Your security file: print it, keep it, check it, share it with care

Fill and print your security file, set a legacy contact on your main account, put the check-up dates on your calendar, and learn how to help someone else set up.

1. What the security file holds Understand

The security file is the set of sheets you filled in, printed together. It lists your devices, your accounts, how you get back into each one, where your copies are, what you did to protect your credit, and the numbers you trust. It is a record of what is set up and where things are kept. It is not a store of secrets.

Each sheet came from a chapter. This chapter puts them together, prints them and sets a date to look at them again. If you skipped a chapter, its sheet may be blank. That is fine. The four essential sheets are enough for a first printout, and the rest can be added the next time you print.

The sheets, and which ones matter first

The security file page shows every sheet in one place, counts the rows in each, prints them all and exports them as one file. Open it first. If a row count reads zero on an essential sheet, open that sheet and fill it before you print. Our convention

What the file never holds

The sheets ask where a thing is kept, never the thing. This rule runs through every chapter, and the security file is where it matters most, because the file is printed and handed around. These never go on any sheet: passwords, PINs, passcodes, backup codes, recovery codes, the Apple access key, security answers, full card or account numbers, Social Security numbers, and the family code word itself. Our convention

What goes on the sheet instead:

Why the rule holds even on paper: Google tells you to keep backup codes "where you keep your passport or other important documents" (Google Account Help, Sign in with backup codes). The codes and the file can live in the same folder. The file still should not contain the codes, because the file is the paper you are most likely to copy, hand to a helper or leave out on the table during a check-up. A printed list of accounts with no secrets on it tells a reader what you have. It does not let them sign in. Our convention

Where the file is stored, and the only ways it leaves

The sheets are saved in the browser on the device you typed them on. Nothing is sent anywhere. That has three consequences.

• It is on one device. A sheet you filled on your phone does not show on your computer. To move it, use Export the security file on the security file page, then Import a security file on the other device.
• It can be lost. Browser storage is cleared when you clear site data, is empty in a private window, and can be lost to a browser update. The printout and the export are your copies.
• It leaves only two ways. The export file and the printout are the only ways the file leaves this browser. The export file is as private as the printout: it lists your accounts and the settings you turned on, and it holds no passwords, because no sheet asks for one.

Treat the export file like a scan of your important papers. Keep it on your own device or a drive you keep with your papers. Do not leave it on a shared or public computer. Our convention

2. Printing the file and where it lives

A printed file works when the phone is lost, the browser is cleared or the power is out. It is also the copy a family member can read without your devices. Print it once now, and again after any check-up that changed something.

How to print it

1. Open the security file page in the browser where you filled in the sheets.
2. Scroll to Printable security file and read it through once. Empty sheets are left out of the printout.
3. Check that no row contains a password, a code or a full number. If one does, open that sheet, replace the entry with where the thing is kept, and come back.
4. Select Print the whole security file. Your browser's print screen opens.
5. Choose your printer and print.
6. Write today's date by hand on the first page.

If you have no printer, ask someone you trust to print it and be there when it comes out of the printer. A file emailed to a print shop leaves a copy in the email and on the shop's computer. Our convention

Where the printout goes

Put it with your important papers: the folder, box or drawer that holds your passport, your insurance papers or your will. Two platform makers point there for the papers that matter most. Google says to keep backup codes with your passport or other important documents. Apple suggests saving a copy of the Legacy Contact access key "with your estate planning documents" (Apple Support, How to add a Legacy Contact). Your security file belongs in the same place, so the people who will one day go through those papers find it there. Our convention

Paper has one weakness. The UK National Cyber Security Centre says a written password book can suit some people because an attacker online would need physical access to it, and it warns that hiding it may not be enough if people have access to the room (NCSC, Managing your passwords). The same holds for any paper about your accounts. Your security file contains no passwords, so it carries less risk than a password book, but think about who can open the drawer it sits in. If you keep a password book, keep it apart from the file, in the place Passwords chose for it. Our convention

