Handing on: the note for whoever comes next
Where the library and each copy are, what the folders mean, which accounts hold photos, which legacy settings are set and who has a copy of this note. No passwords and no codes.
Essential for anyone whose photos someone else will want. On a first pass, the two lines that matter are where the library is and where each copy is; the legacy lines follow once you have set them in each account. A reader who skips it leaves the next person to work out from scratch which accounts and drives hold the photos. It is the sheet Routines and handing on fills. No passwords, codes or recovery keys go here.
The note
Write it so someone who has never opened your computer could find the photos. No passwords, no codes, no recovery keys.
How to use this sheet
- Write for a stranger to your computer. "The blue drive in the desk's top drawer" beats "the backup drive".
- Point, do not copy. For what the folders mean, point to the library plan's description; for the accounts, point to the accounts sheet. Print both with this one.
- Legacy lines are dated. Write who you named and the date you set it, from the account's own settings.
- Give it to one person and keep a copy with your important papers, as the Library of Congress suggests for the inventory.
Ruth Feldman (fictional) wrote: the library is the Photos library on the MacBook; one copy is the Time Machine drive in the study, one is the drive at David's; the folders and captions are described on the printed plan; Apple Legacy Contact, David, with the date set; the note is in her important papers and David has a copy.
This note is not a will and gives no one a legal right to your accounts. Wills, digital executors and access to a dead person's accounts are legal matters and the providers' processes; Learn Funeral Planning covers what happens after a death, and a lawyer answers the legal questions.