AmberKey

Playbook

Google — Inactive Account Manager

Platform claims verified July 6, 2026

What this mechanism is

Google’s Inactive Account Manager is a dead man’s switch built into your Google account. You tell Google how long to wait after you stop signing in; when that timer runs out, Google notifies up to 10 people you chose and lets them download the data you selected — Gmail, Drive, Photos, YouTube, and more. It is the only way to hand your Google data to family without passwords or lawyers, and it takes about ten minutes to set up.

Set it up now

  1. Go to https://myaccount.google.com/inactive and sign in.
  2. Choose the waiting period — how long Google waits after your last activity before acting. The wizard offers a handful of durations (commonly reported as 3 to 18 months; confirm the current options in the wizard). Pick the shortest one you’re comfortable with — 3 months is a common choice. Google counts sign-ins, My Activity, Gmail app usage, and Android check-ins as activity.
  3. Confirm the phone number and email where Google will warn you before the plan triggers.
  4. Add your trusted contacts — up to 10 people. For each, enter their email and their mobile phone number (Google uses the phone number to verify their identity before letting them download anything — a wrong number here breaks the whole plan).
  5. For each contact, choose which data they get (you can share everything or select specific products, and different data with different people).
  6. Optionally, write the Gmail auto-reply that will answer mail sent to you after the plan triggers, and decide whether Google should delete the account after your data has been shared (check the wizard’s current wording for the deletion timing).
  7. Click through to confirm the plan is on, then record in AmberKey: the waiting period, who your trusted contacts are, and the phone number you registered for each.
  8. Put a yearly reminder in your calendar to re-open https://myaccount.google.com/inactive and confirm the plan and phone numbers are still current.

Google Workspace note: this only works for personal Google accounts. Accounts through work, school, or any organization (Google Workspace) are controlled by that organization’s admin — Inactive Account Manager is not available for them, and Google’s inactive-account policy explicitly excludes them (https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290). If your important mail lives in a Workspace account you own (e.g., your own business domain), document the admin credentials and domain registrar instead — see the generic playbook.

What AmberKey stores

  • Layer 1 (metadata): your Gmail address, that Inactive Account Manager is ON, the waiting period, the trusted contacts’ names, and which phone number you registered for each contact. This is the information a survivor needs to use the plan; none of it unlocks anything by itself.
  • Layer 2 (bearer secret): nothing is required for Google if IAM is configured — that’s the point of a native mechanism. Optionally escrow your Google password + a note about your 2FA method as a belt-and-suspenders fallback, but the plan should work without it.
  • Do not rely on a stored password alone: Google’s 2-step verification will likely block a survivor who has only the password.

What your survivors do

  1. Check the AmberKey packet: it names Google’s trusted contacts and the waiting period. If you are one of the trusted contacts, you don’t have to do anything to trigger this — Google will email you automatically once the account has been inactive for the configured period. The email lists what was shared with you and contains a download link.
  2. When that email arrives, follow its link. Google will text a verification code to the phone number the account owner registered for you — this is why the packet lists which of your numbers they used. Enter it and download everything. Don’t put this off (see Gotchas on the download window).
  3. If you need something sooner than the waiting period allows (for example, the estate needs email evidence now), use Google’s deceased-user process instead: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590. It offers three options: close the account, request funds (e.g., a Google Pay balance), or obtain data.
  4. For the deceased-user process, fill in the form for the option you need and upload what it asks for. Google reviews each request individually and says plainly that it cannot provide passwords or login details — expect them to offer data, not access.
  5. Do not choose “close the account” until you’re sure you have everything. Google warns that once an account is closed, it cannot later turn over any of its contents.
  6. Remember the Gmail address itself is a recovery hub: password-reset links for the deceased’s other accounts go there. Settle everything else before letting the account close or lapse.

Required documents

  • Via Inactive Account Manager: none. Just the phone that receives the verification code.
  • Via the deceased-user request: the interactive form specifies current requirements — typically your government ID and the death certificate, and Google’s form indicates that approved data requests then require a US court order (Google supplies the required language). Check the form itself at https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590; requirements are shown per-option after you choose one.

Expected timeline

  • IAM route: the configured waiting period (months) after the last account activity, then automatic. No paperwork, no review queue.
  • Deceased-user request route: weeks to months; Google reviews case by case, and data requests that need a court order take as long as the court does.
  • Do nothing route: Google reserves the right to delete a personal account that has been inactive for 2 years — the data can simply vanish.

Gotchas

  • Any activity resets the timer. A single sign-in — including a survivor trying the deceased’s password, or an old phone syncing in a drawer — restarts the waiting period from zero. If the family is waiting on IAM to fire, nobody should log into the account, and lingering signed-in devices can delay it.
  • The trusted contact’s phone number is load-bearing. Google verifies the contact by texting the number registered at setup. If they’ve changed numbers since, they can’t download. Re-check the numbers yearly, and record them in AmberKey so survivors know which phone to dig out.
  • Contacts hear nothing at setup and nothing until it fires. Google doesn’t notify trusted contacts when you add them. If you don’t tell them (or record it in AmberKey), the notification email may land in the spam folder of someone who has no idea what it is.
  • The download window is limited. Google’s notification gives contacts a link to download shared data; firsthand reports indicate roughly 3 months before it expires (the official article doesn’t state a duration). Treat the email as urgent and download immediately.
  • Closing forecloses data — permanently. Google states that after an account-closure request it cannot process any later request for the account’s contents. Data first, closure last.
  • Workspace accounts are excluded. Work/school accounts have no IAM; the organization’s administrator controls the data of a deceased user. For a company account, survivors contact the employer’s IT department, not Google.
  • IAM shares data, not the account. Trusted contacts get downloads, not the ability to send email as you or keep the account running. Anything that depends on the live address (subscriptions, logins elsewhere) still needs the estate process.