A second copy with someone you trust

A second copy is optional. It helps when the person most likely to help you in an emergency lives somewhere else. Apple says you may give a trusted family member a copy of a recovery key, which is a far more sensitive paper than this file (Apple Support, Set up a recovery key). If you make a second copy, write the person's name on the recovery sheet's list of people you trust with the role "holds a copy of the file," and tick "they know." Our convention

When to print again

Print a new copy after any check-up that changed a row: a new phone, a closed account, a new recovery contact, a freeze lifted. Write the date on the first page and destroy the old printout, so there is only one current paper copy in the house and one with the person who holds the second copy. Our convention

3. Legacy and inactive-account contacts

A legacy contact is a person you name in an account's settings to receive some of the account's data after your death. An inactive-account contact is the same idea triggered differently: the company waits until the account has been unused for a period you choose, then contacts the people you named. Apple and Facebook use the first kind. Google uses the second, through a tool called Inactive Account Manager.

These settings are different from the recovery contact you set in Getting back in. A recovery contact helps you get back into your own account while you are alive and has no access to it. A legacy contact gets some of your data after your death. You can name the same person for both, if the account allows it.

What families face without one

When a person dies without one of these settings, the family asks the company, and each company has its own process. The three platform makers that run most readers' main accounts describe it this way.

Two things in that table matter for the rest of this section. Apple and Google both describe their setting as the better route: Apple calls a Legacy Contact "the easiest, most secure way" to give someone access, and Google calls Inactive Account Manager "the best way" to say who should have access. And Microsoft offers no in-account setting, so a Microsoft account needs a different plan, described below. Product-specific

For what a family handles after a death beyond accounts (certified copies, notifications, mail and the rest), Learn Funeral Planning covers it: its After the service, a free manual from the same publisher as this one, includes a section on online accounts and devices.

Apple: Legacy Contact

Apple's Legacy Contact works on an iPhone or iPad with iOS 15.2 or iPadOS 15.2 or later, or a Mac with macOS Monterey 12.1 or later. The contact does not need an Apple Account or an Apple device. That is the difference from a recovery contact, who needs an Apple device of their own. Two-factor authentication needs to be on, which Two-step sign-in and passkeys covered. Product-specific

On an iPhone or iPad:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top.
3. Tap Sign-In & Security.
4. Tap Legacy Contact.
5. Tap Add Legacy Contact. You may be asked for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
6. Choose a member of your Family Sharing group, or tap Choose Someone Else and pick a person from your contacts.
7. Choose how to share the access key: Send an iMessage, or Print a Copy.

In short: Settings > [your name] > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact > Add Legacy Contact.

On a Mac:

1. Open the Apple menu.
2. Choose System Settings.
3. Click your name.
4. Click Sign-In & Security.
5. Click Legacy Contact.
6. Click Add Legacy Contact and follow the same choices as on the iPhone.

In short: Apple menu > System Settings > [your name] > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact.

The access key is the code Apple creates when you add a Legacy Contact. Your contact needs it and your death certificate to ask Apple for access. If you send it by iMessage and the contact accepts, their device stores a copy in their own account settings. If they have no Apple device, print it and give it to them. Apple says it "can't access or replace an access key that's been lost" (Apple Support, Request access as a Legacy Contact), so a second printed copy with your estate papers is worth the sheet of paper. The key is not written on your recovery sheet; the sheet records who has a copy and where yours is. Product-specific

What a Legacy Contact can and cannot reach, from Apple's pages:

• Can reach: data stored in the account, such as iCloud Photos, Notes, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages in iCloud, iCloud Drive files and device backups (Apple Support, Data that a Legacy Contact can access).
• Cannot reach: movies, music, books or subscriptions bought with the account, and anything in iCloud Keychain, which holds saved passwords, passkeys and payment information.
• For how long: access lasts three years from when Apple approves the first Legacy Contact request. Then the account is permanently deleted.
• Who decides: if you name more than one, any one of them can make decisions about the data on their own, including deleting the account permanently. Name people who will agree with each other, or name one.

