Google Inactive Account Manager: How to Set Up Access for Your Family

What Google Inactive Account Manager Does

Google Inactive Account Manager lets you choose what happens to your Google data after a period of inactivity. You set a timer — 3, 6, 12, or 18 months — and designate up to ten trusted contacts. When Google detects that your account has been inactive for that duration, it sends a notification to your contacts with access to the data you selected.

You choose which available Google account data each contact receives, such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, YouTube, and Google Calendar. Google Maps Timeline is stored on devices, with a separate optional encrypted backup to Google's servers, so do not assume it will be included through Inactive Account Manager. You can also instruct Google to delete the account after notifying your contacts.

The system lives at myaccount.google.com → Data & privacy → Make a plan for your digital legacy.

How the Inactivity Timer Works

Google determines inactivity by monitoring sign-ins, app usage, and Gmail activity. Before triggering the plan, Google sends you a warning to your recovery email and phone number — giving you a chance to prove you are still alive if the inactivity was just a long vacation or hospital stay.

One detail families should understand: the timer does not start from the date of death. It starts from the last activity on the account. If someone checked Gmail the morning they died, the shortest possible trigger is three months later. For families needing immediate access to financial records, subscription data, or business documents stored in Drive, this delay can be painful.

Setting It Up: Step by Step

1. Go to myaccount.google.com and sign in
2. Navigate to Data & privacy → scroll to Make a plan for your digital legacy
3. Click Start and choose your inactivity period (3 months is the shortest)
4. Add up to 10 trusted contacts — each needs a phone number for verification
5. Choose which Google services each contact can access
6. Decide whether Google should auto-delete the account after notifying contacts
7. Optionally write a personal message that gets sent with the notification
8. Review and confirm

The whole process takes about five minutes.

What Happens Without Inactive Account Manager

If someone dies without configuring this tool, immediate family members or representatives can use Google's deceased-user request process to ask to close the account, request funds, or request account data. Google reviews each request carefully and may provide account content only in certain circumstances; it does not provide passwords or other login details. Follow the current request form for the supporting documents it asks you to provide.

Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos are the three services families most urgently need. Some business owners use a personal Google account for work; if no one else has access, important documents, client communications, and financial records may be difficult to retrieve.

What About Facebook, Instagram, and Other Platforms

Each platform handles death differently:

Facebook and Instagram offer memorialization or account removal. A memorialized Facebook profile shows "Remembering" next to the person's name, preserves shared posts and photos, but prevents new logins. Use the relevant platform's Help Center to submit a request and follow its current documentation requirements. If the person designated a "Legacy Contact" on Facebook, that person can pin a tribute post and respond to friend requests, but cannot read private messages.

Twitter/X works with a verified immediate family member or someone authorized to act for the estate to deactivate an account. After a removal request, X asks for information about the deceased, the requester's ID, and a copy of the death certificate. X does not provide account access or offer memorialization.

LinkedIn can memorialize a profile after a report, locking account access while preserving profile content. An authorized estate representative can request account closure with the required documentation; LinkedIn says data deletion can take up to 30 days after closure.

None of these platforms offer the kind of pre-configured, automatic data sharing that Google Inactive Account Manager provides. They all require the family to initiate contact after death, with documentation.

The Two-Minute Version

If someone you love just died and Inactive Account Manager was configured, contact access depends on the selected inactivity period and when the account was last active. Without it, Google reviews requests case by case, and data access is not guaranteed. The After a Sudden Death guide covers the full digital estate process — Google, Apple, social media, and device access — with the request procedures and documentation templates for each platform.

If you are reading this for yourself: set up Inactive Account Manager today, and ask your family members to do the same. Five minutes of configuration prevents months of bureaucratic limbo.