--- title: "How to Save a Loved One's Photos, Messages, and Voicemails After They Die" author: "Ari Ber" category: "Digital Legacy" date: 2026-09-23T12:12:40.444Z canonical: "https://tryglow.ai/blog/save-loved-ones-photos-messages-voicemails" --- # How to Save a Loved One's Photos, Messages, and Voicemails After They Die ![Adult hands holding a printed photograph up toward late afternoon window light, with a worn shoebox of photos and letters ope](https://hsppuvezyxmkpzkgfkho.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/enrichment/7f2c03bf-e2ec-4f1e-b222-8501c44d58d3/0430de27-ddf6-438f-9672-07a8e881e271/4169ce67-8347-441a-848f-43fed8aa1529.jpg) The phone still has 11,000 photos on it, and nobody wrote down the password. That is the situation many families find themselves in within days of a death - standing in a kitchen or a spare room, holding a device that contains years of someone's life, unsure whether to touch anything at all. This guide covers the main routes for saving photos, messages, voicemails, and email. Follow the triage steps first, then work through whichever sections match what you have in front of you. **Before you touch anything - have these ready:** - The device itself, unlocked if possible - The account password, PIN, or any password manager your person used - A copy of the death certificate (official or certified - platforms vary) - An obituary or other proof of relationship if you don't yet have the certificate - Time: some of this takes days to complete, not minutes **Do not** factory-reset the phone, change the account password, delete the account, or cancel the phone line. Any of these can make data permanently unrecoverable. ## The fastest safe way to save photos, messages, and voicemails ![](https://hsppuvezyxmkpzkgfkho.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/enrichment/7f2c03bf-e2ec-4f1e-b222-8501c44d58d3/0430de27-ddf6-438f-9672-07a8e881e271/4c94bd82-962b-4801-b801-f51d3f156f96.jpg) There are three main routes: back up the device directly (fastest, most complete), use the platform's own download tool (Google Takeout, Apple Data Download, Facebook's Download Your Information), or go through a legacy contact or formal data request if you don't have the password. If you have the phone unlocked, start with the device backup. If the phone is locked but you know the password, go straight to the platform download tools. You don't have to do all three. Start with the one that matches what you have in hand. ## Step 1: Do this first - a quick triage before anything else ![](https://hsppuvezyxmkpzkgfkho.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/enrichment/7f2c03bf-e2ec-4f1e-b222-8501c44d58d3/0430de27-ddf6-438f-9672-07a8e881e271/ff5cde33-710f-4e6d-98ab-bdaa7843826b.jpg) Before you open a single settings menu, spend ten minutes on this list. It will save you from locking yourself out of something irreversible. - Keep the phone charged. A dead phone that locks after too many failed attempts is harder to recover. - Write down every account you know about - email addresses, social platforms, cloud services, any subscriptions. A notes app or a piece of paper both work. - Do not cancel the phone line yet. Carrier voicemails are stored on the carrier's servers and disappear when the line closes. More on this in Step 5. - Check whether your person set up a Legacy Contact on Apple, Google, or Facebook. If they did, that contact has a specific access route that bypasses the password entirely. Deadlines differ by provider and change over time, and some accounts are deleted after a long period of inactivity. Check each provider's current policy early rather than waiting - Google's Inactive Account Manager page and Apple's Digital Legacy page are the places to start. ## Step 2: Back up the phone or computer if you have access If you can unlock the device, this is your fastest move. A full device backup captures photos, messages, contacts, call logs, and most app data in one step. ### iPhone backup to iCloud or Mac - Connect the phone to Wi-Fi and plug it into power. - Go to Settings, then the account name at the top, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup. - Tap Back Up Now. Depending on storage, this takes 10 minutes to an hour. - Alternatively, connect the iPhone to a Mac with a cable, open Finder, select the phone, and click Back Up Now. This backs up to the computer rather than iCloud and does not require an iCloud subscription. You unlock the phone, plug it into a Mac, and start a Finder backup while you sit with it. By the time you've made a cup of tea, the photos, messages, and notes are copied to the computer's hard drive. ### Android backup to Google Account - Open Settings, then Google, then Backup. - Tap Back Up Now. This syncs photos to Google Photos, contacts to Google Contacts, and messages (on some devices) to Google's servers. - For a more complete backup, connect the phone to a Windows computer and use Android File Transfer (Mac) or Windows Explorer to copy the DCIM folder, which contains all photos and videos. iCloud and Google backups include photos, messages, contacts, and call logs. Voicemails saved as audio files will back up; voicemails stored on the carrier's server will not. Those need a separate step - see Step 5. ## Step 3: Download photos and messages from Google, Apple, or