Google: Inactive Account Manager

Google's Inactive Account Manager shares parts of your account, or sends a message you wrote, once the account has been inactive for a period you choose. Google judges activity from signals such as your sign-ins, your My Activity history, Gmail use and Android check-ins (Google Account Help, About Inactive Account Manager). Product-specific

1. On any phone or computer, go to myaccount.google.com/inactive and sign in.
2. Choose how long Google should wait after your account stops being used.
3. Add the people Google should contact, up to 10.
4. For each person, choose whether they get a message only, or a message and some or all of your data.
5. Give each person's phone number when Google asks. Google uses it only to check that the right person is downloading.
6. Choose whether Google should delete the account afterward, if the screen offers it.
7. Save the plan.

In short: myaccount.google.com/inactive (Inactive Account Manager). We did not find the waiting-period choices listed on a Google page; the screen shows them.

Google sends your contacts nothing when you set this up. They hear from Google only after the waiting period ends. Tell them yourself, and write their names in the "Legacy or inactive contact" column of the recovery sheet. Product-specific

One more Google rule touches this plan. Google says it may delete a personal Google Account that has not been used for two years, with all its content. Before that, Google sends notices to the account and to its recovery email, if it has one. The policy has exceptions, such as an active subscription (Google Account Help, Inactive Google Account Policy). Your Inactive Account Manager plan is how you decide what happens before that. Product-specific

Microsoft and other email providers

Microsoft's page for families describes no setting for naming a legacy contact. If your main email is Outlook.com, or your Windows computer signs in with a Microsoft account, the in-account step in this chapter is not available. Three things still help.

• A copy the family can reach. Files that matter, such as photos in OneDrive, can have a second copy the family can open: the drive copy from Backups, kept with your papers, or a copy in an account that has a legacy setting. Our convention
• A legacy setting on your other accounts. If you also have an Apple or Google account, set its contact. Write on the recovery sheet that the Microsoft account has none.
• A question for your estate attorney. Microsoft's page says a person who knows the sign-in details can close the account, and that otherwise content requires a subpoena or court order. Whether and how to leave sign-in details for someone is a question for an estate attorney, not this manual. Ask an estate attorney

For Yahoo, AOL, email from your internet company and other providers, we did not find a page from the provider describing a legacy setting. Ask the provider. If it has none, the same three steps apply. Ask your email provider

4. The check-up schedule

A setup changes after the day you make it. Phones get replaced, numbers change, a backup quietly stops, a freeze is lifted for a loan and not put back. A check-up is a short, regular look at the file and the settings it records. Google, for one, recommends following its account security steps "on a regular basis" (Google Account Help, Make your account more secure). No source we found sets a schedule for a household, so the schedule below is our own. Our convention

A monthly check takes about five minutes per device. A seasonal check takes about 20 minutes. A yearly check takes about an hour, and longer the first time.

Putting the dates on a calendar

The schedule works only if it is on a calendar you look at. Pick dates that are easy to remember, such as the first Saturday of each month and the first Saturday of January, April, July and October for the seasonal checks, with the yearly check on one of those. Put them in your phone's calendar as a repeating event, or write them on a paper calendar. Write "security check-up" and the link to this section, so the reminder says what to do. Our convention

Two things the schedule leaves out on purpose:

• Changing passwords on a schedule. NIST's federal guidance tells services not to force people to change passwords on a schedule, and to require a change when there is evidence a password was exposed (Passwords covers this). Change a password when it leaked or was reused, not because a date came round. Convention
• Making new backup codes each year. A new set of Google backup codes cancels the old set, and a new Microsoft recovery code cancels the old code. If you make new ones, print them, replace the old printout, and update "Printed codes kept" on the recovery sheet the same day. Product-specific

The seasonal account check has a practical reason beyond tidiness. Google says each Google Account on a device has to be used on its own to count as active, and an account unused for two years may be deleted. A second Gmail address you check once a year needs a sign-in now and then, or an Inactive Account Manager plan of its own. Product-specific

Each account's own checkup

Apple, Google and Microsoft each have a page that shows your account's security settings in one place. Walking through it once tells you whether the account matches what the file says. Do it now for your main account, then once a year.

