This is one of the reasons why I don't host other people's data. I'd consider this option if there was another technical person among users with whom I could share workload and risks like a sudden death.
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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I want to be buried with my treasure, and as a data hoarder I will have to leave instructions for writing it all to tape.
Since others were posting end of life style docs, here is another: https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm
That's actually some good info there.
I decided very long ago not to pollute the gene pool, so everything dies with me.
gene poo
Indeed, sounds polluted enough 💩
I’ve learned to wear brown pants so it’s not as bad.
Ha! Spell check fail
If?
I suppose you could add the qualifier "unexpectedly"
Nearly everything you possess will end up in a landfill or the ocean within 10 years of your death, this is no exception.
Why's that? So much of my treasure comes from estate sales etc, they don't make stuff like they used to. I would say 90% of what I own has passed through someone else's hands, and a pretty good chunk of em have themselves passed
hardware I'm giving to my sister most likely. Software? well that's definitly dying with me. I'm the only one in my family that has any form of technical skill required to keep services going. They won't know what to do with it.
The most I'm able to share is pictures and files.
Bitwarden has a account custodian feature that will give my wife all the info she needs to access essential accounts and hardware, however, realistically the homelab will only continue to work until things start dropping - there is likely no easy recovery of crashes.
I haven't talked to my wife about it directly, you've reminded me this would be a good conversation to have, but the first thing she should do when the insurance money comes in is (after paying off the assassin) buy a bunch of dumb light bulbs and pay to print any photos she cares about in case our digital backups die.
My will contains the master password for my keepass file, from there someone could theoretically handle everything.
This is the origin of the phrase "where there's a will, there's a way".
I uhh... I don't think that's right... But I also dont know enough about the idiom to prove you wrong...
It's the theoretically part that i haven't figured out. I know none of my family members would have any idea what to do with anything. I feel like All the Data will just be lost when i go... which is a huge issue as everything moves to digital.
You could make a document describing what each set of data is, if its useful to anyone but yourself, or if its safe to delete. You could offer suggestions of what to do with each set. I think of it as a treasure map that you leave behind. Maybe they will be interested in it, maybe they will pass it on to someone else.
I actually started doing that. It's a living document, shared with others. It's the best solution I've come up with. Knowing whether or not I can convey enough info to make it usable and able to be followed for a less technical person like other family members drives my adoption of software/hardware solutions.
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that’s very smart
https://github.com/potatoqualitee/eol-dr
Seems pretty thorough.
This is what I was trying to find for op. Well done!
No :/ my server will probably die with me. My people are going to complain why homeassistant isn't working, why automated lights don't turn on and why nothing has been added to the plex library in forever. Just not sure who they'll complain to lol.
At the end of the day, its my hobby and they'll just have to live with how it was before. The hardware will be there if anyone wants to start up their own thing, but I don't see it happening.
There's a project on github just for this, I forget what it's called.
Basically they've developed a mechanism for providing instructions and access to security (usernames, passwords, etc).
I'll see of I can find it
Looks interesting but explicitly says it’s “alpha software “ and hasn’t been updated in five years. I’d be weary of using something like this in such a critical situation.
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It’ll die with me. Albeit probably a slow death over a couple months, I have to be realistic here - none of my family members will care enough to keep anything running in the long run.
It’s the same fate your grandma’s unfinished knitted scarves and socks had a couple years ago.
I had a few cousins who took and finished all my grandma's unfinished quilts. They were already into quilting though. YMMV, but it is a good example - if there is someone who can understand/take this over give it to them.
This is why my lab is well documented and managed by runner.ci workflows and the vault password and keys are in an encrypted file in my will. Explicit instructuons for decryption are in same will and handled via one time pad.
Also all of my loved ones know that I am not suicidal and will not under any circumstances take my own life...because reasons.
Anyone at the reading of my will can either take up administration, or put the resources on codeberg funded by a trust for 3 years after my death. If what I've built cannot be forked within 3 years i lt deserves to die with me.