Facebook If you have the account password but not the physical device - or if you want a second copy - each major platform has an official download tool. ### Google Takeout (Gmail, Google Photos, Drive, and more) - Sign in to the account at [takeout.google.com](https://takeout.google.com). - Select the data you want - at minimum, Google Photos, Gmail, and Drive. - Choose your export format (.zip is simplest) and frequency (export once). - Click Create Export. Google emails a download link, usually within a few hours to a few days. - Download the .zip file to an external hard drive, not just your laptop. ### Apple Account Data Download (iCloud photos, messages, notes) - Go to [privacy.apple.com](https://privacy.apple.com) and sign in with the Apple ID. - Select Request a copy of your data. - Choose iCloud Photos, Messages, and any other categories you need. - Apple prepares the export and sends a download link, typically within 7 days. ### Facebook Download Your Information - Sign in, go to Settings and Privacy, then Settings, then Your Facebook Information. - Click Download Your Information. - Select Photos and Videos, Messages, and Posts. Choose date range if you want everything. - Click Create File. Facebook notifies you when the download is ready, usually within a few minutes to a few hours. If you don't have the password for any of these accounts, the next step covers the alternative route. ## Step 4: Request access through legacy contact or memorialization When there is no password, each major platform has a formal process. The two main routes are a Legacy Contact (a person named by the account holder before death, who has a specific access code) and a next-of-kin data request (where you provide the death certificate and proof of relationship). If your mother set you as her Apple Legacy Contact, you can request access to her iCloud data using a one-time access key she would have shared with you, or that you can find on her device under Settings - Apple ID - Legacy Contact. [Apple's Digital Legacy support page](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212360) walks through the exact steps, including what data is accessible and what is not. For Google, the equivalent is the Inactive Account Manager. If your person set it up and named you, Google will share a link to download their data. If they did not set it up, you can still submit a next-of-kin request through Google's deceased user form, providing the death certificate and your relationship. For Facebook and Instagram, a Legacy Contact can manage memorialization but cannot download all data. To request photos and other content, use [Meta's Special Request for Deceased Person's Account](https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/228813257197480). Policies vary by country and change periodically - check the form itself for current requirements. Do not try to guess the password, use a password recovery tool, or pay a third-party service to access the account. These actions can violate the platform's terms of service, may be illegal depending on your jurisdiction, and in the worst case can trigger account deletion before you retrieve anything. ## Step 5: Save voicemails from your carrier This step is easy to forget and hard to undo. Carrier voicemails - the ones that live in the phone's visual voicemail app - are stored on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or your carrier's servers, not on the device itself. When the phone line is cancelled, they are usually deleted within days. To save them before that happens: - Do not cancel the phone line yet. - On iPhone, open the Phone app, tap Voicemail, find the message, tap the share icon (the box with an arrow), and save it as an audio file or share it to Files, Notes, or email. - On Android, the share option varies by manufacturer. Open the voicemail app, long-press the message, and look for a Save or Share option. - If the carrier's app doesn't show a share option, call the carrier directly. Explain that the account holder has died and you need the voicemails preserved. Ask for them in .mp3 or .wav format - not locked to a proprietary app that may not exist in five years. You call the carrier, explain that your father died and you want to save his voicemails. They ask for the death certificate and your relationship to the account holder. Some carriers mail the files; others email a download link. Ask for a written confirmation that the line won't be cancelled until the files are delivered. ## Step 6: Check for deleted photos or messages If something seems missing, check these two places before assuming it's gone. First, the device's Recently Deleted folder. On iPhone, open Photos, scroll down to Recently Deleted - items stay there for 30 days before being permanently removed. In iMessage, deleted conversations may still be in the phone's local storage if the device hasn't been wiped. Second, the cloud backup. If your person had iCloud Photos or Google Photos enabled, deletions on the device are reflected in the cloud - but the cloud backup taken before the deletion may still hold the original. Check the backup's timestamp against when the item was deleted. If neither of these works and the data matters deeply, professional data recovery services exist - companies that can examine the device's