How to Save the Instagram, Stories and Facebook of Someone Who Passed Away

The Instagram or Facebook profile of a person who passed away is their public diary: what they chose to show, what they laughed at, how they wrote. And unlike the photos on their phone, it is not in your control, the account can close, be hijacked, or simply hang in the air with a password no one knows. This guide splits it in two: what to save today, from your side, without asking anyone's permission: and what you can (and cannot) ask Meta for. Everything written here about their processes is true as of today; they change, and the form itself is worth checking.

Today: what disappears first

• Stories: gone after 24 hours. Their archive exists only inside the account. If a story is live right now, screen-record it, today.
• Highlights (the stories saved on the profile), they stay, but only as long as the account exists. Screen-record each highlight, one by one.
• Private messages with them: in your own chat, including voice messages. Save the voice ones separately (long-press → save), they are their voice, and the material for voice reconstruction.
• Videos on the profile (reels, posts), download via "share → copy link" and a download site, or screen-record. The quality is below the original, but it is what there is, and now beats after the account is gone.

Rule of thumb: save first, ask later. Every request to Meta takes days to weeks, and the account can change in the meantime.

What you can ask Meta for, and what you cannot

Meta (Instagram and Facebook) has two paths for a deceased person's account:

• Memorializing the account. The profile stays visible with a "Remembering" label, no one can log in, and it stops appearing in suggestions and birthday reminders. You request it through a dedicated form with proof of death (an obituary, a death certificate). Anyone can request memorialization; you do not have to be family.
• Deletion. An immediate family member can request full removal instead, with documents proving the relationship. It cannot be undone, so save everything first.

What you usually cannot get: the content itself. Instagram's and Facebook's "Download your information" requires logging in. Facebook has one exception, if they set a Legacy Contact while alive and allowed that person to download, the legacy contact can receive a copy of what was shared. Otherwise Meta reviews requests for a deceased person's data case by case, typically only with a court order. Do not count on it; save from your side.

And if you know the password? A grey area, Meta's terms do not permit logging in to another person's account, even after their death. The practical choice most families make: log in once, download the information ("Download your information" in settings), post nothing, then request memorialization. Do it with the closest relatives' agreement, not alone.

What stays with others, and is worth gathering

• Photos they were tagged in: with whoever uploaded them. Ask the family group and friends: "do you have photos with them from the event?"
• Comments they wrote on other people's posts, sometimes the most "them" sentence is exactly there.
• Private messages other people received from them, ask, gently. Many will be glad to share a piece.

How to gather all of it in one place without it scattering, in the photo guide. Everything about messages and voice, in the WhatsApp guide.

The memorialized profile, what it is and what it is not

A memorialized profile is a place people come back to: they write on birthdays, tag it in memories. That is real value, especially in the first year. But it is static, it shows what they uploaded, and no more; and it lives in someone else's house, under rules that change. What to do with everything you saved the photos, the videos, the voice messages, when you feel ready, is what we work on at MemoAgent: from those same materials a persona you can talk with is built, speaking in their style, with a living album beside it that the family keeps adding to. The comparison of all the ways to memorialize, in the complete guide.

Finally, what they would have wanted

A profile is what a person chose to show the world. Keeping it, yes. Posting in their name, replying in their name, "continuing" them, no. And if something there was kept private, it stays private.

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