Plan ahead
How to Set Up Google Inactive Account Manager
Founder of Fort Legacy
Published: 2026-10-10
Use Google's Inactive Account Manager to choose what happens after a period of account inactivity. Decide who is notified, whether they receive selected data and whether deletion is enabled. It is triggered by inactivity, not proof of death.
Understand what activates the plan
Inactive Account Manager is a planning setting for your own Google Account. Google assesses account activity and uses the period you select before carrying out your instructions. It is not a service that checks a death register or appoints an estate representative.
Choose a period with travel, illness and changes in how you use the account in mind. Keep your own warning and recovery contact information current so you can respond if the account is incorrectly heading toward inactivity.
Do not confuse this plan with Google's separate inactive-account deletion policy. Read both official pages and make independent backups of irreplaceable files. A deletion policy is not a dependable preservation timetable.
Open the settings in your own account
Go directly to Google's Inactive Account Manager page and confirm which account is signed in. If you have several addresses, make a separate inventory entry for each. A plan for a personal account should not be assumed to control an employer's or school's managed account.
Review the available inactivity period, ways Google will contact you, trusted contacts, data choices and deletion decision. Read the summary before enabling the plan. Do not change settings in a deceased person's account as a substitute for the deceased-user request process.
Choose notification and data access separately
Google allows up to ten trusted contacts. You can notify a person without giving them a data download, or choose particular data for them. Decide according to the job: the person preserving family photos may not need the same information as the person organizing household records.
Google asks for a contact phone number when you choose data sharing, to help verify the recipient. Check the number with the person, including the country code. Do not silently enter an old number from a contact list.
Google says contacts are not notified during setup. Tell them yourself that you have made a plan, which account it concerns and what kind of message they may receive later. That conversation can also reveal whether the person is comfortable with the task.
- Choose a willing contact and verify their email address.
- Select only the data appropriate for that person.
- Check any required phone number directly with them.
- Write a short message explaining the practical next step and who coordinates the estate.
- Review the final contact and data list before saving.
Make the deletion decision deliberately
If the settings offer deletion after inactivity, read its effects carefully before enabling it. Notification, a download opportunity and permanent deletion are different events. Do not assume a relative has saved the data just because an email was sent.
For important memories, make a separate current backup while you are alive and document its location. If the plan later grants a download, the recipient should check any stated deadline, download all archive parts and verify the files before relying on them.
A workable instruction might say: preserve selected family photographs privately, check the archive, and coordinate with the estate representative before distributing other material. Avoid broad instructions to publish everything in an inbox or drive.
Review the plan without triggering it
You do not need to stop using your account to test whether your instructions are understandable. Open the saved plan, confirm the account and choices, and talk through the intended handover with a contact. Avoid signing into anyone else's account to demonstrate the process.
Record which address the plan covers, who was chosen, the review date and where your independent backup is kept. Leave passwords, recovery codes and other access secrets out of a shared planning document.
Review again after a changed phone number, contact, family relationship or major change to the files in the account. An accurate contact list matters more than a plan that was simply enabled once and forgotten.
If you are already handling someone's account
Look for a legitimate notification sent to you under an existing plan, but do not assume one was configured. Verify messages by using Google's official account and help pages rather than entering credentials into an unexpected email link.
If there is no usable plan, follow Google's deceased-user request process for the outcome you need. A request for content is separate from account closure, and Google warns that closure prevents a later contents request. Resolve the preservation decision first.
Keep the email account, photo library and any recovery phone number in the same dependency checklist. Handling them in isolation can close a route another task still needs.