Keeping it up and handing it on: a routine, legacy contacts and a note

A monthly and a yearly routine that keep a library in order, the settings that let someone reach your photo accounts after you die, and a note that says where everything is.

The four records this routine uses Understand

A photo library stays in order through small, regular checks, and it passes to someone else through a few written facts. Both depend on knowing what you have. This chapter works from four records in this manual's photo file, each a sheet kept in your browser. You can start every one of them blank today; the routine fills them as you go.

Two terms first. Your master library is the one place where your photos live and get organized: an app such as Apple Photos or Google Photos, a set of folders on a computer or drive, or both. A backup is a separate copy of that library, in another place, that does not change when the library changes. A library that syncs across your devices is not a backup: Apple says photos in iCloud Photos are not duplicated in your iCloud backup and tells you to keep backup copies of your library. Product

A fifth sheet, the handing-on note, draws from the other four, and the photo file prints or exports all of them together. If a sheet is empty, fill only the rows the routine needs today: the account that holds your photos on the accounts sheet, and each copy you know of on the backup sheet. If you do not know where all your photos are, Taking stock is the place to begin; it is also where to begin if you are taking on someone else's collection.

The intervals in this chapter (monthly, yearly, every five years) are this manual's, except where a source is named beside them. Convention

Each month

The monthly pass keeps a month's photos from piling into a year's. Its five tasks follow the order a photo travels: in, chosen, cleaned, described, copied. Put a repeating reminder in your calendar for the same day each month, and write the day on the routine sheet. This manual's interval is monthly because a month of phone photos is a size most people can look through at one sitting; no source sets it. Convention

Bring in, then delete

The order matters. A photo is safe to delete from a card or a phone only once it is in the library and in a backup. This manual's rule is copy, check, then delete: copy the photos, check that the count arrived and open a few, and only then delete the source. Convention Deleting in a synced library deletes on every device: Apple says deleting a photo in iCloud Photos deletes it everywhere you use iCloud Photos, and Google says the same of backed-up photos in Google Photos. Both keep deleted items for 30 days (Apple's Recently Deleted, Google's Trash). Apple adds that if you are over your iCloud storage limit, deleted photos skip Recently Deleted and are removed at once. So delete only the obvious misses, inside the month you took them, while the 30 days run. Product

Captions while you remember

A caption written in the month costs a minute; one written in ten years may not be possible. The National Archives' family guidance names the four things to record: who, what, where and when. Write them on the month's favorites. Where a caption is kept, and whether it travels when you copy a photo, depends on the app; Dates, captions and people explains how to check.

Check the backup ran

A backup that runs by itself can stop without telling you, and a backup by hand happens only when you do it. So the monthly check is one look: open the newest backup copy and find a photo from this month in it. If the only copy is the phone app's cloud, this check will show you that, and Backups has the steps for a second copy with no computer. Write the date in the routine sheet's last-done column. Test

Each year, and every five years

The yearly check is about whether the copies still work and the accounts still exist. Pick one date you will remember, such as a birthday, the new year, or the week a relative who holds a copy visits, and put it in your calendar with a reminder a week before. Preference

Open the files, and test a restore

The Library of Congress's personal archiving page asks you to check your photos at least once a year (Library of Congress, Keeping Personal Digital Photographs). The Digital Preservation Coalition's report on personal archiving says the same: check the health of your media and the accessibility of your files at least once per year (Digital Preservation Coalition, Technology Watch Report 15-01, 2015). Convention Open a few old photos and a few recent ones from each copy, and one video. The backup test checklist lists the checks. The restore test goes one step further: copy a few photos back out of a backup, as if the library were lost, and open them. No source gives a household interval for that; yearly is this manual's convention, and Backups has the steps. Convention

Drive years

The Library of Congress page says to make new media copies every five years or when necessary. On the backup sheet, each drive has the year it was bought and a move-by year five years on. At the yearly check, compare them, and move a drive early if it shows trouble: slow to appear, noisy, or a file that will not open. Formats and the long term covers moving to a new drive. Shorter figures from another source are under Go deeper. Convention

Sign in to every photo account

Free and forgotten accounts are where photos are lost without anyone deleting them. On 2026-10-30 the services' own pages said:

• Google. A personal Google Account unused for two years may be deleted with its content (Google's Inactive Account Policy). Google Photos says that if you don't use it for two or more years, or run out of storage, your photos might be deleted, after an email at least three months before; Google One members in good standing are exempt from that Photos rule (Google Photos activity and storage). Google counts activity per account, so an old account on a drawer phone needs its own sign-in.
• Microsoft. Sign in at least once in a two-year period, or the account can be closed (Microsoft account activity policy, updated 2020).
• Amazon. An account with no upload, download or sign-in for two years has all its files deleted, with an email at 18 months (Amazon Photos file retention policy).

