How to Deactivate Your LinkedIn Account

LinkedIn is a popular social networking platform for professionals that allows users to connect with industry peers, showcase their skills and experience, and find new job opportunities. However, if you ever decide to take a break from the platform or leave it entirely, you can deactivate your LinkedIn account temporarily or permanently. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to deactivate your LinkedIn account with step-by-step instructions.

There are two ways to deactivate your LinkedIn account: temporary deactivation and permanent deactivation. Temporary deactivation is a better option if you want to take a break from the platform for a certain period without losing your profile and connections. On the other hand, permanent deactivation means you are permanently deleting your LinkedIn account, and it cannot be restored.

Before deactivating your account, it’s important to download your data to keep a record of your connections, messages, and other information associated with your account. LinkedIn allows you to download your data into a ZIP file, which you can view on your computer or mobile device. This process is explained in detail in the next section.

Deactivating your LinkedIn account has some consequences as well. You will lose access to your profile, connections, and messages once it’s deactivated. In case you have a LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Learning subscription, the deactivation process may have different implications. Cancelling LinkedIn Premium and keeping LinkedIn Learning active or vice versa is also explained in this article.

If you change your mind after deactivating your LinkedIn account, you can reactivate it by signing in with your old credentials. However, the reactivation process is different for temporarily and permanently deactivated accounts. This guide provides detailed step-by-step instructions for both reactivation processes.

So, if you are interested in deactivating your LinkedIn account or wish to reactivate it, follow this comprehensive guide for step-by-step instructions.

Table of Contents

Temporary Deactivation

If you need a break from LinkedIn but do not want to lose your profile and connections, you can temporarily deactivate your account. Follow these steps to do so:

Log in to your LinkedIn account with your email address and password.
Click on your profile picture located on the top right corner of LinkedIn’s website.
Select “Settings & Privacy” from the drop-down menu.
On the “Settings & Privacy” page, select the “Account” tab.
Under the “Account Management” section, click on “Change” next to “Closing your LinkedIn account” option.
Select “Temporarily close your account” and choose a reason for your deactivation from the dropdown menu.
Click on “Next” and enter your password.
Finally, click “Temporarily close account” to confirm the deactivation.

Once you have completed these steps, your account will be temporarily deactivated. You can return to LinkedIn at any time by logging in with your email and password, and your profile, connections, and messages will be restored.

Permanent Deactivation

If you’ve determined that you no longer want to maintain a presence on LinkedIn, permanently deactivating your account might be the best solution. Permanently deactivating your account is a big decision, and it is recommended that you download a copy of your data beforehand. Doing so will enable you to retain all of your information and connections so that you may re-import them into LinkedIn or other social media platforms at a later time.

To permanently deactivate your LinkedIn account, simply follow these simple steps:

Sign in to your LinkedIn account and navigate to the “Settings & Privacy” section from the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the main LinkedIn page.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Account management” under the “Subscription & payments” section.
Click on “Closing your LinkedIn account” at the bottom of the page.
Choose a reason for deactivating your account and provide feedback (optional).
Enter your LinkedIn password to confirm the deactivation.

Once you have clicked the “Close account” button, your LinkedIn profile will be permanently deactivated and will no longer be viewable by others. All of your connections, endorsements, and recommendations will be permanently deleted. Additionally, you will no longer receive any email notifications or messages from LinkedIn.

It’s important to note that if you have any active LinkedIn subscriptions, they will not be automatically cancelled when you permanently deactivate your account. To avoid any additional charges, you must cancel your subscription(s) before deactivating your account. You may also want to consider reaching out to your contacts before deactivating your account to avoid any miscommunications or disruptions in business.

Exporting Data

Before you deactivate your LinkedIn account, it’s crucial to download your data to preserve your profile, connections, messages, and other information linked with your account. Exporting your data isn’t mandatory but recommended to hold a backup of your account before deactivating permanently. Below are the steps involved in exporting data:

Log in to your LinkedIn account
Click on “Me” on the top right corner of the page and select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown list
Under the “How LinkedIn uses your data” section, click on “Download your data”
Select the data categories you want to download and the date range for the data
Choose the file format as Zip or CSV and the language for the data
Click on “Request Archive” to start the download process

Depending on the amount of data you have, it may take a few minutes or hours to compile your data into a ZIP file. You’ll receive an email from LinkedIn once your data archive is ready for download. The ZIP file must be downloaded within 72 hours; otherwise, you’ll have to make a new request.