Google Account. Google's Security Checkup gives personal recommendations under three headings: your data and devices, extra protections, and recent security events (Google Security Checkup). Google marks each recommendation by color: blue for tips, yellow for important steps, red for urgent ones. A green shield means no action is needed.

1. Go to myaccount.google.com and sign in.
2. Select Security & sign-in.
3. Follow each recommendation shown, starting with any marked red, then yellow.
4. Check the recovery phone and recovery email against your recovery sheet.

In short: Google Account > Security & sign-in (Security Checkup). Older guides call the tab Security.

Apple Account. Apple's account security settings sit together under Sign-In & Security (Apple Support, Two-factor authentication for Apple Account).

1. On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top.
3. Tap Sign-In & Security.
4. Check that two-factor authentication is on and that the trusted phone numbers are numbers you have now.
5. Tap Recovery Contacts and check the names against your recovery sheet.
6. Go back and tap Legacy Contact, and check those names too.

In short: Settings > [your name] > Sign-In & Security. On a Mac: Apple menu > System Settings > [your name] > Sign-In & Security.

Microsoft account. Microsoft keeps its security information at account.microsoft.com/security (Microsoft Support, Microsoft account security info).

1. Go to account.microsoft.com/security and sign in.
2. Select Manage how I sign in.
3. Check each phone number and email address listed against your recovery sheet.
4. Remove any you no longer use, after adding the one that replaces it.

In short: account.microsoft.com/security > Manage how I sign in. With two-step verification on, Microsoft can take 30 days to apply changes to security info.

5. Setting this up with someone else

Many people set this up with help, or set it up for a parent, a partner or a friend. This manual's rule for helping is short: with their permission, on their device, with their hands on it. The person whose account it is decides what to turn on, who to name and where the file is kept. The helper reads the steps, explains what each setting does and answers questions. Our convention

The reasons are practical as well as fair. The person who will use the phone has to know where its settings are, recognize a sign-in prompt and remember who their recovery contact is. A setup done for them while they watch, or done without them, leaves them unable to use it. The Barbara Bush Foundation's guide for people who teach adults digital skills says learners who have had bad experiences with technology may worry they will "break something," and that one-on-one support and specific, honest praise build confidence. It also tells helpers to check their own assumptions about what a learner can do (Barbara Bush Foundation and Digital Promise, Digital Literacy Resource Guide, 2022).

How to help

• Ask first, and ask again for each change. "Do you want to name a legacy contact?" is the person's question to answer. So is who it is.
• Their hands on the device. They tap; you read the step aloud and point to where it is on the screen. They type their own passcode and passwords. If they want you to know a passcode, that is their choice, not a requirement of the setup.
• One or two goals per session. The Barbara Bush Foundation guide suggests setting one or two goals at the start and checking at the end what was done and what to practice next. "Today: backup codes printed and the legacy contact set" is a session.
• Their file stays with them. The printed file goes with their papers, in their home. If they want you to hold a second copy, they say so.
• You are not their recovery method by default. Being a recovery contact or a legacy contact is a role they offer you, not one you add yourself. An Apple recovery contact has no access to the account; they only provide a code when asked.

This manual does not teach monitoring another adult's phone, email, location or accounts, or getting into them. Helping means doing it together, on their devices, with their say. Our convention

6. See it See it

Free pages that show these settings in each company's own words:

• Apple Support, How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account: the steps, the access key and what a contact needs.
• Google Account Help, About Inactive Account Manager: what it shares, how Google detects activity, and what contacts receive.
• Microsoft Support, when someone has died: what happens to a Microsoft account with no plan.

7. Practice Practice

Minimum: the four essential sheets printed and stored with your papers, one legacy or inactive-account contact set on your main account (or "none offered" written on the recovery sheet), and the next check-up date on your calendar. Time: about 45 minutes, plus about 15 minutes for each extra account checkup. Materials: the device where you filled in the sheets, a printer or a trusted person's printer, a pen, your calendar, and the folder or drawer with your important papers.

