With over 530 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for professional networking and communication. As a result, many LinkedIn users have built up a significant history of conversations and messages on the platform that they may want to save or export for their records.
The ability to export LinkedIn messages depends on the type of account you have. Here’s a quick rundown of the options:
Exporting messages with a free LinkedIn account
Unfortunately, exporting your message history is not possible with a free basic LinkedIn account. LinkedIn does not provide any tools or settings to save or export your messages if you are using their platform with a free account.
The only option for free users is to manually copy and paste messages one by one into another document or platform. This can be extremely time consuming if you have a lot of LinkedIn messages you want to save.
Exporting messages with a LinkedIn Premium account
LinkedIn Premium subscribers do have the ability to export their message history, with some limitations. Premium accounts unlock access to LinkedIn’s Data Export tool under Settings & Privacy.
Using the Data Export tool, Premium members can download the following message data:
- A list of your LinkedIn connections, including any messages exchanged
- Details of messages exchanged with each connection
The data export includes messages you’ve sent and received through LinkedIn’s messaging platform over the last 18 months. Older messages outside that time period cannot be exported.
It’s important to note that when using the Data Export tool, your messages are not exported in their original readable format. Instead, LinkedIn provides your messages in a downloadable JSON file.
This means Premium users will have to take some additional steps to make their LinkedIn message history usable if they wish to view the conversations outside of LinkedIn.
How to export LinkedIn messages with Premium
Follow these steps to export your LinkedIn messages with a Premium account:
- Go to your LinkedIn Settings
- Select Privacy & Settings in the left sidebar
- Choose Data privacy under Your data
- Scroll down and select the option to Download your data
- Enter your LinkedIn password when prompted
- On the request page, select Messages under Relationships and verify your email
- LinkedIn will email you a link to download your data within 24-48 hours
- Your messages will be in the JSON file under the messages section
While Premium members can follow the above steps to export their LinkedIn messages, the data will still require some reformatting before it is easily readable. You’ll need to convert the JSON file to view your messages in plain text or another common format.
Exporting all LinkedIn messages with a compliance account
The fullest access to export LinkedIn messages comes with a compliance account. LinkedIn compliance accounts are special paid plans designed for regulated businesses that need to retain records of communications for compliance purposes.
Compliance account holders can export their full message history from LinkedIn in readable PST file format. This allows you to easily open and view all your LinkedIn conversations from over the years in an email client or app without having to convert files.
In addition, compliance accounts do not have the 18 month limitation for exported messages. You can request an export of your full account message history no matter how old the messages are.
The only catch is that compliance accounts start at several thousand dollars per year. They are primarily intended for large regulated enterprises, not individual users.
How to export all LinkedIn messages with a compliance account
To export the full breadth of your message history with a compliance account, you would follow these steps:
- Go to your LinkedIn compliance account settings
- Select Exports under Records Management
- Choose Messages from the export type dropdown
- Pick the date range to export (your full history is available)
- Enter a description for the export request (like “Full message history”)
- LinkedIn will email you a link to download the messages within 48 hours
- The download will contain your messages in PST files viewable in email apps
The ability to export a complete readable transcript of all your professional conversations on LinkedIn is a key benefit of upgrading to a compliance account. However, most individual users won’t be able to justify the high cost of these plans.
Conclusion
Exporting your message history on LinkedIn is limited for most users. Free account holders have no ability to export messages at all. Premium subscribers can only export a limited window of messages in raw JSON data format.
Only those with expensive LinkedIn compliance accounts can export a complete transcript of all their LinkedIn messaging interactions over the years in readable PST files. For most professionals, manual copy and paste will remain the only way to preserve important LinkedIn conversations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I export my LinkedIn messages to PDF?
No, LinkedIn does not allow users to directly export an archive of their messages to PDF format. The only supported export formats are JSON for Premium users and PST for compliance account holders. You would need to convert the exported JSON or PST files to PDF manually after downloading your message data from LinkedIn.
How far back does LinkedIn message export go?
For Premium users, only messages from the last 18 months can be exported. Compliance account holders can export their full message history regardless of age.
Can I export LinkedIn messages from mobile?
No, LinkedIn’s data export and compliance export tools are only available on the desktop website. You cannot export your LinkedIn messages from the mobile app.
Will exported LinkedIn messages include attachments?
Yes, any attachments sent or received in your LinkedIn messages will be included in a compliant account data export. Attachments are not included in the Premium data export via JSON format.
Is there a size limit for LinkedIn message exports?
LinkedIn does not publish any size restrictions for exported message data. Even extremely large message histories can likely be exported without issue.
Can I automate LinkedIn message exports?
Unfortunately no, each message export must be initiated manually by the user through the LinkedIn website. There is no way to automatically or programmatically export LinkedIn messages on a recurring basis.
What are LinkedIn compliance accounts?
LinkedIn compliance accounts are special paid plans that provide features needed for businesses to retain records for regulatory compliance. Key features include full message history exports, unlimited email archiving, and legal holds. These plans start at several thousand dollars per year.
What regulatory standards do LinkedIn compliance accounts meet?
LinkedIn states that their compliance offerings meet regulatory recordkeeping requirements such as FINRA, SEC 17a-3, SEC 17a-4, CFTC 1.31, MiFID II, and GDPR.
Summary
Exporting LinkedIn messages is restricted for most everyday users. Only those with expensive compliance accounts can export a full archive of messages.
Basic account holders have no export capabilities at all. Premium subscribers can only export limited message history in JSON format.
For compliance purposes, businesses can pay for specialized LinkedIn plans that permit exporting the full message archive in PST files. But this is not affordable for individual professionals.
Manually copying and pasting important LinkedIn messages remains the only accessible option for most people to preserve their conversations. LinkedIn still has room to improve export abilities for non-enterprise users.
