He left her the house, the car but forgot the Apple password…

A widow who wanted to use her dead husband’s Apple account to play games on her iPad was told that she could not have the password without getting a court order. Peggy Bush asked her daughter to call Apple to retrieve the password after a card game app she liked stopped working. The 72-year-old says she was told that unless the family wanted to start a new Apple ID account and re-purchase everything, they needed a court order to find out the password. Her daughter Donna said Apple’s demand for a court order was “ridiculous”.

I just had the iPad. I didn’t realise he had a specific password I should have known about … It was too confusing to me … It just never crossed my mind.

Peggy Bush

Donna added: "We’ve been able to transfer the title of the house, we’ve been able to transfer the car, all these things, just using a notarised death certificate and the will.“ Apple’s terms and conditions state that accounts can be deleted, but not recovered, after a person’s death. Mrs Bush, from Victoria, Canada, lost her husband David to lung cancer in August. The couple owned an iPad and an Apple computer. She knew the iPad’s log-in code, but didn’t know the Apple ID password. Apple has since been in contact with the Bush family to try to resolve the issue… without a court order.

Technology Apple password