How to find a deceased person’s online accounts

Start with what you can see without signing in to anything: papers, post, bank and card statements, and the devices themselves.
The person’s main email account is the richest clue, because password resets, bills and renewals arrive there. Keep it running, and use each provider’s official process rather than their password.
Don’t guess a phone passcode and don’t reset a computer. Both can destroy what you are looking for.
Write down what you find as you go, grouped by type. That list is what your executor and each provider will need.

Most families find out that someone had far more online accounts than anyone knew: photos in two clouds, an old Hotmail address, a few subscriptions, a website. Nobody can ask the person any more, so the job is detective work, done slowly. This page shows where to look first. It is general information, not legal advice.

Start with what you can see

Papers and post. Look for a letter of instruction, a notebook, a password book, an envelope with the will, and printed recovery keys or backup codes. Ask the solicitor or notary who holds the will. See letter of instruction.
Bank and card statements. Recurring payments show which subscriptions and memberships are still running, and statements are a good place to start a list of accounts. See subscriptions and recurring payments after a death.
The phone. An iPhone can be set to erase all data automatically after 10 failed passcode attempts, so don’t guess. Put the phone somewhere safe and read a deceased person’s phone.
The computer. Leave it as it is and don’t reset anything. Many computers encrypt their data, and without the password or a recovery key the files can’t be recovered. See a deceased person’s computer.

The email account

A person’s main email address tends to link many of their other accounts: password resets, bills, renewal reminders and recovery messages all arrive there. That makes it the best source of clues, and the account you should not let lapse. Providers protect inboxes closely, and some delete inactive ones after a year or two, so decide early what you need. See email accounts after a death for what each provider asks for and how long inboxes last, and closing accounts in order for why email and the phone number go last.

Keeping an account running does not mean signing in as the person. Providers don’t authorise that, and using someone else’s password can breach their terms and, in the UK, raise issues under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Password managers and legacy tools

If the person planned ahead, there may be an official way in that does not involve a password:

Password manager emergency access. Bitwarden, Proton Pass, NordPass, Keeper and LastPass let a named contact request access. See password managers for inheritance.
Apple Legacy Contact. If you were given an access key, you can request access to much of the person’s iCloud data. See Apple Legacy Contact.
Google Inactive Account Manager. The person can name up to 10 people who receive chosen data. See Google Inactive Account Manager.
Facebook legacy contact. A legacy contact can look after a memorialised profile. See Facebook and Instagram after death.

Build the list as you go

Group what you find by type, so that nothing is missed. The digital asset inventory works through ten categories: email, photos, files and cloud storage, money, social media, subscriptions, domains and websites, devices, two-factor authentication, crypto and licensed purchases. For each entry, note the provider, the email address or username it uses, and what needs to happen. Don’t write passwords into the list.

Check for the categories that are easy to forget: a domain name or website (domains and websites after death), crypto (crypto after death), accounts that sit behind two-factor codes (2FA and inheritance) and money in online banks and payment apps (PayPal and online banks).

Who can help

In England and Wales only the executor, or an administrator where there is no will, has legal authority over the estate. If the person chose a digital executor, that person helps the executor but does not replace them. Once you know which accounts exist, each provider has its own route for the family, and the documents they ask for are in what you need after a death.

Be careful while you search. Criminals sometimes use the identities of people who have died, and scammers read death notices. See scams that target bereaved families before you pay anyone who offers to find or recover accounts.

Sources

The detail on each platform comes from the guides linked above, which list the official pages they use.