How to Transfer Your IPhone Data After Death
Our digital lives are closely tied to our “real” lives, and Apple is finally beginning to acknowledge this. The data stored in our iCloud accounts is important not only to us, but also to our family members. Now our loved ones have the opportunity to access our digital data when we can no longer.
How legacy Apple contacts work
Starting with iOS 15.2 , iPad OS 15.2 and macOS 12.1, Apple has made it possible to designate an old contact who can retrieve your digital information in the event of your death. Since this is Apple, this is all done in a safe way and there are security measures in place as well.
An outdated contact will need a unique passkey and death certificate (verified by Apple) to request access to your data, including iCloud photos, notes, emails, reminders, health data, and your iCloud backups. They will not be able to access billing information and data stored in your Keychain (such as usernames and passwords).
How to assign an old contact
For this feature to work, both sides must be running iOS 15.2 or higher. After the upgrade, open the application “Settings”, select your profile at the top and go to “Password and Security”> “Outdated contacts.” Click the Add Old Contact button at the bottom of the screen.
Here you can select someone who has already been added to your family account, or you can select someone from your contact list. Then click the ” Continue ” button again.
Select the Send Message option to send the passkey to the contact in a message. You can also print it. Click the ” Send ” button to send your message. Then select ” Finish ” to complete the setup.
Once the person accepts the passkey, it will be added to the obsolete contacts section. You can add more than one person to this list.
How to edit or delete an obsolete contact
You can delete an obsolete contact at any time. Go to Settings > Profile > Password & Security > Old Contact . Here, select the person’s name and click the ” Remove Contact ” button to get started.
How to access iPhone data after someone dies
If you are the permanent contact for someone who has passed away, you need to use the Apple Digital Legacy website to retrieve their details.
Once the Digital Legacy website is open, click the Request Access button to get started. You will need an access key and death certificate to retrieve their details.