Apple ID help

My father passed away a couple of months ago

He and my mom had an ipad they both used as well as iphones. They had all three set up on the same apple id which used my dad's email. We can't figure out the password to the apple id nor his email to reset it.

My 70 yr old mom does not have a lot of apps, things like that added to her phone or ipad but she is trying to add some now and can not do so because she does not know the password.

We do not really have any need to access his info mainly we just want to preserve what she has on her phone now and be able to add new things.

I am guessing she just needs to create a new apple id using her own email and then change it on her phone like this iOS: Sign in with a different Apple ID in the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store ?

I am just worried about what might happen to the content on her phone if we do this. Lord knows she has been through enough lately and I don't want to foul up her phone and cause her more worries.

Changing the ID she will lose any purchases made under the original ID (books, apps, music etc). They won't disappear per-se but they won't be updated or be able to be transferred easily.

I appreciate it's a tough time but is the a way of checking/searching your fathers email on his ipad looking for Apple emails? perhaps it would give an insight into the account email used or other details which would help you reset it. I'm assuming the appleID he used was different from the email address used?

If recovery of the appleID is a non-starter consider getting a piece of software like Macroplant iExplorer. It'll let you take messages, music all sorts of content from your Mum's devices. I'm not sure exactly what you need to keep on it but it's a good chance that tool can save it for you. Happy to check if you post specifics.

Once you've got everything safe I'd set your Mum's device up as new with a new ID so that everything is ok going forward.