I set a friend as an emergency contact for my Bitwarden vault, so he can request access, and if I don't deny it within 2 weeks he's granted access.
I'm also working on a kind of digital dead man switch. Basically, I'll make it so that you give it some last messages, which are assigned to groups of recipients. The service will send you an email at a specified interval (for example, every month) with a link in it. If you don't click on the email a few times, you're marked as dead and the last messages get sent out to their corresponding recipients.
My plan is using Shamir’s Secret Sharing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_secret_sharing) to split my encrypted master password in 3: one for my wife, one for my mother and one for my best friend. In case I die, only 2 of those parts are needed to recover the password.
I've made a note in a paper notebook with my master password for the password manager for my wife, but she's totally uninterested in anything I do with my server - she tried to understand, but it didn't work. At least she'll have access to my emails and other stuff in case I die before her.
Same here. I don't see how she would manage, she's not THAT technical. I told her she'd probably be good for another few years barring breaking updates. Beyond that, she'll need to find someone to retrieve any content she wants to keep. For this reason, I keep all photos with a paid service (ente) as I don't want to risk her losing those.
INB4: she = MY wife, not yours :)
Haha! For sure not mine!
When my brother's brother-in-law passed, he gave all that to my brother. Both on the high end of tech/self-hosting capabilities. I've come to the conclusion much of it wasn't worth it.
I'll be focusing on ensuring access to financial accounts is passed on cleanly. And I'm working on digitizing all remaining physical photo negatives, then planning how to share all digitally with family while still alive. Since I don't expect any to be interested in maintaining a server after I'm gone, I'm thinking I'll keep it simple and just give everyone an external hard drive with all the photos. It's up to them to do what they want with the drive. A copy to each sibling is increases odds it's survives for a generation.
I'll make project notes and plans available to anyone interested, but no hard feelings if no one is interested. And my music and movies can disappear for all I care. My tastes are pretty mainstream so I'm not thinking about archival value.
I figure by then, it will all be part of some AI training set one day. Hopefully my shitty writing and bad opinions poison the shit out of it.
Realistically no. My wife primarily uses the ad blocking dns and smb file storage. I’ve built the server on FreeBSD so those should run near forever if I passed, and she knows she has until the server dies to find somewhere else to put her photos. Past that there’s a maintenance document next to the will, which includes everything up to how to replace drives on zfs, but I doubt she’d use it if I’m being honest.
No, but this does interest me a lot, so... Will be keep a tab on this.
I should set up that bitwarden feature that lets people ask for access and they get it if you don't respond in a set amount of time.
All my personal data is on encrypted partitions and drives. The only data that would be left behind is whatever I was hosting on my Raspberry Pi's. Anyone can do what they please with that data, it doesn't matter to me. The encrypted stuff can be easily wiped and the hardware can be reused by whoever comes after me.
I created a text file with all the IPs, server name, and function and some general notes. I don’t use good passwords in my home network, sue me. But my master password should go into the will stored with lawyer.
It’s enough to get started but my family will have to find someone to help them at some point as they don’t have the technical skills I do.
The part how they cloud technically access all relevant files, seems easy to me. As mentioned in other comments, just give someone or somewhere you trust your master password.
Virtually impossible, that my dear ones actually can make any use of this. They don't even know how to use a command line, not to mention how to decrypt a luks partition. In the end, they will get some linux friend to do this, copy all files on a nfts external drive and hook this up to a Windows machine. So glad, I don't have to experience this monstrosity anymore.
Passwords, usernames and access keys are all important, but what about technical knowledge? If you're the one hosting all of that, it's presumably because you're the most knowledgeable about that in your group. Without you, even if they have access, will they know how to keep things running, especially when things go wrong?
It’s in my will, but most of my days isn’t useful without need to use it or me.
My will has a page of important passwords, accounts, where important documents are kept.
https://media.ccc.de/v/2025-513-digitaler-nachlass-was-passiert-wenn-nerds-versterben
Its a talk by the CCC about this subject. I think there nicht be a translated Version somewhere..
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