Apple, Google & Co. Are Not Really Designed for Families
We built our digital lives together — but in the eyes of tech giants, we’re still just individuals.
We are told our devices are “smart,” our clouds “shared,” and our memories “backed up.” But the reality is far messier. Beneath the sleek interfaces and cheerful marketing, something essential is missing: empathy.
Technology companies have created ecosystems built for users — individual, password-protected, independently managed users.
Families, however, don’t work that way. We live and remember collectively. And when the one who holds the digital keys is gone, everything can fall apart.
Even with Apple’s Legacy Contact, Google’s Inactive Account Manager, or Microsoft’s support channels, these systems don’t fully solve the real-world problems that emerge when a family loses a member.
Shared photos, passwords, and files remain fragile and often irretrievable without exhaustive planning.
Photo Sharing: Together, But Not Quite
Apple introduced the Shared iCloud Photo Library, where up to six people can contribute, edit, and view a single shared photo space. Each member can build private albums within that library, but these albums remain private — there is no way to create and co-edit shared albums across the family.
If the account that owns the shared library is closed (due to death or otherwise), shared photos are distributed back into members’ personal libraries if they’ve been part of the shared group for at least seven days. However, album structures, edits, and metadata curated collectively may be lost. The shared experience vanishes.
Google Photos offers Partner Sharing, which lets a user automatically share photos (all or filtered) with one partner. There are also Shared Albums, which allow multiple people to contribute. But the ownership lies with one person. If the original owner deletes the album or their account becomes inactive, access can be lost. It’s a shared link, not shared stewardship.
Microsoft OneDrive allows users to share files and folders, including photos. However, it does not have a dedicated shared photo library feature like Apple or Google. If the person who uploaded the content deletes their account, the content could potentially be inaccessible unless the file ownership was explicitly transferred.
Passwords: One Vault, One Gatekeeper
Apple’s iCloud Keychain now supports Family Passwords, a powerful tool that allows shared, editable password vaults among family group members. But only the organizer can create or manage these groups. If their account is removed, the shared passwords may be disrupted or lost entirely.
Google’s Password Manager allows users to send individual passwords to others, but these are one-time copies. They don’t stay in sync. There’s no shared vault or editable group feature. When you send the updated password, it doesn’t automatically sync with the previous one you sent. The recipient now has to manually update their stored password, causing confusion or even missed logins.
Microsoft (via Authenticator and Edge) does not offer password sharing within family accounts through Microsoft Authenticator or Edge, which means family members cannot directly share or sync passwords across accounts. Each vault is personal. Without prior export or legal access, family members can be locked out entirely.
Files: Silent Casualties of Disconnection
Apple iCloud Drive allows file sharing, but it all hinges on the owner. Files shared with others still reside in the original user’s account and storage. If that account is deleted, links break, and content can disappear — even if others depend on it. (the same goes for tasks in the reminder app).
Google Drive allows file and folder sharing with editable permissions. However, only the original owner can transfer ownership — and not for all file types. If an account is deleted without prior transfer, the files are deleted with it. Google’s Inactive Account Manager can be configured to share Drive contents, but this must be set up proactively.
Microsoft OneDrive supports family groups and file sharing. Yet again, ownership is not transferable. If the account of the file owner is removed, shared access vanishes. There is no equivalent to a shared family drive unless you move to enterprise-level solutions like SharePoint.
For example: A family organizes all their documents — medical files, mortgage papers, and vacation plans — in a OneDrive folder. When the person who created the folder’s account is deleted, all the documents are lost. Without transferring ownership beforehand, the family can’t access any of the shared content.
Digital Legacy: Only Half a Solution
Apple offers a Legacy Contact system, allowing a designated person to access a deceased user’s data. But this excludes shared content like photo libraries, password groups, or files under family subscriptions.
Google provides the Inactive Account Manager, where users can choose what data to share, with whom, and after how long of inactivity. However, this still revolves around personal, not shared, assets. It requires advance setup.
Microsoft does not have a public digital legacy feature for consumers. Access typically requires a legal process, and Microsoft does not guarantee data recovery.
However, in many cases, the users left behind are not as skilled as the original account owner, especially when dealing with complex shared data like photo libraries, passwords, and files.
Without the original account holder’s permissions and control, family members may find themselves completely lost in managing shared resources, making digital inheritance a far more difficult process than it should be.
What Families Actually Need
We don’t live digital lives alone. We parent, plan, and remember as families. And yet, we are forced to structure our digital lives around the individual. Families need more than “shared” features with fine print and single points of failure.
We need digital systems built for continuity — designed around how families actually live, love, and lose.
That means:
- True co-ownership of shared libraries, passwords, and storage plans.
- Fallback ownership or automatic transitions when someone leaves or passes away.
- Collaborative photo albums inside shared libraries — not just individual folders masquerading as community spaces.
- Simple, integrated inheritance tools, not just optional legacy setups hidden in settings.
Tech companies have given us the illusion of digital togetherness — but they haven’t built the structure to support it when it matters most.
Until Apple, Google, and Microsoft embrace these realities, families will remain digitally fragile — together in spirit, but divided by design.
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