [your name] › Sign-In & Security › Legacy Contact.
- They need the access key and a death certificate.
- An encrypted vault opens only with its own secret, Legacy Contact or not.
What a Legacy Contact can reach
Apple’s list covers data stored in iCloud and in iCloud Backup: iCloud Photos, Notes, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Messages in iCloud, call history, files in iCloud Drive, Health data, Voice Memos, Safari bookmarks, and anything in an iCloud backup — which may include photos and videos stored on the device.
Excluded: purchased movies, music and books, subscriptions, payment information, and everything in iCloud Keychain, such as passwords and passkeys.
Access is temporary. The Legacy Contact account is available for three years from when Apple approves the first request, and is then permanently deleted.
Adding a Legacy Contact
- Go to Settings › [your name] › Sign-In & Security › Legacy Contact.
- Tap Add Legacy Contact, confirming with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode if asked.
- Choose a member of your Family Sharing group, or someone from your contacts.
- Share the access key: by iMessage, or as a printed copy you hand over or keep with your estate planning documents.
Your account needs two-factor authentication, and your contact must be over 13, though the minimum age varies by country or region. Apple can’t access or replace a lost access key, so store it where it will be found.
How access is requested
After a death, the Legacy Contact requests access from their Apple device or on Apple’s Digital Legacy website, with the access key and a death certificate; requirements vary by country or region. Apple reviews and verifies each request. Once it is approved, the original Apple Account stops working and Activation Lock is removed from the devices that used it. Encrypted data, such as Health data, may require the access key.
Photos in a vault app
A Legacy Contact receives what Apple can provide. An app that encrypts photos with its own key — a key Apple never had — stays locked, even if its encrypted backup sits in your iCloud. That is the point of the encryption, and it applies to the people you leave behind as much as to anyone else.
With Latent, a vault opens only with its pattern or its nine-word recovery phrase. If there are photos you want someone to inherit, keep the recovery phrase where your Legacy Contact access key lives, or keep those photos somewhere they can be reached. If there are photos you would rather nobody opened, the vault already does that. For questions about wills and estates, a legal professional where you live is the right person to ask.