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Your digital legacy: what to sort out for your photos, recordings and accounts

Most of the photos and voices of a life now sit on a phone and in a few accounts. This sheet helps you write down where they are, choose who may reach them, and make a copy that does not depend on one device or one company.

There is no need to do it all at once. Print the sheet, tick off one item on a quiet afternoon, and keep it with your other papers. Tell one person where it is.

This checklist is practical help, not legal advice; for a will or anything about inheritance law, a notary is the right person to ask.

1. Accounts and passwords

Several large services have a built-in way to pass on access. It takes a few minutes per account.

  • Make a list of the accounts that hold photos, messages and files: phone, email, cloud storage, social media. Write down where the passwords are kept, not the passwords themselves.
  • Apple: add a Legacy Contact. On an iPhone: Settings, your name, Sign-In & Security, Legacy Contact. That person later needs the access key and a death certificate. Purchases and saved passwords are not included.Apple: How to add a Legacy Contact
  • Google: set up the Inactive Account Manager. You choose after how long without activity it starts, and which data up to ten people receive. Without a plan, Google may delete an account after two years of inactivity.Google: About Inactive Account ManagerSet it up
  • Facebook: choose a legacy contact who can look after your memorialized account, or say that you would rather have the account deleted.Facebook: legacy contacts
  • Microsoft (Outlook.com, OneDrive): there is no legacy contact. An account closes after two years of inactivity, and without the sign-in details your family would need a court order. Keep a copy of what matters elsewhere.Microsoft: when someone has died
  • Your phone: write down where the passcode can be found, for example in a sealed envelope with your papers or in the emergency access of a password manager.

2. Photos and videos

The aim is simple: know where they are, and have them in two places.

  • Write down where your photos are: the phone, a cloud account, old computers, USB sticks, memory cards, CDs, boxes of prints.
  • Make one export per year. For example, every January copy last year's photos and videos into a folder named after the year.
  • Keep two copies in two places: an external drive at home and a cloud account, or a drive with a family member.
  • Once a year, check that an old drive still opens.
  • Choose the photos that matter most and write who is on them and when. Fifty photos with names say more to your family than twenty thousand without.

3. Voice recordings and stories

A voice is often the thing people miss most, and the easiest to lose when a phone is replaced.

  • Save voice messages and videos in which someone speaks outside the chat app, as a file, with the name and the date.
  • Record a few stories in your own voice. A phone on the table is enough. Questions help.Twenty questions to ask your parents
  • Write next to each recording who is speaking, roughly when, and what it is about.

4. Who gets access, and when

A few decisions, written down, save your family a lot of searching.

  • Choose one or two people who will look after this, and tell them.
  • Decide who receives what: some photos are for everyone, some letters are for one person.
  • Decide when: now already, on a date, or only later.
  • Write down what you would rather not have shared or kept.
  • Put this sheet with your other important papers, and tell someone where it is.

5. Your own memory palace

The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace: your photos, voice recordings and stories each get a room you can walk through. Private by default; invite family and friends when you choose.

  • Under Settings, Legacy you name a contact for the whole palace, a wing or a room, and you can write letters to be delivered later.How the legacy plan works
  • You choose when: on a date, or after a silence you set yourself, from 3 to 36 months. You receive an email first, then 30 days follow, and a trusted person can stop it.
  • Make a full export as a ZIP file now and then, and read what happens to your memories if we ever stop.What if we stop?

Notes

Where this sheet is kept:

Who knows about it:

Last checked on:

Links to Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft checked on 20 October 2026.

thememorypalace.ai/digital-legacy-checklist

Questions people ask

Is this checklist legal advice?

No. It is practical help for your photos, recordings and accounts. For a will or questions about inheritance law, ask a notary.

What is a legacy contact?

A person you choose in advance who may reach some of your account data after your death. Apple calls it a Legacy Contact, Facebook a legacy contact; Google has the Inactive Account Manager. Microsoft has no such feature.

How often should I back up my photos?

Once a year is a good rhythm: copy last year's photos into a folder named after the year, and keep two copies in two different places.

Should I write my passwords on this sheet?

No. Write down where the passwords are kept, for example a password manager or a sealed envelope, not the passwords themselves.