My sister passed recently and we're trying to figure out what accounts she had so we can memorialize or close them. Is there a tool or method to find every social media account linked to an email address? Not trying to hack anything, just trying to handle her digital estate.
Can you find all social accounts tied to an email?
so sorry for your loss. here's what actually works for this:
- go to each major platform (facebook, instagram, twitter/x, tiktok, snapchat, linkedin, reddit) and use "forgot password" with her email. if an account exists it'll say so, or send a reset link
- check her email inbox for signup confirmations. search "welcome to" "verify your email" "confirm your account"
- check saved passwords in her browser (chrome, safari keychain) if you have access to her laptop/phone
forgot password trick is the best one. most platforms will confirm the account exists even if they don't let you in
also there's a site called haveibeenpwned.com where you can enter her email and see which services it's been in breaches for. that'll give you a list of sites she at minimum signed up for at some point
i do digital estate work professionally. a few things:
- facebook has a "memorialization" process, you can submit her death certificate and they'll either memorialize or delete
- google has an inactive account manager but it only works if she set it up in advance
- most other platforms will close the account if you email support with a death certificate, but it can take months
dm me if you want more specific help, happy to share the templates i use
OP: thank you everyone. this is really helpful. i'll start with the email inbox search, didn't think of that
when my mom died i used her email inbox and found accounts she had that nobody knew about. took me like 6 months to close everything. be patient with yourself
don't pay for any "find all accounts" service. they're all scams or they just do the same email/password reset trick you can do yourself for free"
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