Everything you need to get started with your Left In Peace USB drive
If this arrived as a gift, welcome — someone who cares about you wanted to make things easier for the people you love.
Left In Peace is a small USB drive with a built-in lock. It holds, in one safe place, the everyday information your family would need if you weren't there to answer the phone: where accounts live, who to call, where the will is, what your wishes are. Nothing is online. Nothing is shared. You hold the only key.
You don't have to finish it in one sitting. Start with a few items, save, and come back. The pages that follow show you exactly how.
The key is the USB drive itself. The Left In Peace software lives right on it, so there is nothing to download or install on your computer.
The small adapter is for computers that only have the small oval ports (called USB-C). Plug the key into the adapter, then the adapter into the computer.
Left In Peace works entirely offline. No WiFi, no accounts, no cloud storage. Everything stays on the USB drive.
On a Mac, Left In Peace needs Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Brave to read and save files on the USB drive. Safari and Firefox cannot do this. If you do not have one of these browsers installed, double-clicking the Left In Peace app will offer to install Chrome for you — it is free and takes about a minute.
Edge is already on every Windows computer, so you do not need to install anything. Chrome also works. When the browser asks to select a folder or allow access, click "Allow" or "Select Folder." Setup won't finish until the drive is selected — your information belongs on the drive, not on the computer.
Choose a 4-10 digit PIN you'll remember. You'll enter it each time you open Left In Peace.
These are two keys of 6 words each, and the app prints two copies of each — four cards. Give each card to a different person: one key to a trusted person and its spare copy to a backup person, the other key to a second trusted person (often your attorney) and its spare to their backup. Your family will need both keys to unlock the drive — and with two copies of each out there, one lost card never locks them out.
Take a photo of the recovery image with your phone. It's a handy helper if you ever forget your PIN — though your two printed word cards can always reset the PIN on their own, on any computer.
The picture is one piece of a PIN reset (the word cards are the rest) — keeping it away from the drive means anyone who finds the drive holds one less piece.
You don't have to do it all at once. Start with the first five things your family would need:
So your family can unlock your phone
Most accounts can be reset through email
The first call your family will need to make
Filing cabinet, attorney's office, safe?
Your family needs to file a claim
Everything else can wait. Add a little more each time you visit. The app saves automatically.
Left In Peace walks you through each one with a "Next" button:
Your information is locked and saved to the USB drive.
Returns to the welcome screen and signs you out.
Windows: Right-click the drive, click "Eject." Mac: Drag the drive to the Trash (it becomes an Eject icon).
And if you ever wander off mid-visit: after 15 minutes with no activity, Left In Peace saves your work and locks itself. Nothing is lost — just enter your PIN to continue.
Once in a while, click "Check for Updates" at the bottom of the screen (the only time you need the internet). A window shows what's new — click "Update Now," wait for the progress bar and "✓ Update Complete," then "Restart Left In Peace." Your saved information is never touched.
Another way to update: plug in your key, and in Chrome or Edge go to leftinpeace.com/current — it updates the key right in the browser and works on every key, even older ones. Those are the only two ways Left In Peace is ever updated. Nothing is ever downloaded or installed on your computer — if anything asks you to download a "Left In Peace update," it did not come from us. Just close it.
Plug in the USB drive, open Left In Peace, enter your PIN, and pick up where you left off. Try to review and update once a year.
Email team@leftinpeace.com and we'll help you personally.
A complete Owner's Guide is included on the USB drive — click "Instructions & Guides" at the bottom of the welcome screen to find it, along with every other booklet.