If you have a loved one’s phone after they pass away, you may be wondering what to do with their photos.

My recommendation: save a copy to an external hard drive. You don’t need to sort through everything or add thousands of photos to your own library right now. Having the files saved takes the pressure off by giving you the option to review them, share them, or incorporate them into your library later.

The best way to save the photos depends on whether they used cloud storage and what you can access.

If they used iCloud Photos and you know their password:

You can download their photos through iCloud.com on either a Mac or a PC.

1. Connect an external hard drive to your computer.
2. Visit iCloud.com/photos and sign in with their Apple Account.
3. Select photos and videos in batches of up to 1,000.
4. Choose Download.
5. Unzip any downloaded ZIP files, and move the extracted folders to the external hard drive.

Repeat until you’ve downloaded the entire library. Keep track of your batches so you don’t accidentally duplicate photos.

Note: Apple will likely require a verification code sent to the device when signing into iCloud.com.

If they used Google Photos and you know their password:

Use Google Takeout to export their photo library. This works whether they used Google Photos on an iPhone or Android.

1. Visit Google Takeout and sign in to their Google Account.
2. Deselect all, then select Google Photos. Leave all photo albums included.
3. Choose Next step, then a one-time export with a download link sent by email. I recommend increasing the zip file size to 10GB if you have normal internet strength.
4. When the export is ready, download every part.
5. Purchase Metadata Fixer and input the zip files. This will recover the dates of all the files. (This step is optional, but highly recommended because google strips the dates of the photos during download which makes things VERY hard to organize- this program fixes it!)

Note: Google will likely require additional account verification before allowing the export.

If they didn’t use cloud photo storage:

You can copy the photos directly from the unlocked phone.

For an iPhone: Connect it to a Mac or PC with a USB cable. Unlock the phone, approve the Trust prompt if it appears, and import the photos. On a Mac, the Image Capture program in your Applications lets you choose a folder on the external hard drive as the destination. On a PC, import with Microsoft Photos, then copy the imported files to the drive.

For an Android: On a Windows computer, connect the unlocked phone with a USB cable and choose File Transfer on the phone. Open the phone’s storage in File Explorer and copy the photo folders (typically DCIM and Pictures) to the external hard drive. Android-to-Mac transfers depend on the phone but try the Image Capture program mentioned above.

Note: A manual transfer copies files stored on the phone. It won’t retrieve photos stored in the cloud. Remember, just because you can SEE the photos on their phone doesn’t mean they’re stored locally on the device. If they use a cloud service, manual transfer is not recommend- make sure to use the other transfer options shared in this post.

If you don’t know their iCloud password, but can unlock their iPhone:

Recently, I helped a friend save her mother-in-law’s camera roll. We didn’t know her iCloud password, but we could unlock her phone so I was able to use Airdrop to transfer the photos off the phone. It was a bit time consuming, but successful.

If you have a Mac, Airdrop can help!

1. Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the iPhone and Mac, and make sure the Mac has Airdrop enabled.
2. Open Photos on the iPhone and select a batch of photos and videos.
3. Tap Share → choose AirDrop and select the Mac.
4. Move the received files to the external hard drive.

If the phone storage is low, you’ll have to do this in small batches. I did 100 at a time. Most often Optimize iPhone Storage is enabled, so the originals need to download from iCloud before transferring- so the Airdrop can take some time. Disable auto-lock so it can run uninterrupted.

If you don’t know their Google password, but can unlock their Android:

Check whether Google Photos still opens and displays their cloud photos. If it does, you can open a photo or video and choose More → Download to save it locally, then copy it to the external drive. This can help with individual photos, but it’s a slow approach for an entire collection.

No computer? Save photos directly to a flash drive:

Transferring via computer will be faster in all cases, but if you don’t have a computer then a compatible flash drive can plug into the phone so you can save a copy of the photos.

On an iPhone

1. Connect the flash drive and unlock the iPhone.
2. Open Photos and select a small test batch.
3. Tap Share → Save to Files.
4. Under Browse → Locations, select the flash drive and tap Save.

Open the Files app and check the saved photos on the drive before continuing. Work in batches and keep track of what you’ve copied. If the iPhone had iCloud set to Optimize Storage, this will be very tedious and will have to be done in very small batches with frequent device restarts between transfers.

On an Android

Open the phone’s file manager, such as Files or My Files. Find the locally stored photos (usually in DCIM → Camera and Pictures) select them, and use Copy to save them to the USB drive. The exact labels vary by phone.

Choose Copy, rather than Move, to leave the existing files on the phone.

Plugging in a flash drive doesn’t automatically download the cloud library.

In Google Photos, cloud-only items need to be downloaded before copying them through the file manager. For a large Google Photos collection, this will be very difficult.

Before resetting the phone or closing an account:

Make a second copy on another drive or in your own backup system. One external hard drive shouldn’t be the only place these photos exist. Label the collection clearly, such as “Mom’s Phone Photos,” and keep it separate until you’re ready to decide what to do with it.

Saving the collection is enough for now. You can review it and add meaningful photos to your own library whenever you’re ready.

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Want to make this easier for your own loved ones someday?

If you use an iPhone, set up a Legacy Contact under Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact. This allows someone you choose to request access to your iCloud photos and other eligible data after you pass away. Make sure they receive the access key and know where to find it—they’ll need it along with your death certificate to request access. It’s a simple step you can take now to help your family preserve your photos later.

Extra credit if you leave them an organized photo library on an external hard drive! Backup Bootcamp walks you through gathering, organizing, and backing up your photos (including your camera roll!) so your loved ones won’t have to figure out how to get them off your phone someday.

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