FAQ/Tutorial - What happens to my Facebook account when I die?

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 Facebook becomes aware of your passing.

Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.

Memorialized accounts have these 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 if Facebook receives a valid memorialization request.

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it's memorialized. Facebook strongly suggests 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.

You can choose to have your Facebook account permanently deleted. This means that when someone lets Facebook 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:

1. Click the downward arrow in the top right of your Facebook page.
2. Select Settings & Privacy, then click Settings.
3. Click Memorialization Settings.
4. Scroll down, click Request that your account be deleted after you pass away, and click Delete After Death.