When someone dies, their online life keeps going without them. Their Facebook still sends birthday reminders. Their email still receives bills. Their subscriptions still charge their card. And every one of those live accounts is a door left open: dormant accounts of deceased people are prime targets for fraud and impersonation, because no one is watching them.
Closing it all down is not hard in any single step, but it is a lot of steps, across many platforms, each with its own forms and rules, at the worst possible time to be doing admin. This guide gives you the whole picture: the documents to gather once, the right order to work in, and where each major platform's process lives. It applies wherever you are in the world.
Short on time? This entire guide describes what Departed Digital does for families as a service. One case, every platform, documents handled once. Start a case from £149 → Checkout shows your local currency automatically.
Before Anything: Three Rules
1. Do not log in to their accounts. Even with the password, even as next of kin, accessing someone else's account after death breaches platform terms and can break computer misuse laws in many countries. It can also complicate the estate. Every platform has an official family process; use it.
2. Preserve before you delete. Closure is permanent everywhere. Photos on iCloud and Google, videos on TikTok, posts and messages: once an account is removed, the platforms will not retrieve any of it for you. Decide what the family wants to keep, and save it first.
3. Do not rush. Nothing bad happens if an account stays open for another month. Plenty bad happens if an irreplaceable photo library is deleted in week one. Work in the order below and let the slow platforms be slow.
The Two Documents That Unlock Everything
Nearly every platform asks for the same two things, so gather them once and photograph or scan them clearly:
- Proof of death. The death certificate is accepted everywhere. Some platforms also accept an obituary or death notice for lighter actions like memorialisation.
- Proof of your authority. Either a document showing your relationship, such as a birth or marriage certificate, or the estate document naming you, called a grant of probate or letters of administration in the UK and Commonwealth countries, or letters testamentary in the US.
With those two files on your phone or computer, you can complete almost any platform's process. Our documents guide covers the edge cases.
The Right Order to Work In
The person's devices are the master key to everything else and often hold the only copies of photos. Keep them charged, do not factory reset anything, and do not let anyone wipe or sell a device until the estate is settled.
Go through the person's email inbox subjects, bank statements, and phone home screen to build the list: social media, email, cloud storage, shopping, subscriptions, gaming, dating, and professional accounts. Most people leave behind 40 or more. Our checklist guide walks every category.
Photos and videos from Apple and Google accounts, TikTok videos, and anything sentimental. Do this before submitting any closure request anywhere.
Tell the bank about the death so cards stop honouring subscription charges, and note which subscriptions exist for the estate. Financial accounts themselves are handled by the bank's own bereavement team, which is separate from everything in this guide.
Now work the list with your two documents, starting with the platforms causing the family the most pain, usually the social feeds, and leaving the slowest queues to run in the background.
Every Major Platform, at a Glance
- Facebook: memorialisation or removal via Meta's forms. Full Facebook guide →
- Instagram: separate from Facebook even though both are Meta; its own request form. Full Instagram guide →
- Google and Gmail: one account covers Gmail, Photos, Drive, and YouTube, handled through Google's deceased user request. Full Google guide →
- Apple ID and iCloud: the strictest platform; smooth if a Legacy Contact exists, court order territory for data access if not. Full Apple guide →
- TikTok: no public deceased form; support requests with documents, and save the videos first. Full TikTok guide →
- LinkedIn: memorialisation for anyone, closure for family or the executor. Full LinkedIn guide →
- X (Twitter): deactivation only, no memorial option, with a two step form and email process. Full X guide →
- Everything else: shopping, gaming, dating, and subscription services almost all respond to an email to their support address with the death certificate attached, asking for the account to be closed.
Questions Families Ask Us Most
Can I just use their password?
We understand why families do, but no. It breaches every platform's terms, can be unlawful, and can cause real problems if an account is later part of the estate. The official routes exist and they work.
How long does all of this take?
Each platform takes one week to two months. A full estate of accounts, handled methodically with everything submitted correctly the first time, usually resolves within one to two months. Handled ad hoc, it commonly drags on for a year, which is the main reason families hand it to us.
What if we cannot find all the accounts?
You will not find them all, and that is fine. Deal with the ones that matter: anything visible, anything holding memories, anything attached to money. Obscure forum accounts from 2009 harm no one.
Should we plan ahead for our own accounts?
Yes, and it takes ten minutes: set a Legacy Contact on Apple, an Inactive Account Manager on Google, and a Legacy Contact on Facebook. Those three settings spare your own family most of this guide.
Or Hand the Whole Thing to Us
Departed Digital exists because this guide, done properly, is dozens of hours of forms, document uploads, and follow up at the hardest possible time. We do it as a service: you tell us about your loved one once and send the two documents, and we run every platform's process to completion, chasing every silence, and give you a written record of everything closed or memorialised.
Packages start from £149 for two platforms, £249 for five, and £399 for an unlimited estate. Checkout shows your local currency automatically, and we work with families in the UK and internationally.
Let us handle it. One case, every platform, documents handled once, written record included. Start a case from £149 →