Blog · Digital accounts
How to Get Into a Parent's Phone and Accounts After They Die
The password isn't what locks your family out. Silence is.
By Shanda Deshield, founder of One More Favor · October 14, 2026
I believe the most loving thing you can leave your family isn't in your will. It's one page that says how to get into your phone.
Here's what happens in a lot of families. A parent dies. The phone is on the kitchen counter, still buzzing. Everybody they love is in that phone: the contacts, the photos, the two-step codes for the bank. And nobody knows the passcode.
If that's where you are right now, I'm sorry. Let's go through what you can do, and then what to do so it never happens to your own kids.
Why the phone is so hard to get into
Phones are built to keep strangers out. That's a good thing while we're alive. After a death, the same protection keeps out the family. Phone companies generally won't hand you a passcode, and guessing too many times can lock the phone further or erase it.
The phone also holds the keys to everything else. Many banks and email accounts send a login code to that phone by text. No phone, no code. No code, no account.
If your parent already passed: what you can try
Apple (iPhone, iPad, iCloud)
Apple has a feature called Legacy Contact. If your parent named you as a Legacy Contact before they died, you can request access with the access key they created and a copy of the death certificate. Apple says that can include photos, messages, notes, files, and device backups. It does not include their saved passwords or payment information (what Apple calls iCloud Keychain), or movies, music, and books they bought. Apple also says that once access is approved, it removes Activation Lock from their devices, and the devices have to be erased before anyone else can use them. Access lasts three years, then the account is deleted.
If your parent didn't set up a Legacy Contact, Apple's own help pages are the place to start. The process is slower and may need court paperwork.
Google (Gmail, Android, Google Photos)
Google has a setting called Inactive Account Manager. While they're living, a person can choose up to 10 people to be notified if their account goes unused for a period they pick: 3, 6, 12, or 18 months. If your parent set it up, you may receive an email from Google with what they chose to share. If they didn't, Google has a separate request process for the accounts of people who have died.
Banks, utilities, and everything else
Call each company, ask for their bereavement or estate department, and have a death certificate ready. They usually won't give you the password. They'll work with the executor to close or transfer the account. Keep a log of every call.
To be fair to the password manager
Password managers are a great tool. I'd tell anyone to use one. And they're useless to your family without the ONE master password that lives in your head. A vault nobody can open isn't a plan.
The three things to write down now
If you're reading this for your own parent while they're still here, or for yourself, here's the mini version of what saves a family weeks of grief and phone calls:
- The phone passcode. The one that opens the phone itself. Without it, almost nothing else works.
- The main email address. Most password resets go to email. If the family can reach the email, they can usually reach the rest.
- Who to call first. The bank, the doctor, the insurance agent, the friend who knows everything. Names and numbers.
Write them on paper. Not in a text, not in an email, and never send a password to anyone. Put the paper somewhere safe, and tell one trusted person where it is.
And while you're there: set up Apple's Legacy Contact or Google's Inactive Account Manager, whichever your family uses. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing.
Your one step this week
Ask yourself one question: if something happened to me tonight, could anyone I love open my phone? If the answer is no, you know exactly where to start.
Take the quiz and tell me your score at onemorefavor@gmail.com. I want to hear it.