Digital assets after a death: accounts, photos and subscriptions
Digital accounts fall into three groups: things that cost money and should stop, things that hold memories and should be preserved, and things that hold value or access and need careful handling. Deal with them in that order, and avoid closing anything before you have retrieved what matters.
The short version
- 01Stop the spending firstStreaming, storage, apps, memberships and anything renewing on a stored card.
- 02Preserve what matters before closing anythingPhotos, videos, documents and messages are often unrecoverable once an account is deleted.
- 03Check for legacy contact settingsSeveral major platforms let a person nominate someone in advance. Look before submitting a formal request.
- 04Handle profiles thoughtfullyMemorializing, deactivating or leaving a profile alone are all reasonable choices, agree it as a family.
- 05Treat anything with monetary value carefullyDomains, digital currency, seller accounts and monetized channels may form part of the estate.
Things worth checking early
- Password manager or written password list
- The person's primary email, which controls resets everywhere else
- Cloud photo storage nearing a payment date
- Subscriptions billed annually
- Two-factor authentication tied to a phone number that may be disconnected
A note on access
Using someone else's credentials, even a family member's, is not always permitted by a platform's terms or by local law. Where an account matters, the safer route is the provider's own bereavement process, and where value is involved, professional advice.
You don't have to hold all of this in your head.
Tell AndWithYou what happened and we'll turn it into a short, prioritized path, and keep track of the rest as things change.
Keep the list in one placePrivate by default. Free for families to start.