In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how to add a Legacy Contact to your Apple ID so a family member or trusted person can access your photos, notes, messages, and other iCloud data after you pass away.

What is Legacy Contact?

The Legacy Contact feature in Apple Account makes it easier for your spouse, child, parents, or other trusted person to request Apple for photos, messages, notes, reminders, device backups, and other data (full list later below) saved to your Apple Account.

It also makes it a tad easier to ask Apple to remove Activation Lock from the deceased person’s iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Apple devices so family members can sign in and use those devices. If Activation Lock isn’t removed, those devices are pretty much expensive paperweights.

Therefore, it’s important that you add one or more Legacy Contacts to your Apple Account as well as Apple Accounts belonging to your parents, spouse, and siblings.

What’s needed

• You need an iPhone running iOS 15.2 or later, an iPad running iPadOS 15.2 or later, or a Mac running macOS 12.1 or later to add a Legacy Contact. Since this is added to your Apple Account level, you only need to do this on one device, not all of them.
• Secondly, it’s not compulsory for the person you’re adding as a Legacy Contact to be an Apple user. Though if they are, then the access key is saved on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. If they use an Android phone or Windows PC, they can simply save the access key in Notes or Files on those devices or somewhere else, like a bank locker.

How it works

• You add a Legacy Contact to your Apple Account and share the 88-digit access key with that person.
• After you pass away, the person who’s added as your Legacy Contact will use the access key and your death certificate (or its equivalent) to request Apple for your Apple account data.
• After verifying the provided information, Apple will send a special legacy contact Apple Account to the person. They can use this special Apple Account on iCloud.com to access the data. They can also use this Apple Account to sign up on a new/erased iPhone, iPad, and Mac to access the deceased person’s (i.e., your) data. If you had backed up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud, your Legacy Contact can set up a device with that backup and get access to several things.
• Legacy Contact can also ask Apple to remove Activation Lock from the deceased person’s iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices so someone else can use them. Note that doing so will completely erase the device and all local data on it.

Important things to consider before you add a Legacy Contact

1) You must know that your Legacy Contact will have access to all your supported data after you pass away. You can’t be selective about it. For instance, you can’t set up a rule that only your iCloud Photos and Notes are accessible to your Legacy Contact after you pass away, but not your Messages.

2) Only the data in your Apple Account and iCloud is given to your Legacy Contact. Third-party app data isn’t. For instance, they will have access to your iCloud Photos but not to photos stored in Google Photos or Dropbox.

3) After you pass away, your Legacy Contact can’t bypass your iPhone, iPad, or Mac’s device password or your Apple Account password and access everything there. They will have to go through the Digital Legacy process, and then they can access only your iCloud data (what they can access is listed later below).

4) Your data (such as photos, notes, messages, etc.) not saved/backed up to iCloud won’t be accessible to the Legacy Contact. However, imagine you don’t use iCloud Photos, but back up your iPhone to iCloud (which will then back up photos as well, unless you have excluded it); in that case, your Legacy Contact can restore the device backup on a new or erased iPhone and get access to those photos.

How to add a Legacy Contact to your Apple Account

We’re using an iPhone for these steps, but the process is identical on iPad and Mac.

1) Open the iOS Settings app and tap your Apple Account name at the top.

2) Tap Sign-In & Security.

3) Tap Legacy Contact from the bottom.

4) Tap Add Legacy Contact and authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.

5) If you’ve family members added to your Apple Account, you’ll be suggested to select one of them; do that and tap Next. Or tap Choose Someone Else, and select a person from your contacts list.

6) Read the on-screen message and tap Continue.

7) Now, choose how you’d like to share your access key with that person. You can send them this key via iMessage if they are an Apple user (recommended, as it will save the access key to their Apple Account and won’t get lost). Or save/print the key and send it via other medium, or add it to your will or estate planning document, and they can get this access key after you pass away.

8) Finally, tap Done. In case you have not added your correct birthday to your Apple Account (iOS Settings > Apple Account name > Personal Information), tap Update Birthday and save the right one that matches your documents. Apple uses your birthday to verify before sharing your iCloud data with the Legacy Contact. Note: You can tap Add Legacy Contact again and add additional people.

How your Legacy Contact can view the access key

If you added an Apple user as your Legacy Contact:

Your Legacy Contact can see the access key on their iPhone, iPad, and Mac by following these steps:

1. Go to Settings and tap Apple Account name at the top.
2. Tap Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact.
3. There will be a section called ‘Legacy Contact For.’ Tap the person’s name here to view access key, request access to their data, or remove yourself as their Legacy Contact.

If you added a non-Apple user as your legacy contact:

Then you likely shared the access key via text, email, WhatsApp, physical printout, and such. They will have to check these to get the access key.

How Legacy Contact can access your Apple Account data after you die

If you’re someone’s Legacy Contact, visit digital-legacy.apple.com, click Request Access, and follow along to request Apple share the dead person’s iCloud data with you.

You can also go to Legacy Contact settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, tap the person’s name under the ‘Legacy Contact For’ section, and hit Request Access (though this may not work properly at all times, at least in my tests).

Documents your Legacy Contact needs to access your iCloud data

• The 88-digit Legacy Contact access key
• Your Death Certificate (or its equivalent)

What data your Legacy Contact can access

After you pass away, your Legacy Contact can access this data:

• iCloud Photos
• iCloud Notes
• iCloud Mail
• iCloud Contacts
• iCloud Calendars events
• Reminders saved to iCloud
• Messages in iCloud
• Call history
• Files stored in iCloud Drive
• Health Data
• Voice Memos
• Safari Bookmarks and Reading List
• iPhone or iPad iCloud Backup (this can have downloaded App Store apps, photos and videos stored on the device but not in iCloud, device settings, and more)

What data your Legacy Contact can’t access

These things remain personal even after your death, and your Legacy Contact can’t access them:

• Your account usernames and passwords that are saved in the Apple Passwords app/iCloud Keychain
• The accounts you used in Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, etc.
• Cards you used with Apple Pay, Apple ID payment information, and such
• Wi-Fi passwords for networks you connected your device to
• Movies, Music, Books, and other such licensed media you have purchased
• In-app purchases, subscriptions, game currency, game boosters, and other such digital items bought inside an app

For how long is your data available to your Legacy Contact

The special legacy contact Apple Account that Apple will provide to your Legacy Contact is valid for three years. The Legacy Contact has sufficient time to export your data elsewhere. For instance, they can download or AirDrop your photos to their own device.

How to remove yourself as someone’s Legacy Contact

If someone adds you (an Apple user) as their Legacy Contact and sends you a request, you can remove yourself by going to Legacy Contact settings on your device.

In case you don’t have an Apple device and someone adds you as their Legacy Contact without informing you, then there isn’t a way to know about it or remove yourself from it. If you find out about it, ask the person (if they are still alive, of course) to remove you.

If your family member has died without setting up a Legacy Contact

Even if your deceased friend or family member had not added you as your Legacy Contact, you can contact Apple Support with the relevant death certificate and court order to request access to that person’s account data. You can learn more about this topic on these Apple Support pages:

• How to request access to a deceased family member’s Apple Account
• Request access to an Apple Account as a Legacy Contact

Also, check out: Why and how to set up a legacy contact on Facebook

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/12/05/how-to-add-legacy-contact-apple/