Semparo Digital legacy vault
Join the waitlist

How do I access a deceased person's iCloud or iPhone?

Apple will not give you the password or the device passcode. If the person set a Legacy Contact, that contact submits their access key and the death certificate at Apple's Digital Legacy page and gets the iCloud data. Without one, a U.S. court order naming you the rightful inheritor of the data is required. The iPhone itself is a separate lock: Apple can remove Activation Lock so you can erase and reuse it, but not unlock it.

Was a Legacy Contact set up before they died?

This is the first question, because it decides which of two very different processes you are in. Apple added Digital Legacy in December 2021 with iOS 15.2. The account owner could name one or more Legacy Contacts, and each one received an access key: a QR code saved as a PDF, printed out, or sent in Messages. Check the person's papers and your own Messages history for it. No access key means no legacy path, even if the person told you their wishes out loud.

If you find the key, the process is short:

  1. Go to Apple's Digital Legacy request page at digitallegacy.apple.com, or start from Settings on your own iPhone.
  2. Submit the access key and the death certificate.
  3. Apple reviews the request and emails you credentials for a dedicated legacy account.
  4. Sign in with it to view and download the person's iCloud data for up to three years.

The review takes days, not months. It is the fastest deceased-account process any major platform runs.

What if no Legacy Contact was set?

You have two options, and both go through Apple's same request page. You can ask Apple to delete the account, which needs the death certificate and proof you represent the estate. Or you can ask for access to the data, and in the United States that requires a court order stating that you are the rightful inheritor of the person's personal information. Getting that order means a trip through probate, so expect the whole path to take months rather than weeks.

There is no shortcut between the two. A death certificate alone gets the account deleted; only the court order gets the data out.

Why is the iPhone itself still locked?

The iCloud account and the physical phone are two separate locks, and winning one does not open the other. The passcode encrypts everything on the device, and Apple has no way around it. That is not policy; it is how the hardware works.

What Apple can do is remove Activation Lock once you provide the death certificate, so the phone is not a brick forever. Removing it lets you erase the device and reuse or sell it. It does not reveal anything that was on it. So before erasing, get into the iCloud account by one of the paths above and check for a device backup: for most people, the backup holds nearly everything the phone did.

One practical note while you work through this: anything billed through the person's App Store keeps charging until someone stops it. Our guide to canceling a deceased person's subscriptions covers where those charges hide.

Common questions

Can Apple unlock the iPhone if I show a death certificate?

No. Apple cannot bypass a device passcode, because the data on the phone is encrypted with it. What Apple can do with a death certificate is remove Activation Lock, which lets you erase the device and set it up fresh. Erasing destroys whatever was on it, so exhaust the iCloud paths first: a backup of the phone often lives in the account.

What does a Legacy Contact actually receive?

A Legacy Contact receives most of what the person stored in iCloud: photos, notes, mail, contacts, calendars, messages in iCloud, files, and device backups. They do not receive saved passwords from iCloud Keychain, payment information, or licensed purchases like movies and music. Access runs for three years from the first approved request, and then Apple deletes the legacy account.

What does the court order need to say?

For a request without a Legacy Contact, Apple requires a court order that names the deceased person and their account, identifies you, and states that you are the rightful inheritor of their personal information. Apple lists the exact required elements on its request page, and it is worth handing that list to the probate lawyer verbatim. Some countries, including Germany and Australia, accept alternative documentation instead.