What will happen to my Facebook account if I pass away?

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Hector Beltran under Grieving, Resources
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You can choose to either appoint a legacy contact to look after your memorialized account or have your account permanently deleted from Facebook.
If you don’t choose to have your account permanently deleted, it will be memorialized if we become aware of your passing.

Memorialized accounts

Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.
Memorialized accounts have the following key features:
  • The word Remembering will be shown next to the person’s name on their profile.
  • Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized timeline.
  • Content the person shared (example: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible on Facebook to the audience it was shared with.
  • Memorialized profiles don’t appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
  • No one can log into a memorialized account.
  • Memorialized accounts that don’t have a legacy contact can’t be changed.
  • Pages with a sole admin whose account was memorialized will be removed from Facebook if we receive a valid memorialization request.

Legacy contacts

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it’s memorialized. We strongly suggest setting a legacy contact so your account can be managed once it’s memorialized.
A legacy contact can accept friend requests on behalf of a memorialized account, pin a tribute post to the profile and change the profile picture and cover photo. If the memorialized account has an area for tributes, a legacy contact will be able to decide who can see and who can post tributes.
Learn more about what legacy contacts can do and how to add a legacy contact to your account.

Deleting your account when you pass away

You can choose to have your account permanently deleted should you pass away. This means that when someone lets us know that you’ve passed away, all of your messages, photos, posts, comments, reactions and info will be immediately and permanently removed from Facebook.
To request that your account be deleted:
  • Click account in the top right of Facebook.
  • Select Settings & privacy, then click Settings.
  • Click Memorialization Settings.
  • Scroll down, click Request that your account be deleted after you pass away and click Delete After Death.

For friends and family

If you’d like to create another place for people on Facebook to share memories of your loved one, we suggest creating a group.
Learn how to request the memorialization of an account or how to request the removal of a deceased person’s account from Facebook.

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