Facebook will keep reminding people to wish a happy birthday to a friend who has died, for as long as nobody tells the company about the death. The big platforms all have rules for what happens to an account after death, but most of them only act when a relative or friend asks, and most people never set anything up while they are alive.
Facebook: memorial accounts and legacy contacts
When Facebook is told that a user has died, it can turn the profile into a memorial account. The word “Remembering” appears next to the person’s name, the profile stops showing up in birthday reminders and friend suggestions, and nobody can log in to it. Friends can still post on it if the settings allow. Users can choose a legacy contact in advance: someone who can manage a memorialised profile, pin a tribute post, change the profile and cover photos and accept friend requests. A legacy contact cannot read the dead person’s private messages. Close family can instead ask Facebook to remove the account entirely, usually with a death certificate or similar proof.
Instagram: memorialise or remove
Instagram, which is owned by the same company, also offers memorialisation. Anyone can request it by sending proof of death, such as a link to an obituary or a news report. A memorialised Instagram account stays visible but cannot be changed, and it does not appear in places like the Explore page. Immediate family members can ask for the account to be deleted, but they have to prove both the death and their relationship, for example with a birth certificate and a death certificate.
Google and Apple: plan ahead or wait for a court
Google’s Inactive Account Manager lets users decide in advance what happens if they stop using their account for a period they choose. Google can send chosen people a message and give them access to selected data, such as photos in Google Photos or files in Drive, or delete the account. Apple added a Legacy Contact option in 2021. The person chosen gets an access key, and after the death they can use it with a death certificate to download photos, messages and other data from iCloud. Without these settings, families often face a slow process that may require court orders, and some data is never released.
X, LinkedIn and the rest
X does not give relatives access to an account. A verified family member or a person authorised to act for the estate can ask for it to be deactivated, with a copy of the death certificate and their own identification. LinkedIn lets people report a member’s death and ask for the profile to be closed or memorialised. Smaller services vary widely, and many have no policy at all, which is why accounts of the dead often stay online for years with their last post at the top.
What you can do now
The simplest step is to choose a legacy contact on Facebook and Apple and set up Google’s Inactive Account Manager, which takes a few minutes each. A list of your important accounts, kept with your will but without the passwords written in it, tells your family where to start, as long as one trusted person knows where to find it. Password managers also offer emergency access features that let a nominated person request entry after a waiting period. For families who are grieving, having these choices already made saves weeks of emails and forms at the worst possible time.
For public figures, memorial pages often become places where fans gather. After a famous death, a memorialised account can collect thousands of new comments in a day, from people who never met the person but feel they knew them.