Instagram After Death: Memorialize, Remove or Add a Legacy Contact

Instagram can memorialize a deceased person's profile when someone reports it and provides proof of death, such as a link to an obituary or news article. Verified immediate family can ask for the profile to be removed instead. Once memorialized, a profile shows the word Remembering, its posts stay visible to the audience they were shared with, and nobody can log in. Without a legacy contact, nothing on it can be changed.

What are the options for an Instagram account after death?

There are three outcomes, and which one happens depends on what the person set up and what the family asks for.

• Left alone. Instagram's help pages describe memorialization as something it does when it receives a valid request, so a profile that nobody reports isn't memorialized.
• Memorialized. Instagram secures the profile and marks it as a place to remember the person.
• Removed. Verified immediate family can ask for the profile to be deleted.

People can also decide in advance. Instagram lets you name a legacy contact to look after your profile after memorialization, or pick Delete After Death so the profile is removed once Instagram receives a valid memorialization request.

What does a memorialized Instagram profile look like?

Instagram lists these features of a memorialized profile:

• No one can log in to it.
• The word Remembering is shown next to the person's name.
• Posts the person shared, including photos and videos, stay on Instagram and are visible to the audience they were shared with.
• It doesn't appear in certain places, such as Explore.

Instagram says it tries to keep references to memorialized profiles from showing up in ways that might upset family and friends, and that it secures the profile to protect the person's privacy.

A profile with no legacy contact can't be changed. That covers photos and videos, comments on the person's posts, privacy settings, the profile photo, followers and who the person follows.

If someone leaves a post or comment on a memorialized profile that breaks Instagram's Community Guidelines or Terms of Use, you can report it using the usual report option.

How do you report a death and memorialize an account?

Anyone who sees the profile of someone who has died can ask Instagram to memorialize it by using the contact form on Instagram's help page. Instagram requires proof of death, such as a link to an obituary or news article.

Instagram says it can't provide login information for a memorialized profile, and that it is always against its policies for anyone to log in to another person's profile. So don't try to get in with the person's saved password.

How do you remove a deceased person's Instagram account?

Removal is for verified immediate family members. Instagram asks for proof that you are an immediate family member, such as:

• the person's birth certificate
• the person's death certificate
• proof of authority under local law that you are the lawful representative of the person or their estate

You submit these through Instagram's removal form, linked from the help page. Gather the documents before you start.

Think before choosing removal. Memorialization keeps posts and photos where they are, and deletion does not. Instagram says plainly that deletion can't be undone. If the family wants copies of photos first, try to save them before sending the request.

What can a legacy contact do on Instagram?

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your profile if it's memorialized. Instagram sets age requirements for naming one, so check its help page. Instagram's help page describes these abilities, which can change:

• update your profile picture
• see and manage your tags
• download a copy of what you've shared, if you gave them permission

A legacy contact can't log in, post or send messages as you, and can't see your messages. Because Instagram changes these features, confirm the current list on its help page before relying on it.

What is Delete After Death?

If you don't want your Instagram profile to stay online, you can choose Delete After Death instead of a legacy contact. If you choose it and Instagram gets a valid memorialization request, your profile is deleted. Instagram strongly suggests discussing this with your loved ones, because deletion can't be undone.

It is a personal choice, and it is easy to forget to mention it. Tell the person who will handle your affairs, or write it into your plans. Our guide to a digital will explains how to record wishes like this, and managing a deceased person's social media covers other platforms.

What about Threads and other Meta accounts?

Instagram's help center has separate pages for reporting a deceased person's profile on Threads and for what happens to a memorialized Threads profile. Facebook has its own process, described in our Facebook after death guide. The processes are similar, but they use different forms and rules, so check each account on its own.

Because each platform acts on a request, one profile can end up memorialized while another is still active, so check every account.

What to do next

1. Decide with the family whether to memorialize or remove the profile, and who will make the request.
2. Gather proof: an obituary or news link for memorialization, or the death certificate and proof of authority for removal. Our guides on getting a death certificate and how many copies to order can help.
3. Save any photos or videos you want before a removal request goes in.
4. If you're planning ahead, name a legacy contact or choose Delete After Death, and record where your accounts are. See password management after death and the death notification checklist.