storage at a hardware level. This is expensive (often several hundred to over a thousand pounds or dollars) and not always successful. Start with the free routes above. Consider professional recovery only if those fail and the data is irreplaceable. ## If you don't have the password For each major platform, the path without a password runs through an official form and a death certificate. - **Google:** Submit a next-of-kin request through Google's deceased user process. You can request account memorialization or, in some countries, a data download. Start at Google's support page for deceased users. - **Apple:** If no Legacy Contact was set up, Apple currently does not provide a general data access route for next of kin without a court order. This is worth knowing now, not after you've waited weeks. Check [Apple's Digital Legacy page](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212360) for the current position. - **Facebook and Instagram:** Use Meta's Special Request form to request memorialization or content. What you can access depends on what the account holder's privacy settings allowed. The form asks for the death certificate and proof of your relationship. You don't have your father's Google password. You submit a next-of-kin request, attach his death certificate and a document showing your relationship, and wait. Google's response time varies - typically one to four weeks. Keep a copy of everything you submit. ## If the account has already been deleted Most platforms hold deleted accounts in a recoverable state for a grace period - roughly 30 days for Apple IDs, up to 90 days for Google accounts, and a similar window for Facebook. After that, recovery is generally not possible. If a family member deleted the account recently, contact the platform's support team immediately. Explain the situation, give the account's email address, and ask whether recovery is still possible. Facebook's support team has helped families in this situation when contacted within the grace period - but there are no guarantees, and the outcome depends on exactly when the deletion was requested and where in the deletion process the account sits. If more than 90 days have passed, some Preserving a loved one's voice can feel like one of the most urgent and emotionally charged tasks in the aftermath of loss. A soldier's family member shares their personal method for backing up voicemails in a way that keeps them safe long-term, beyond the fragile storage of a phone. The approach is practical and replicable, making it worth watching before those recordings are at risk of disappearing. ## FAQ ### What should I do first with a deceased person's phone before trying to access any accounts? Before opening any settings menus, do four things: keep the phone charged, write down every account you know about (email addresses, social platforms, cloud services), do not cancel the phone line, and check whether your person set up a Legacy Contact on Apple, Google, or Facebook. Also avoid factory-resetting the phone, changing any account password, deleting the account, or cancelling the phone line - any of these can make data permanently unrecoverable. ### How do I save voicemails from a deceased person's phone before cancelling their plan? Do not cancel the phone line until you have saved the voicemails. On iPhone, open the Phone app, tap Voicemail, find the message, tap the share icon, and save it as an audio file to Files, Notes, or email. On Android, long-press the message in the voicemail app and look for a Save or Share option. If neither works, call the carrier directly, explain the situation, and ask for the files in .mp3 or .wav format. Ask for written confirmation that the line will not be cancelled until the files are delivered. ### How can I download a deceased person's Google Photos, Gmail, and Drive files? Sign in to the account at takeout.google.com, select the data categories you want (at minimum Google Photos, Gmail, and Drive), choose .zip format and export once, then click Create Export. Google emails a download link, usually within a few hours to a few days. Save the downloaded file to an external hard drive rather than just your laptop. ### What happens if I don't have the password to a deceased person's Apple account? If no Legacy Contact was set up before death, Apple doesn't offer next of kin a data access route without a court order. If a Legacy Contact was named, that person uses the access key they received when they were added - it may be printed, saved in their own Messages or Files, or stored in their own Apple ID settings. Check Apple's Digital Legacy support page early for the current position. ### Is it safe to use a third-party service or password recovery tool to access a deceased person's account? No. The article advises against guessing the password, using a password recovery tool, or paying a third-party service to access the account. These actions can violate the platform's terms of service, may be illegal depending on your jurisdiction, and in the worst case can trigger account deletion before you retrieve anything. Use the platform's official legacy contact or next-of-kin data request process instead, which requires a death certificate and proof of relationship. --- Source: https://tryglow.ai/blog/save-loved-ones-photos-messages-voicemails