Are you sick and tired of being inundated with email blasts from LinkedIn? Not deriving any real value from building your network and professional relationships on LinkedIn, are we? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Sometimes it’s just easier to break ties with a service that consumes your precious time and makes you less productive.
If you’ve decided to take a break from LinkedIn, follow this step-by-step tutorial to learn how to close your account with the service, find out what happens with your information after you’ve closed your account, as well as see how you can download a copy of your data and request other personally identifiable information they may have about you.
Things to know before closing your LinkedIn account
When you close your account, your basic information gets removed from LinkedIn within 24 hours. Any recommendations or endorsements you’ve given or received, as well as your messages and connections, will be wiped clean from the servers. Your public profile continues to be available through search engines until their caches refresh.
Closed account information will be deleted from LinkedIn’s servers within 7 days. Logs and other backup information will be de-personalized through the deletion process within 30 days of account closure.
You can reopen your account if it’s been closed less than 20 days, but that won’t bring back your previous endorsements and recommendations, ignored or pending invitations, Followings (Influencers, Companies, etc.) and group memberships.
Anything you shared with other LinkedIn users through InMail, network updates, content sharing or groups shall remain visible after the account is nuked from orbit. Groups content associated with closed accounts will display an unknown user as the source.
Folks who have a LinkedIn membership, group or Premium account license must resolve those accounts before they can close their free account.
To cancel a Premium service, visit linkedin.com/premium/cancel.
LinkedIn users who use a paid access can cancel their Premium account but keep their free account to retain their profile, connections and other information.
LinkedIn’s data retention policy
To comply with laws and meet regulatory requirements, LinkedIn keeps select data on you even after you’ve closed your account. “We may retain personal information, for a limited period of time, if requested by law enforcement,” cautions LinkedIn.
The company maintains 30 days worth of web server logs for security, debugging and stability purposes by creating aggregate data sets that cannot be traced back to individuals. Don’t worry, you can download your data and submit a request for additional information about your account that’s not included in the backup.
Due to the way Yahoo, Bing, Google and other search engines collect data, it may take up to 72 hours for your public profile to be removed from public search engine results. Should something go awry and your profile remains exposed to search engines after the 72 hours have expired, you can contact Google directly for removal.
For more information, read LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy and Data Retention Policy.
How to download your LinkedIn archive
Your data belongs to you.
With that in mind, you’re recommended to download a copy of your LinkedIn data, posts, connections and other pieces of information prior to deleting your account.
1) Log in to your account at linkedin.com.
2) Click your profile image, then choose Settings & Privacy from the popup menu.
3) Click the Account tab at the top.
4) Click Change next to “Download your data.”
5) Select your preferred archive format.
Click Request Archive at the bottom to continue.
You may be prompted to enter your LinkedIn password for security reasons.
Once you receive an email from LinkedIn with a download link, click it to save the archive on your computer, then open the file to unpack it and explore the files within.
If you elected to receive a full backup archive, you’ll receive two emails from the system.
The first should hit your inbox within minutes, providing a link where you can download certain pieces of information which are the fastest to compile, such as your messages, connections and contacts.
Within 24 hours, you’ll receive a second email with a link where you can download your full archive, including your activity and full account history, sans data in the People You May Know and Who’s Viewed Your Profile sections.
Downloading your LinkedIn data is not available on mobile.
LinkedIn’s support document lists all of the items delivered in backup files.
If you live in the United States and wish to see other items that are not included in your LinkedIn archive, such as your IP access logs, complete LinkedIn’s Data Consent form.
People who live outside of the United States should submit their request by letter to LinkedIn Ireland, Gardner House, Wilton Place, Wilton Plaza, Dublin, Ireland.
How to close your LinkedIn account on the web
1) Log in to your account at linkedin.com.
Tip: If you get a message saying the email address is associated with another account, you have more than one LinkedIn account. To delete a duplicate account, log in with its underlying email address and follow the steps below.
2) Click your profile pic at the top, then choose Settings & Privacy from the menu.
Tip: You can also get to your privacy settings by visiting linkedin.com/psettings.
3) Click the Account tab at the top of the page.
4) Click Change next to “Closing your LinkedIn account” underneath Subscriptions.
5) Check one of the reasons for closing your account, then click Next.
6) Enter your LinkedIn password, then click Close Account to confirm the action.
Your account gets deleted immediately.
Tip: You’re wholeheartedly recommended to tick the box next to “Unsubscribe me from LinkedIn email communications, including invitations” to stop receiving LinkedIn’s annoying marketing messages.
How to close your LinkedIn account using the mobile app
1) Launch the LinkedIn app on your iPhone.
2) Hit your profile image in the navigation bar.
3) Tap Settings (the gear icon) in the top-right corner.
4) On the Account tab, tap Close Account.
5) Tap Continue to proceed with closing your account.
6) Select the reason for closing your account, then tap Next.
7) Enter your account password and tap Done.
Congratulations, you’ve just closed your account with LinkedIn.
Don’t forget to delete the mobile LinkedIn app from your devices!
If you change your mind within the next 20 days and want to reopen your account, simply log in with the same email address you used to originally sign up for the service.
Be sure to browse our account deletion archive for other step-by-step tutorials which deal with deleting user accounts on popular online services like Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, PayPal, eBay, Netflix, Twitter and many more.