In conclusion, it’s always a good idea to keep a copy of your LinkedIn data before deactivating your account. Exporting your data allows you to preserve your connections, messages, and other account information that may be valuable to you in the future.

Download Your Data

Before deactivating your LinkedIn account, it’s important to download your data to keep a record of your connections, messages, and other information associated with your account. LinkedIn allows you to download your data into a ZIP file. Here’s how:

Log into your LinkedIn account.
Click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen and select “Settings & Privacy.”
Click on “Account Preferences” and then select “Download your data” under the “Getting an archive of your data” section.
On the “Download your data” page, you can select the data you want to download. By default, LinkedIn selects all the data, but you can choose to deselect some of the data by clicking on the boxes next to them.
Choose the file format you prefer. You can choose between CSV, JSON, and HTML. Note that HTML doesn’t include your messages.
Choose the date range for the data you want to download. You can choose to download all of your data or select a specific date range.
Click on the “Request archive” button.
LinkedIn will notify you by email when your data is ready to download. It may take several minutes for the data to be prepared, depending on the size of your account.
When the data is ready, you’ll receive an email with a link to download it. Click on the link and enter your LinkedIn password to start the download.

Once you’ve downloaded your data, you can view it on your computer or mobile device. Keep in mind that the ZIP file may be large and take some time to download, especially if you have a lot of data. It’s always a good idea to keep a copy of your LinkedIn data for future reference.

Accessing Your Data

If you have successfully downloaded your LinkedIn data, you can now access it on your computer or mobile device. The following steps will guide you on how to access your downloaded data:

Locate the ZIP file on your computer or mobile device and double-click to open it.
You will see several folders containing your data, including your connections, messages, and activity history.
You can browse through each folder to view its contents and open the files to see the data associated with them.
If you have any trouble opening the files, make sure you have the appropriate software installed on your device. For example, if you’re trying to open a CSV file, make sure you have a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets installed on your device.

Remember to keep your downloaded data safe and secure as it contains sensitive information associated with your LinkedIn account. You may want to back up the files to an external hard drive or use a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox to store your data online.

Consequences of Deactivation

Deactivating your LinkedIn account may have several consequences that you should be aware of before making a final decision. Firstly, you will lose access to your profile, connections, and messages. This includes all your shared content, posts, and other activity on the platform. However, it’s important to note that if you reactivate your account within 20 days of deactivation, your profile and its associated data will be restored.

Secondly, deactivating your account will also affect your presence on search engines. Your LinkedIn profile won’t appear in search engine results anymore, which may affect your personal branding and online visibility. Also, you won’t receive any emails or notifications from LinkedIn once your account is deactivated.

Thirdly, if you had any ongoing job applications or interviews through LinkedIn, deactivating your account may cause you to lose any opportunities related to those applications. The same is true for any LinkedIn groups you were a part of or any events you were attending through LinkedIn. This is because deactivation will make you invisible to other LinkedIn members, making it difficult to communicate and stay updated on important events.

Fourthly, if you have any pending invitations or pending messages, they won’t be delivered or visible once you deactivate your account. Any pending endorsements or recommendations will also be lost, and the people who endorsed or recommended you won’t be notified about the deactivation of your account.

Lastly, if you have a LinkedIn Company page, deactivating your personal account won’t affect the company page, but you won’t be able to manage it unless you assign another admin.

In summary, deactivating your LinkedIn account has several consequences that you should be aware of before making any decisions. If you still decide to deactivate your account, it’s important to export your data to keep a record of your connections, messages, and other information associated with your account.

LinkedIn Premium

If you are subscribed to LinkedIn Premium, it’s important to note that deactivating your account doesn’t cancel your subscription. If you want to cancel your Premium membership, you need to do it separately by following the steps below:

Step 1:	Log in to your LinkedIn account and click on the “Me” icon at the top of the page.
Step 2:	Select “Access My Premium” from the dropdown menu.
Step 3:	Click on the “Manage Premium Account” option on the right side of the page.
Step 4:	Scroll down to the “Cancel subscription” section and click on “Cancel Subscription.”