So the yearly task is: sign in to every account on the accounts sheet, including the old ones, and write the date in its last-signed-in column. Product If you have copied an old account's photos into your library and checked them, closing the account is your choice; signing in keeps the choice open.

Storage against growth

Look at how much each account and drive holds, and how much it grew in the year. The space calculator shows what the library will need in a few years across all your copies. Over their limits the services act differently: Google says photos might be deleted after two years over quota; Microsoft says OneDrive becomes read-only, is frozen after three months over the limit and may be deleted after six (Microsoft storage quotas); Amazon says files are deleted after 180 days over quota, starting with the most recent uploads. A shared album made in iOS 27 counts toward its owner's iCloud storage, including what others add (Sharing photos). Product

Review the shares

Read down the sharing sheet. Is each album still with the people you meant? Has a temporary album expired, and did people save what they wanted? Is a link album still needed? Remove anyone who should no longer be in one.

Every five years, or at the first sign of trouble

Two tasks wait longer. Move each drive's copy to a new drive (the Library of Congress's five years), and check that every format in the library still opens on the devices you use now (Formats and the long term). Both are on the routine sheet under their own heading. Convention

Handing on: legacy contacts and inactive account plans

When someone dies, their photo accounts do not pass to their family by themselves. Each provider sets its own process, and the settings you choose now decide much of it. A legacy contact is a person you name in an account's settings who can reach some of that account's data after your death. An inactive account plan is the same idea triggered differently: the company waits until the account has gone unused for a period you choose, then contacts or shares data with the people you named. A recovery contact, which helps you get back into your own account while you are alive, is a different setting with no access to your data; Learn Digital Security's security file chapter explains both for all your accounts, not only photo accounts.

Apple Legacy Contact

Apple's steps on an iPhone: go to Settings, tap your name, tap Sign-In & Security, tap Legacy Contact, then Add Legacy Contact (on a Mac: System Settings > your name > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact). It needs iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2 or macOS Monterey 12.1 or later, and two-factor authentication (Apple's How to add a Legacy Contact). You can add more than one, and Apple says any one of them can make decisions about your account data after your death, including deleting it permanently. The contact will need the access key Apple creates, which you share by iMessage or as a printed copy, and a death certificate. The contact must be over 13, which varies by region. Product

Apple lists what a Legacy Contact can reach: iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive files, anything in an iCloud Backup (which might include photos stored on the device), Mail, Contacts, Messages in iCloud and more; not purchased media, subscriptions, payment information or iCloud Keychain (Apple's Data that a Legacy Contact can access). The point for a photo library: a Legacy Contact reaches what is in iCloud. Photos that live only on a computer or a drive are reached by the drive copy and the note, not by this setting.

Google Inactive Account Manager

Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you choose how long Google waits after your account goes inactive, then notifies or shares data with up to 10 people, with different data for different people (Google's About Inactive Account Manager). Google judges activity from sign-ins, My Activity, Gmail use and Android check-ins, and it verifies each contact by phone before they can download anything. You set it up on the Inactive Account Manager page that Google's help article links. Choose Google Photos among the data for the person who should have your photos. Product

Facebook legacy contact

Facebook lets you choose a legacy contact to look after your main profile once it is memorialized, or to have the account deleted instead. Meta says a legacy contact can write a pinned post, change the profile and cover photos, request removal, and download a copy of what you shared on Facebook, if you have that feature turned on; they cannot log in or read your messages. You must be 18 or older to choose one (Facebook's About legacy contacts). If Facebook holds photos you have nowhere else, copy them into your library while you can (Getting photos out). Product

Microsoft, and services that do not say

Microsoft's page for families describes no legacy contact. It says an account without its sign-in details closes after two years of inactivity, and that it releases a deceased person's OneDrive content only with a valid subpoena or court order (Microsoft, when someone has died). For OneDrive, the drive copy and the note carry the photos. For Amazon Photos and Dropbox, the pages we read describe their deletion rules, not an after-death setting; check the provider's own help pages. Ask

Our default

Set the legacy setting first on the account that holds your master library, then on any other account that holds photos you have nowhere else. Ask the person before you name them, and tell them where the note is. Write the date you set it on the handing-on sheet and in the accounts sheet's legacy column. Preference

A note for whoever comes next

The settings reach accounts. A note reaches everything else: the drive in the closet, the folders on the computer, the box of prints. The handing-on note is a short written page that says where your photos are and who knows about them. The Library of Congress page asks you to put an inventory of your photos with your important papers. This manual's version is one page. Convention

No passwords, codes or the Apple access key go on the note. Write where a thing is kept, not the thing. The legacy settings exist so that the people you name do not need your passwords, and a note with passwords in it is a risk wherever it sits. Convention The handing-on sheet prints the note; it holds no passwords, because no field asks for one.

