LinkedIn is a popular professional networking platform that allows users to connect with other professionals, search and apply for jobs, join industry groups, and more. One common feature on LinkedIn is the ability to send connection requests to other members in order to grow your network.
However, sometimes you may realize after sending a connection request that you no longer want to connect with that person. In that case, you may want to know if you can cancel or withdraw a pending connection request that the recipient has not yet accepted or rejected.
What is a pending request on LinkedIn?
A pending request on LinkedIn refers to a connection request that has been sent to another member, but has not yet been accepted or declined by the recipient. When you send a connection request to another member, that request will show as “Pending” under your My Network tab until the recipient takes action on it.
LinkedIn allows members to send connection requests to any other member in order to grow their professional network on the platform. However, the recipient has the ability to accept or ignore/reject connection requests.
Can you cancel or withdraw a pending request?
Yes, it is possible to withdraw a pending connection request on LinkedIn before the recipient has acted on it. The ability to cancel a pending request allows you to retract the invitation if you change your mind or realize you no longer want to connect.
How to cancel a pending request on desktop
Follow these steps to cancel a pending request on the LinkedIn desktop site:
- Go to your My Network page and click “Manage my network” in the top right corner.
- On the Manage my network page, click “Invitations sent” in the left sidebar.
- Find the pending invitation you want to withdraw and click “Withdraw invitation” next to it.
- Confirm withdrawing the invitation when prompted.
Once withdrawn, the connection request will disappear from your sent invitations list and the recipient will no longer see it pending in their account.
How to cancel a pending request on mobile
To withdraw a pending request on LinkedIn’s mobile app:
- Tap the “My Network” icon from your homepage.
- Tap “Manage my network” at the top of the screen.
- Select “Invitations sent” to see your pending requests.
- Swipe left on the request you want to cancel and tap “Withdraw.”
- Confirm withdrawing the request when prompted.
The invitation will then be removed from your sent requests list and disappear from the recipient’s account.
What happens when you cancel a pending request?
Here’s what happens when you withdraw a pending connection request on LinkedIn:
- The pending request disappears from your “Invitations sent” list immediately.
- The recipient will no longer see the pending request in their account.
- No notification is sent to the recipient that the request was withdrawn.
- You can send a new connection request in the future if you change your mind.
- There is no limit on how many pending requests you can cancel.
- Withdrawing a request does not block you from connecting in the future.
In summary, canceling a pending request simply retracts the invitation and removes it from both your account and the recipient’s account quietly. It does not affect your ability to connect with that person in the future.
Why you may want to cancel a pending request
There are a few common reasons why you may decide to withdraw a pending connection request on LinkedIn:
- You connected with the person through other means and no longer need the LinkedIn connection.
- You realized you don’t actually know the person or don’t have a genuine reason to connect.
- You changed roles and no longer can justify connecting for professional reasons.
- You accidentally sent the request when you meant to connect with someone else.
- The request has been pending unanswered for a long time suggesting the person does not want to connect.
- You are doing a purge of your contacts and want to clean up pending requests.
Withdrawing requests allows you to proactively maintain your network by removing contacts that are no longer relevant.
Can the recipient see you canceled the request?
No, when you withdraw a pending connection request on LinkedIn, the recipient is not notified in any way. The request simply disappears from their account.
Unlike rejecting a connection request where the sender receives a notification, canceling a pending request happens discretely behind-the-scenes. The recipient likely won’t even notice the request is gone.
So there is no need to worry about the recipient knowing you went back on the request. LinkedIn does not indicate in any way to them that the request was canceled or withdrawn.
Does canceling a request block you from future connections?
Withdrawing a pending connection request does not block or prevent you from sending a new connection invitation in the future. It simply cancels the initial request.
You remain free to send a new request at any time, even to someone who previously ignored past requests. Canceling a pending request has no impact on your ability to connect in the future if you change your mind.
Think of it like canceling an email – just because you cancel sending one email doesn’t prevent you from emailing that person again later.
Can you reinstate a canceled request?
Unfortunately, once you withdraw a pending connection request on LinkedIn, there is no way to reinstate or undo the cancellation. You will have to send a brand new connection request if you want to connect with that person again.
LinkedIn does not store or maintain any records of canceled requests. The request is simply deleted from their systems. So there is no way to retrieve the canceled request.
However, sending a new request is easy to do at any time. Just search for the member again and use the “Connect” button to send a new invitation.
Is there a limit on canceled requests?
LinkedIn does not limit the number of pending connection requests you can cancel or withdraw. You can manage your network by canceling requests as needed without hitting any limits.
Some key things to know:
- You can withdraw invites any time before the recipient accepts or ignores it.
- There is no limit on how many canceled requests you can have.
- Canceling requests does not affect your account or ability to reconnect.
- You can continue removing stale, unwanted invites from your sent list.
In summary, feel free to cancel and re-evaluate pending requests as your professional network evolves over time.
Does the recipient get notified if you re-send the request?
If you cancel a pending request and later decide to send a new connection invitation to the same person, they will be notified normally of the new request.
Withdrawing the initial request means the recipient will never know it was even sent in the first place. As far as they know, your new request is the first invite you have sent.
The new request will appear in their account like normal and they can choose to accept, ignore, or reject it. The previously canceled request does not factor in at all.
Can you cancel an accepted request?
Once a connection request has been accepted by the recipient, it is not possible to cancel or withdraw the request. At that point, you are connected on LinkedIn.
However, even after connecting you can always remove a connection at any time. Removing a connection functions similarly to canceling a pending request – it will remove the connection without notifying the other member.
To remove a connection:
- Go to your connections list under My Network.
- Find the connection you want to remove.
- Click the “More” button and select “Remove connection”.
This will discretely remove the connection on your end only. The other member will not be notified or even aware of the change.
Conclusion
The ability to cancel pending connection requests on LinkedIn gives you control over managing your professional network.
Key takeaways:
- You can easily withdraw pending requests before they are accepted.
- No notification is sent when you cancel a pending request.
- Canceling requests does not prevent you from sending a new one later.
- There is no limit to how many requests you can cancel.
- Once accepted, a request can no longer be canceled but the connection can be removed.
By proactively pruning pending requests that are no longer relevant, you can ensure your LinkedIn network contains valuable and current professional connections.