1. Open the security file page. Go to the security file and read the row count for each sheet.
2. Fill any blank essential sheet. Open the device list, account list, recovery sheet or numbers sheet if it is empty, and fill it from the chapter named in the table above.
3. Read the printable file for secrets. Look for a password, a code, a full number or the code word. Replace each with where it is kept.
4. Set the contact on your main account. Use the Apple or Google steps in legacy contacts, or write "none offered" for a Microsoft account and "none found" for another provider.
5. Tell the person you named. Write their name in the recovery sheet's "Legacy or inactive contact" column and on the list of people you trust, and tick "they know."
6. Walk through the account's own checkup. Follow the steps in each account's own checkup and date the "Recovery checked" column.
7. Print and store the file. Print, write the date on the first page, and put it with your important papers.
8. Put the dates on your calendar. The next monthly, seasonal and yearly check-up, as repeating events or written in.
9. Export a copy. Select Export the security file and keep the file on your own device or a drive kept with your papers.

8. Your setup Your setup

The box below reads whose accounts these are, your devices and your main email. It shows the legacy setting and the checkup for each account that has one, and the check-up items that apply to your devices.

9. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Is there a printed, dated copy of the file with your important papers?
• Do the four essential sheets each have at least one row?
• Is every row free of passwords, codes, full numbers and the code word?
• Does the recovery sheet show a legacy or inactive-account contact, or "none offered," for your main account?
• Does the person you named know they are named?
• Is the next check-up date on a calendar you look at?
• Have you walked through your main account's own checkup, with the date written on the account list?

Worked example

Ruth's file (fictional) has rows on all four essential sheets, a date on the printout and a place in the passport folder. Her member number was found and shortened before printing. The recovery sheet names Maya under Gmail, and Maya knows. The first Saturday of each month is marked on the kitchen calendar. Google's Security Checkup shows nothing red or yellow, and the account list is dated. That meets every criterion. It does not show that Ruth's setup will stop every problem, and it does not decide anything about her estate. It shows what was set up on the date she wrote and where the papers are.

Common mistakes

• Writing a code into the file because the file is going into the papers folder anyway. The file is the paper you copy and hand around. Write where the codes are.
• Naming a contact and not telling them. Google tells contacts nothing at setup, and an Apple contact needs the access key. Tell them, and say where the key is.
• Treating the legacy setting as the will. It is one company's account setting. The will and your estate attorney settle inheritance.
• Printing once and not again. An old printout with an old phone number is worse than a dated one you replace. Reprint after a check-up that changed something.
• Doing it for someone instead of with them. If you did the taps, go back through the settings with them, on their device, so they know where they are.

What is still unresolved

The file records what was set up on the dates you wrote. It does not certify that a setting still works, and it does not say what any company will do when a request comes. Each company runs its own process: Apple, Google and Microsoft decide requests about a deceased person's account on their own review. Who inherits your accounts, devices and money is a question for an estate attorney in your state. What your family does after a death is covered in After the service in Learn Funeral Planning. The check-up schedule is our convention; if your own life suggests another rhythm, use it, and keep the dates on the calendar.

10. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The four essential sheets have at least one row each, and no row holds a password, code or full number.
• The security file is printed, dated and stored with my important papers.
• A legacy or inactive-account contact is set on my main account, or "none offered" is written on the recovery sheet.
• The person I named knows, and their name is on the recovery sheet.
• The next check-up date is on my calendar.
• I walked through my main account's own security checkup once.
• An export of the security file is saved on my own device or a drive kept with my papers.
• A contact is set, or "none offered" written, for every account on the recovery sheet. (Go deeper; optional)
• A second copy is with someone I trust, and they know the five things. (Go deeper; optional)

Have you just done what this manual teaches? If it is still fresh, we would like to hear about it. We are looking for volunteer guides to add a few short passages from their own experience to this manual. Write to guides@learnthings.online for the details.