The locked phone of someone who has died: what families can do

When someone close to you dies, their phone is often one of the things left on the side that nobody quite knows what to do with. It might hold years of photos. It might be the only place their contacts are kept. And it’s probably locked.

There are proper routes through this, through Apple and Google themselves. They take some paperwork and some patience, but they work, and you shouldn’t need to pay anyone to follow them. This guide sets them out in the order that makes sense.

Two different locks

It helps to know which lock you’re facing, because they’re handled differently.

• The screen passcode, PIN or pattern. Only the person who set it knew it. Nobody, including Apple and Google, can remove it without erasing the phone.
• The account lock. On an iPhone this is Activation Lock, tied to their Apple Account. On Android it’s tied to their Google account. It stays on even after the phone is erased, which is why a reset alone doesn’t make the phone usable again.

If you know the passcode, you can get into the phone and save what you want to keep. If you also know their account password, you can sign them out and the phone is free to reuse. Most families know neither, which is where the steps below come in.

Before you do anything

1. 1

   Don’t erase the phone

   Erasing wipes anything that wasn’t backed up, for good. Leave it as it is until you’ve decided what you need from it.

2. 2

   Don’t keep guessing the passcode

   Each wrong guess makes the phone wait longer before the next one, and after enough of them it stops accepting guesses altogether.

3. 3

   Keep it charged and somewhere safe

   Put it with their other important papers. If it has a SIM card, leave it in for now.

4. 4

   Gather the paperwork

   Get a copy of the death certificate, and anything showing you’re the next of kin or the executor. A receipt for the phone helps too, if you can find one.

iPhone: if you’re a Legacy Contact

Since 2021, iPhone owners have been able to name a Legacy Contact: someone who can ask Apple for access to their account after they die. If your relative named you, you’ll have been given an access key, which might be a printed sheet, a message on your own iPhone, or a QR code.

Take the access key and the death certificate to Apple’s Digital Legacy page (digital-legacy.apple.com) and make a request there. Once Apple approves it, you can download what was stored in their iCloud, such as photos, notes and backups. Apple also removes Activation Lock from the devices that used their account, so the phone can be erased and set up again.

A Legacy Contact gets what was stored in iCloud, not what’s on the phone itself. Anything that was only ever on the device can’t be recovered without the passcode.

iPhone: asking Apple directly

Most people never set up a Legacy Contact, so this is the more common route. Apple has a support page called “Request access to a deceased family member’s Apple Account”, and it’s worth reading the version for your country, because the documents differ.

• To make the phone usable again, Apple says it may be able to remove Activation Lock from devices signed in to the person’s account. You’ll need the death certificate and may be asked for more. The phone has to be erased as part of this.
• To close the account, you can ask Apple to delete it. Once deleted, Activation Lock comes off the devices that used it.
• To get their photos or files, Apple generally needs a court order naming you as the rightful heir or representative. That is a legal step, so speak to the solicitor or lawyer handling the estate.

Android phones

Google has a form for families called “Submit a request regarding a deceased user’s account”, in the Google Account Help pages. It lets you ask Google to close the account, and in some cases to release data from it. Google asks for your ID and the death certificate, and for data it usually asks for a court order as well. It never hands over passwords.

Closing the Google account doesn’t always clear the lock on the phone straight away. For that, contact the phone’s maker, such as Samsung, Google or Motorola, and explain the situation. Ask what they need before you visit a service centre. Expect to be asked for the death certificate, and proof of purchase if you have it.

If your relative set up Google’s Inactive Account Manager, you may receive an email from Google once their account has gone unused for the time they chose, with a link to download what they chose to share.

Their phone contract

The phone number and the contract are separate from the phone. Most networks have a bereavement team that can close the account, move the number to a family member, or deal with any money left on a pay-as-you-go balance. Have the death certificate and the phone number ready when you call.

If the phone was still being paid off, ask the network what happens to the remaining balance and whether the phone can be unlocked for other networks once it’s settled.

Where our check fits in

If you’re not sure whether the phone even has an account lock on it, our diagnosis can tell you. It reads the IMEI and, on an iPhone, shows whether Activation Lock is on. It also shows the network the phone is locked to where the records show it, and whether it’s been reported lost or stolen. A Google account lock can’t be read from the IMEI. You don’t need the passcode, just the IMEI, which is often printed on the box or the SIM tray.

We can’t unlock a passcode or recover photos, and we won’t pretend we can. For the account lock, Apple’s and Google’s own routes above are the right place to start.

If the phone has already been erased and is now asking for their Apple ID, our page on being locked out of an iPhone explains what happens next. For a forgotten passcode on your own phone, see forgot your iPhone passcode.