How to Close a Deceased Person’s Online Accounts

This is one of the hardest kinds of removal, because platforms have to balance your request against protecting the account. Expect to provide a death certificate, and expect it to take time. Work through it slowly; there is no deadline.

Start with the email account

Whoever controls the email controls password resets for everything else. Google’s process for a deceased person’s account requires proof of death and proof of your authority; Apple requires a court order unless the person named a Legacy Contact.

The major platforms

1. Facebook — you can either memorialise the account (it stays up, marked “Remembering”) or request deletion. A Legacy Contact set up in advance makes this far simpler.
2. Instagram — same options, requested through a separate form.
3. Google/Gmail/YouTube — submit a request to close the account or obtain data; the Inactive Account Manager, if configured in advance, handles it automatically.
4. Apple — a Legacy Contact can access the account with an access key and death certificate; without one you generally need a court order.
5. LinkedIn — has a dedicated form to memorialise or remove a deceased member’s profile.
6. X, TikTok, Snapchat — each has a deceased-user form requiring a death certificate and proof of relationship.

The one that surprises people

Data brokers keep publishing the deceased, often listing them alongside surviving relatives’ addresses. Most will remove a listing on request with a death certificate or obituary link — work through the Start Here checklist on their behalf. It also reduces the risk of “ghosting” identity theft, where the deceased’s details are used to open credit.

Prevent this for yourself

Set a Legacy Contact on Apple, a Legacy Contact on Facebook and Google’s Inactive Account Manager. Each takes two minutes and saves your family a genuinely painful process.