How Long Relatives Can Access an Account, by Platform

Every guide says the same thing about planning: name a legacy contact. Almost none says what happens after the contact is named, which is where the trouble usually sits. Access is granted for a defined period, subject to conditions, and occasionally not granted at all. A family that assumes access is permanent will download a fraction of the archive and discover the rest is gone. This page collects the actual windows in one place so the sequence of decisions is visible before it matters. If you are the person who has been named, the companion piece is what to do when you are named a digital executor.

Conclusion: three different clocks, and only one starts at death

The platforms are not measuring the same thing. Apple measures from the moment a request is approved, and the term is a fixed three years. Google measures inactivity, which is a proxy for death that the company never verifies, so the clock can start before anyone has died. Meta does not measure at all: a memorialised profile has no expiry, but no content comes with it. Treating these as one timeline produces bad plans, because a family that reads only the first number will assume it has three years everywhere.

• Apple - three years from approval — Fixed term on the data the account held when the legacy contact was set up, not data added later. Requires the access key and a death certificate
• Google - inactivity first, then weeks — The inactive period is set by the account holder and is triggered by absence of sign-in. Recipients then get a download link that expires, so speed matters more than with Apple
• Meta - no expiry, no content — A memorialised profile persists indefinitely. The legacy contact can manage the surface of the profile but cannot read messages or log in
• LinkedIn, X and Snapchat - zero — Only closure, on request with proof of death. No memorial state, no archive, no login

Apple: a fixed term with a hidden start date

Conclusion: the three years begin at approval, which is a date the family controls. That is good news and it is also a trap. The request needs the access key generated when the legacy contact was set up plus a death certificate, and Apple then creates a special Apple ID for the contact to use. Two limits are easy to miss. The access covers the categories of data the account held at the time the legacy contact was added, so anything created afterwards may not be included. And iCloud Keychain, payment information and licensed media are excluded entirely, which is why the password vault route still matters. If you are comparing the two fixture platforms, the mapping of what each releases is in Apple vs Google legacy tools.

Google: the timer is inactivity, not mortality

Conclusion: Google cannot know that someone died, so the estate must act rather than wait. Inactive Account Manager lets the holder choose a period of inactivity, three months by default and up to eighteen, after which Google notifies up to ten data recipients and shares only the categories selected in advance. If the holder never configured it, the route is the deceased user form, which requires proof of death and proof of authority and produces discretionary results rather than a right. Either way, once a notification is sent the download window is limited. Families that treat the email as a starting point rather than a deadline routinely lose the archive.

Meta: unlimited duration, minimal content

Conclusion: memorialisation solves the dignity problem and none of the evidentiary ones. A memorialised profile stays visible, cannot be logged into, and stops appearing in promotional contexts. A legacy contact can write a pinned post, respond to new friend requests and update the profile picture and cover photo. What the contact cannot do is read messages, remove existing posts or export the archive. Families sometimes want the account deleted instead, which requires a verified request with proof of death. The distinction between the two outcomes is set out in social platform memorialisation compared.

Platforms with no window at all

• LinkedIn — Reports a deceased member to close the profile. No memorial state and no data release, so the record disappears when the request is processed
• X — Deactivates an account for an estate representative or verified family member. No login, no archive, no memorial option
• Snapchat — Deletes on request with a death certificate. Access is never granted, which reflects how the product was designed rather than an oversight
• Microsoft and others — A next-of-kin process closes the account; releasing mailbox or drive contents normally needs a subpoena or court order rather than a policy window

What actually shortens the window

Conclusion: delay, not policy, is the main cause of lost data. Three practical rules follow. Report the death to each platform in the first weeks, because every clock starts at notification. Download everything immediately when access is granted instead of browsing first, since a term that is measured in years can still end in the middle of a folder. And put the export in an encrypted vault with a named recipient rather than leaving it on a drive in a drawer, which is the same advice given for cloud storage inheritance where the data volumes are largest.

Disclaimer

This article describes platform policies and published terms as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Access windows, eligibility requirements and excluded data categories change without notice, and a court order may change the outcome in some jurisdictions. Verify with each provider current help pages before relying on a term, and consult a qualified lawyer for estate questions.