Facebook and Instagram after a death

After an account is memorialized, a Legacy Contact can take certain actions, including writing a pinned post, changing the profile or cover photo, requesting removal of the account, and, if you enabled the feature beforehand, downloading a copy of information you shared on Facebook.

That pinned post can be especially helpful to a family. It can be used to share funeral information, a memorial announcement, or simply let friends know where they can leave memories.

The ability to download information needs to be addressed before death, so this is something worth reviewing while you are setting up your Legacy Contact.

These are two very different choices.

When a Facebook account is memorialized, the profile remains. “Remembering” appears with the person's name, and previously shared content generally remains visible according to its original privacy settings.

Memorialized accounts are also removed from certain places where an unexpected reminder can be especially difficult for a grieving family, including birthday reminders, advertising, and People You May Know suggestions.

If someone has chosen Facebook's delete-after-death option, Facebook says the person's posts, photos, comments, reactions, messages, and other account information are permanently removed once Facebook is notified of the death.

That difference deserves some thought.

A memorialized profile can still be dealt with later. Once an account has been permanently deleted, it cannot simply be restored because family members change their minds.

This is why having the conversation ahead of time can prevent family members from having to guess.

Facebook places these choices within its memorialization settings.

You can choose a Legacy Contact or indicate that you want your account deleted after your death.

While you are there, consider whether you want your Legacy Contact to have access to Facebook's available download or archive feature, and let the person know that you have selected them.

That conversation matters. A message from Facebook about someone's death could easily be mistaken for spam or a scam if the person had no idea they had been chosen.

Meta changes its settings menus from time to time, so if you cannot find the option, search Facebook settings for “memorialization.”

A family member or executor can ask Facebook to memorialize or remove an account.

Facebook may ask for documentation establishing the death and the requester's relationship or authority.

A death certificate is generally the most direct form of documentation. Facebook may also accept combinations of documents that establish authority and confirm the death, such as estate documents and an obituary or memorial card.

One practical issue is easy to overlook: the information in the documents should correspond with the information on the Facebook account.

Nicknames, maiden names, shortened names, and other differences can sometimes make the process more complicated.

Instagram is also owned by Meta, but its procedures are separate.

Instagram now also provides for a Legacy Contact, although the available powers are more limited than on Facebook.

A Facebook Legacy Contact can write a pinned post and update a profile and cover photo. An Instagram Legacy Contact can manage certain aspects of the account, including the profile picture and tags, but does not have the same ability to publish a pinned memorial announcement.

On neither platform does a Legacy Contact gain access to private messages or the ability to log into the person's account.

Instagram also allows families to request that an account be memorialized or removed after a death.

For memorialization, Meta may accept proof of death such as an obituary or news report. Removal generally requires additional proof that the requester is an immediate family member or has appropriate legal authority.

A memorialized Instagram account displays “Remembering” and is removed from certain public discovery areas, such as Explore.

For many families, the account itself is only part of the issue.

What they really care about may be the photographs, videos, family conversations, posts, or other digital memories stored there.

And social media is only one part of a person's digital life.

There may also be email accounts, cloud storage, subscription services, online financial accounts, photo libraries, websites, and other digital assets that nobody else knows exist.

That is why simply writing down a password is not a complete digital-estate plan.

Your family needs to know what exists, what you want done with it, and where the appropriate access information can be found.