What your family needs to take over your tech
If you are the one who runs the household's passwords, devices, backups and maybe a few self-hosted services, your partner would inherit a system they have never seen. This guide covers what the built-in vendor features actually hand over, what they leave out, and what to write down yourself. Facts were checked against each vendor's own help pages on 10 October 2026; features change, so re-check before you rely on them.
Why the vendor features are not enough on their own
Two people on Hacker News recently described the gap in their own words, in two separate threads. One wrote that their spouse has access to the password storage, "whether she remembers how to do it is a different question", and that they should probably write it down (HN, 9 Oct 2026). The other described a homelab that "over time became pretty important, more like a small prod environment" for the household (HN, 17 Sep 2026). Access is one problem. Knowing what to do with it is the other.
What Bitwarden, Google and Apple cover
| Feature | What it does | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Bitwarden Emergency Access | A trusted contact can request access to your vault. It is granted if you do not refuse within the wait time you set, or sooner if you approve. The contact can view items, or take over by setting a new master password. | Needs a Premium account to designate contacts. Takeover replaces the master password and removes any previously set up two-step login methods. It says nothing about your devices, backups or services. |
| Google Inactive Account Manager | After a period of inactivity that you choose, up to 10 trusted contacts get an email you wrote, and can be given a download link for data you chose to share. | Only Google data, and some information cannot be shared. The help page does not describe a warning to you before a plan triggers, so check the setup screen for any alert options. |
| Apple Legacy Contact | Your contact uses an access key and a death certificate to reach photos, messages, notes, files and device backups. | Does not include iCloud Keychain data (passwords, payment information, passkeys) or content bought with your Apple Account such as movies, music, books and subscriptions. |
Use these where they fit. They are good at one thing each. None of them tells your partner which phone line must not be cancelled yet, what the small box in the cupboard does, or who to call.
What to write down, in order
- Where the keys are, not the keys. The password manager, how to open it, and where the master password or emergency kit is kept. Never write secrets into the same document.
- Two-step login. Where the authenticator lives, where recovery codes are, and which accounts only send a code to your phone number. That last list decides whether the phone line can be cancelled.
- The first-72-hours page. Four things to do, and four to avoid: do not wipe devices, do not cancel the phone line, do not close accounts, do not switch off the box in the cupboard until you have read about it.
- What renews on its own. Subscriptions, domains and hosting, with dates. Domains matter most because an expired one takes email and websites with it.
- Backups and how to restore. Plain steps, tested once.
- One card per self-hosted service. What it does for the family, what stops if it is off, how to export its data, and a decision: keep running, export then shut down, or ask for help first. Export first for anything holding photos, documents or passwords.
- A named human. One person with a phone number who has agreed to help.
- A quarterly check. Try to open the vault using only your own notes.
Two copies, two places
Keep one copy at home where your partner knows to look, and one elsewhere (a trusted person, a safe-deposit box, or an encrypted note your partner can open). Tell your partner it exists and walk through the first page together once. A document nobody knows about does not help.
Not sure where your gaps are? Try the free gap checker. If you would rather not lay out the sheets yourself, the Handover Binder ($9) has them ready: start-here page, access map, account, renewal and backup registers, and a keep-or-shut-down card for each service. This guide is general planning information, not legal advice and not a will.