An online memorial or tribute page is a way to honor your loved one and their memory. After a loss, putting together an online memorial can be a source of peace and comfort. It’s a way to feel connected with your loved ones through a difficult time. However, there might come a time when you need to delete this page.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- Why Delete an Online Memorial Page?
- What Will You Need in Order to Delete an Online Memorial Page?
- What Usually Happens After You Delete an Online Memorial Page?
- Steps for Deleting an Online Memorial Page
- Steps for Saving Photos, Videos, and Other Information on an Online Memorial Page
While this page often has no time limit, there are many legitimate reasons as to why you might be ready to take it down. From protecting your privacy to honoring your loved one in a new way, it’s up to you when you want to delete an online memorial or tribute.
Luckily, you’re always in control. Though loss is difficult, it’s up to you to decide what to do when someone dies. In this guide, we’ll share step-by-step how to delete an online memorial or tribute page. Remember, you can always take on this process at your own pace, depending on your comfort level.
Why Delete an Online Memorial Page?
First, why would you delete an online memorial or tribute page at all? While this is a highly personal decision, many external factors may contribute to the removal of a memorial page. These are likely different for everybody, but some of the most common factors include:
- Pricing: While there are plenty of free online memorial websites, many are only free for a limited time or charge long-term fees. These fees may no longer be in your budget, and that’s okay.
- Privacy: Another common reason to delete an online memorial page is for privacy concerns. Having personal information, photos, and so on posted on the internet could begin to feel unsafe, depending on your wishes.
- Purpose: The first few months following a loss are often the hardest. During this time, the memorial page is an important gathering place. Once this time passes, however, you might no longer need this page to bring your family comfort.
- Taking the Page Offline: It’s common to download any special comments, messages, memories, and images from the online memorial site to save offline. When this happens, you no longer need the online memorial.
Ultimately, it’s entirely your decision what happens to your loved one’s tribute page. Whether you choose to keep it online indefinitely or remove it is up to you. However, if you do decide it’s time to take it down, follow the steps below.
What Will You Need in Order to Delete an Online Memorial Page?
Before you delete your online memorial page, make sure you have the right information. While you often don’t need any personal information, you will need key account information related to the tool you used to create the online memorial. Some things you may need are as follows:
- Your username (or email address)
- Your password
- Memorial website name
- Loved one’s name
If you don’t know which website you created your loved one’s online memorial page through, common options are Gathering Us, Keeper Memorials, and Ever Loved. Alternatively, if you don’t know your login information, contact the provider directly for support.
It’s also common to use social media pages as a form of memorial online. In this case, you will need to contact the social media platform directly or submit a request through support.
What Usually Happens After You Delete an Online Memorial Page?
When you delete an online memorial page, the most important thing that happens is the content is removed. While you might be able to set the page to private, this isn’t always possible, and you will likely lose access to anything saved or posted to the account, meaning any messages, photos, and guest posts will be lost.
Some memorial websites allow you to re-access this information in the future if you wish, although this isn’t always possible. Because your account may be gone upon deletion, with no way to recover information, make sure you download or save any vital assets before deleting an online memorial page.
Steps for Deleting an Online Memorial Page
If you’ve decided to delete an online memorial page, there are a few different steps to follow. While these vary depending on the online memorial website, it’s a relatively straightforward process.
1. Log into the account
The first step in this process is to log on to the account you used to create the online memorial. Along with your password, you will need the username or email associated with the account. If you don’t know your email or password, you can contact support for more assistance accessing your account.
2. Go to your page settings
Once you log in to your account, go to your memorial page management settings. You can usually find this at the top of the page, but you can also review your specific provider’s help page for more individual information if need be.
Once you get to your page settings, look for privacy settings or publishing settings. This is where you will find the memorial publishing tools.
3. Make the memorial private or delete it
Next, when you find your memorial settings, you will have the option to either unpublish it or delete it. If you can’t delete it permanently, you should be able to make it private for your viewing online. Before you do this, make sure to read through any steps on how to re-access the account later.
If you’re unable to delete the account yourself, you can contact the website’s support team. While you might need to provide key information, like a copy of the death certificate, this should be a simple process. Learn how to get a death certificate and other key documents before you begin.
4. Follow up
Lastly, follow up with the online memorial website to ensure your memorial page has been deleted. Ask a loved one if they’re able to access it, and log out of the account yourself. If you can’t find the page anymore, odds are it is no longer published online.
Steps for Saving Photos, Videos, and Other Information on an Online Memorial Page
Before you delete your loved one’s memorial page or tribute page, make sure to save any important information. You might not have access to it once the account is gone. To make sure you don’t lose anything, take these steps to save everything:
1. Determine what you want to save
First, decide what you want to save. Most online memorial websites have a variety of media, like photos, videos, and text to choose from. When in doubt, it’s a good idea to save everything.
2. Download photos and videos
One of the most important things to remember when deleting an online memorial page is to save the photos and videos. This can also be tricky, however, depending on how they’re uploaded. Sometimes guests can leave photos and videos on the page, and you might not have access to these.
Start by logging into the account. You might be able to download all multimedia through your account settings. Otherwise, access each photo and video you wish to download individually and save them. You can save images to your computer (right-click, ‘Save Image As’) or take a screenshot on your computer.
3. Save text and comments
To save comments, text information, and other data, you have a few options. You can either take a screenshot of the entire page, individual comments, multiple sections of comments, or you can simply copy and paste the text.
Save your copied and pasted text in an organized Word or Google Document. Then, save it to your computer or the cloud to always have access to these thoughtful words.
4. Make the page private
Alternatively, if you’d rather not download everything individually, you can simply choose to make the page private. Most online memorial websites have this option. Instead of deleting the page entirely, this stores all of your data as-is, but you’re the only one who can access it.
Removing Online Memorial Pages
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what to do with your loved one’s online memorial or tribute page. This is a highly personal decision, and there is no clear timeline when keeping the page online. Just as you have to go through everything on the death notification checklist, you have to make your own decision about your online tribute.
While creating an online memorial page can be an important part of the healing process, it might run its course. When you feel it’s time to take it down for good, follow the steps above. Following a post-loss checklist is helpful, but feel free to use your emotional intuition when creating a timeline for healing.