Legacy contacts are the people who will be able to access your Apple account once you have passed away. This person can take decisions about your account after your demise. By setting up legacy contacts, you can help your close acquaintances by providing them with important information. Dealing with death is difficult, and considering how to secure data, it will be very tough for your peers to get that information. To avoid this hustle, it is extremely recommended to set up legacy contacts in iOS 15 given the opportunity.
What Happens on Setting up a Legacy Contact?
From the versions of iOS 15.2, you can set up a fixed legacy contact who will be able to access certain data from your Apple account only after your death. Before giving access, Apple always verifies. Hence this helps you not to provide untimely access and keep your account secure. Apple mentions that the legacy contact will be given an access code, and they are required to provide this code along with the death certificate to acquire control of your account.
Different types of information your Legacy Contact can access
The different types of information that a Legacy Contact will be able to access usually depend upon whatsoever data you have stored in iCloud. Some such information has been mentioned here as follows: –
The different photos or notes or files that you have uploaded to iCloud
Your mail, contacts, and call history
Your reminders and calendar
Your messages, health data, or voice memos that have been uploaded to iCloud
But that particular legacy contact won’t be able to view any incensed media, purchases conducted in apps, or any payment information. In fact, your username and password for your account won’t be visible as well.
Steps to set up Legacy Contacts in iOS 15
Steps to follow to set up a legacy contact: –
Open the settings
Click on your profile picture and then click on Apple ID settings
Under Apple ID, click on Password & Security
Tap on legacy contact
Then, tap on Add Legacy Contact and click on Add Legacy Contact again where the disclaimer message is shown.
You must authenticate yourself using passwords or Touch ID or Face ID etc.
If you have enabled family sharing, then you can select a family member otherwise, click on Choose Someone Else
In case you aren’t in a family sharing group or choose someone else, choose someone from your contacts. Click on their email ID or mobile phone number to select it.
Once you have selected your legacy contact, click on next
A screen will pop up which will describe how the feature works; click on continue there
After that, you will have an option to send your legacy contact the access code via message, or you may print a copy
Once you have finalized the sharing method, the chosen contact is set as Legacy Contact.
Conclusion
To add more legacy contacts, you can repeat the above steps again. The legacy contact Apple ID, which is generated after that particular contact requests access, will be active only for three years. After that, the legacy account is totally removed. For the legacy contact to access the data, they need to go to the Digital Legacy website, where the authentication process will begin. If by any chance the access code is lost, your family will be able to access your iPhone after your death, but all data and information and the logged-in accounts will be removed first. But even for this, the death certificate will be required.
Experiencing difficulties with your Device, check out our “How To” page on how to resolve some of these issues.