Once you have completed these steps, your LinkedIn Premium subscription will be canceled, and you will no longer be charged for it. However, keep in mind that you will still be able to access your Premium features until the end of your billing cycle.

LinkedIn Learning

If you have a LinkedIn Learning subscription and you deactivate your LinkedIn account, your subscription will also be canceled. However, if you want to keep your LinkedIn Learning subscription active, you can do so by following these steps:

Go to the LinkedIn Learning sign-in page.
Click on the “Sign in with LinkedIn” button.
Enter your LinkedIn account credentials.
You will be redirected to the LinkedIn Learning homepage.
Your account should be reactivated, and your subscription will remain active.

If you have any issues accessing your LinkedIn Learning account after deactivating your LinkedIn account, you can contact the LinkedIn customer service team for assistance.

Reactivating Your Account

If you’ve temporarily deactivated your LinkedIn account, reactivating it is pretty simple. To reactivate your temporarily deactivated account, all you need to do is sign in to LinkedIn with your old username and password.

Once you’ve signed in, LinkedIn will prompt you to confirm that you want to reactivate your account. Click on the “Reactivate” button to reactivate your account. It’s that simple!

If you’ve permanently deactivated your LinkedIn account, you won’t be able to reactivate it by simply signing in with your old credentials. However, LinkedIn does offer an option to request to reactivate your account in certain circumstances.

To initiate the process of reactivating your permanently deactivated account, you’ll need to contact LinkedIn’s customer service team. Head to LinkedIn’s Help Center and select the option that best describes your issue. This will help you get to the right customer service team member.

Once you’ve reached the right customer service team member, explain that you want to reactivate your permanently deactivated account. Follow their instructions and answer any questions they have to initiate the reactivation process.

Remember that reactivating your permanently deactivated account is not always guaranteed. LinkedIn will review your account and determine if it can be reactivated or if you’ll need to create a new account instead. It’s always best to consider the consequences of deactivating your account before making the decision to do so.

Reactivating Temporarily Deactivated Account

If you have previously deactivated your LinkedIn account temporarily and now want to reactivate it, you can easily do so by signing in with your old credentials. Follow the steps below to reactive your account:

Go to the LinkedIn homepage and enter your login credentials.
You will be taken to a page that asks you to confirm if you want to reactivate your account. Click on the “Reactivate” button to proceed.
If you don’t see the confirmation page, it’s possible that your account has been permanently deactivated. In this case, you will need to contact LinkedIn’s customer support team to reactivate your account.

Once you have confirmed that you want to reactivate your account, you should be able to access your profile and other information just as you left it before deactivation. Keep in mind that it may take some time for your account to become fully functional again, so be patient if you encounter any delays.

If you have any trouble reactivating your temporarily deactivated account, LinkedIn’s help center is a great resource for troubleshooting common issues. Additionally, you may want to review your account settings to make sure you haven’t accidentally set any restrictions on your account that could be preventing you from reactivating it.

Reactivating Permanently Deactivated Account

If you have decided to permanently deactivate your LinkedIn account but later want to reactivate it, you can request to reactivate it by contacting LinkedIn’s customer service team. You first need to visit the LinkedIn Help Center and click on the “Contact us” button at the bottom of the page. Then, select the “Getting back into my account” topic and complete the form with your details and why you want to reactivate your account.

After submitting the form, LinkedIn’s customer service team will review your request and respond to you within 24 hours. They might ask you to verify your identity by providing personal information and documentation. Once your account is reactivated, you will regain access to your profile, connections, and messages.

Note that reactivating a permanently deactivated LinkedIn account is not always guaranteed, and it might take a few days for LinkedIn’s customer service team to approve your request. Therefore, it is important to consider the consequences of deactivating your account before doing so.

If you had LinkedIn Premium subscription before deactivating your account, you will need to reactivate your subscription separately. Contact LinkedIn’s customer service team to cancel your subscription after reactivating your account.

In conclusion, if you want to reactivate your permanently deactivated LinkedIn account, you can do so by contacting LinkedIn’s customer service team through the Help Center. Provide them with your details and reason for reactivation, and they will review your request and respond to you within 24 hours.