Give the note to one person, and put a copy with your important papers. A drive copy given to one person, such as the copy away from home in Backups, means they hold the photos as well as the directions to them. Tell them both what they hold. Update the note at the yearly check, and give the new copy to the same person.

A copy of the description can also live inside the library itself, as a short text file in the top folder, so whoever opens the drive finds it there (Folders and file names calls it the readme). Convention

See it: Ruth, and Nadia See it

• Library of Congress, Keeping Personal Digital Photographs: the four steps, the yearly check, the five-year media copies and the inventory with your papers.
• Apple, How to add a Legacy Contact: the steps on iPhone and Mac, and the access key.
• Google, About Inactive Account Manager: what can be shared, with how many people, and how Google judges activity.
• Facebook, About legacy contacts: what a legacy contact can and cannot do.

Practice: two dates, one setting and a note Practice

Minimum: two calendar entries, one monthly pass, one legacy setting on your main photo account, and a note given to one person. Time: about an hour for the dates, the setting and the note; the monthly pass depends on how many photos the month brought. Materials: your phone or computer, your calendar, the routine sheet, the handing-on sheet, the accounts sheet, and a conversation with the person you will name.

1. Add the two calendar entries. A monthly reminder on a fixed day, and a yearly date with a reminder a week before. Write both on the routine sheet.
2. Do the monthly pass. The five tasks in each month, ticking each on the routine sheet with today's date.
3. List your photo accounts. On the accounts sheet, one row for each service that holds photos, with the last sign-in date. Sign in to any you are unsure of.
4. Ask, then set the legacy setting. Ask the person; then set Apple's Legacy Contact or Google's Inactive Account Manager on the account that holds your library. Write the date on the handing-on sheet.
5. Write the note. Fill the handing-on sheet: where the library is, each copy, what the folders mean, the accounts, the legacy settings, and your wishes. Check that no line holds a password or code.
6. Print it and give it. One copy to the person, one with your important papers. Write who has it on the sheet.

Your photos Your photos

Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does the routine sheet show a monthly date and a yearly date, and one monthly pass with its date?
• Is every account that holds photos on the accounts sheet, with a last sign-in date?
• Is a legacy setting, or an inactive account plan, set on the account that holds your library, and dated on the handing-on sheet?
• If your library is not in that account, does the note say where it is and who holds a copy?
• Does the note say where the library and each copy are, and is it free of passwords and codes?
• Has the note been given to one person, with a copy in your important papers?

Worked example

Ruth's routine sheet has the first of the month and the week of David's visit. Her accounts sheet has her Apple Account, signed in this month. Her handing-on sheet shows the Apple Legacy Contact set with today's date, David named, and the access key "sent to David's phone". The note says the library is on the MacBook and not in iCloud, where both drives are, and who has a copy. It passes. It does not settle whether David can open the library on his own computer; that waits for his visit.

Common mistakes

• Counting the synced library as the backup. Apple says iCloud Photos items are not duplicated in an iCloud backup.
• Setting a Legacy Contact for photos that are not in iCloud. The contact reaches iCloud data; a computer or drive needs the note and a drive copy.
• Writing passwords or the access key on the note. Write where they are kept.
• Naming someone without asking them. They need to know they are named and where the note is.
• Forgetting an old account. Two years without a sign-in can be enough for Google, Microsoft or Amazon to delete it.
• Letting the note go stale. Update it at the yearly check.

What is still unresolved

What your family can do with an account you set no legacy setting on is each provider's process, and the providers change them; Learn Funeral Planning covers what to do after a death. Wills, digital executors and the legal right to a dead person's accounts are for a lawyer. Device passcodes and the rest of your accounts are in Learn Digital Security's security file. Whether your copies open is settled each year by opening them.

Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The routine sheet has a monthly and a yearly date, the legacy setting is dated on the handing-on sheet, and the note has been given.
• I did one monthly pass and dated it on the routine sheet.
• Every account that holds photos is on the accounts sheet with a last sign-in date.
• The note holds no passwords, codes or access key, and a copy is with my important papers.
• I did the yearly check now and set legacy settings on my other photo accounts. (Go deeper; optional)

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