LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 740 million members worldwide. Maintaining an up-to-date LinkedIn profile is important for promoting your professional brand and career opportunities. However, there may be times when you want to temporarily deactivate your LinkedIn account, such as when taking a career break or extended leave from work. So can you temporarily deactivate your LinkedIn profile and if so, how do you go about it?
Why Would You Want to Temporarily Deactivate LinkedIn?
There are a few common reasons why someone may want to temporarily deactivate their LinkedIn account:
– Taking a career break – If you are taking time off work for travel, parental leave, sabbatical, etc., then you may not want employers and connections contacting you about job opportunities during that time. Deactivating your profile sends a signal that you are not currently available.
– Job hunting privacy – If you are actively looking for a new job opportunity but don’t want your current employer and connections knowing, deactivating your profile can give you more privacy during your job search.
– Avoiding unwanted contact – Sometimes members can receive too many messages from recruiters or sales professionals on the platform. Deactivating your account for a while can give you a break from the messaging.
– Legal or security concerns – In some rare cases, people may feel they need to deactivate their account due to harassment, feeling unsafe, or other security issues. This removes your online presence temporarily.
– Personal break from social media – Some people may want to take a temporary break from all social media for mental health or work-life balance reasons. Deactivating LinkedIn allows this without permanently deleting your profile.
So in summary, the main reasons are related to career breaks, privacy, security concerns or just needing a temporary break from the platform while maintaining your network and profile information.
How to Temporarily Deactivate Your LinkedIn Account
Deactivating your LinkedIn account is straightforward to do through the platform’s account settings. Here are the steps:
1. Login to your LinkedIn account on the desktop site (you cannot deactivate via mobile app).
2. Click on the profile icon at the top right and select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.
3. Next click on the “Account preferences” tab at the top of the page.
4. Under the “Account management” section, click the option for “Deactivate your account”.
5. LinkedIn will now show information about what deactivating means for your account – take a moment to read this.
6. Click on the “Continue” button to move to the next step.
7. Select your reason for deactivating your account from the dropdown menu.
8. Enter your LinkedIn account password when prompted to confirm your choice.
9. Finally, click the “Deactivate” button to deactivate your account.
And that’s it! Your LinkedIn profile is now deactivated. LinkedIn will send a confirmation email to your registered email as well to confirm the deactivation.
While deactivated, your profile and connections will not be visible to other members. You can still reactivate your account at any time through the link in the confirmation email.
What Happens When Your Account is Deactivated?
Here are the key things to know about what happens when your LinkedIn account is temporarily deactivated:
– Your profile is hidden – Other members will not be able to search for and view your profile. Essentially you have no presence on LinkedIn while deactivated.
– You cannot update your profile – Since your profile is inactive, you cannot make any changes to your profile content, add new connections, join groups, etc. Your profile is frozen as-is.
– Connections stay intact – Although inactive, your connections and followers will remain so you don’t have to start over when you reactivate your account.
– Private messages are inaccessible – You cannot access new messages in your LinkedIn inbox while the account is deactivated. These become available when you reactive the account.
– Jobs and alerts stop – Recruiters will not be able to contact you with new job opportunities. Any job alerts you have set up will also pause during deactivation.
– Most data remains – Your profile details, connections, past activities, group membership etc. will be saved so you can pick up where you left off if you choose to reactivate.
– Reactivation is straightforward – You can quickly reactivate your account through the emailed confirmation link at any time to restore all account features.
So in summary, deactivating your account essentially freezes your profile and prevents access by other members until you choose to reactivate again.
How Long Can You Keep LinkedIn Deactivated?
There is no definite time limit for how long you can keep your LinkedIn account deactivated. Your profile can remain deactivated for as long as you like.
Some key points about LinkedIn deactivation timeframes:
– You control the duration – LinkedIn does not automatically reactivate accounts after a certain timeframe. You decide when to reactivate.
– Could be months or years – Your account can stay deactivated for weeks, months, years or however long you want. There’s no limit.
– Profile remains intact – Even if deactivated for an extended time, your profile and data will remain so you can pick up where you left off.
– Reactivation is easy – Whenever you are ready, you can quickly reactivate your account through the emailed link.
– Auto-removal only after prolonged inactivity – LinkedIn would only permanently delete a completely inactive account after several years of no reactivation.
So feel free to keep your profile deactivated for as long as needed – whether it’s a short break of a few weeks or an extended multi-year hiatus. Just keep in mind you may need to re-establish some connections if deactivated for many years.
What Are the Risks of Deactivating Your LinkedIn Account?
While temporarily deactivating your LinkedIn account can be useful in many situations, there are some potential risks and downsides to be aware of:
– Limited networking – You miss out on connecting with new professionals and mentors during the deactivated period. This can slow career growth.
– Reduced job opportunities – Recruiters and hiring managers are unable to contact you regarding open positions and opportunities.
– Loss of profile visibility – Being inactive means you disappear from search results, so you lose out on being discovered by potential collaborators and partners.
– Harder to re-engage connections – If deactivated for a long time, connections may forget about you, making re-establishing contact later more difficult.
– Skills get rusty – Being out of the loop on industry trends and best practices for an extended time can cause your skills to become rusty.
– Alternative methods needed – You need other methods to maintain professional connections and stay current during the deactivated period.
– Permanent deletion risk – There is a small chance of LinkedIn permanently removing your account if you don’t reactivate after several years.
So while deactivating your profile can be the right choice in many scenarios, be sure to weigh these risks against the benefits for your specific situation. Maintaining occasional contact with your network can help avoid some of these downsides.
Tips for Deactivating Your LinkedIn Account
If you’ve decided that temporarily deactivating your LinkedIn account makes sense for your situation, here are some tips to ensure it goes smoothly:
– Back up your data – Before deactivating, download a copy of your profile content and connections so you have this saved offline.
– Adjust notifications – Turn off email notifications to avoid being tempted to re-engage with the platform during your break.
– Tell key connections – Let close contacts and mentors know that you are deactivating your account and why, so they understand.
– Monitor messages – Check back periodically so any important messages aren’t missed before you deactivate your account.
– Keep learning offline – Ensure you have alternative methods planned out for staying up to date on industry knowledge while deactivated.
– Set calendar reminders – To avoid your account being deleted after an extended time, set periodic calendar reminders to reactivate your profile.
– Gradual return – When ready to return, ease back into LinkedIn slowly and give yourself time to reconnect with your network gradually.
– Update your profile – Take time when reactivating your account to refresh your profile content and add any new skills or experience.
Following this advice will help make both the deactivation and eventual reactivation go more smoothly.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn has become an important platform for professional networking and career development, there are many valid reasons why temporarily deactivating your account can be beneficial. LinkedIn provides a simple settings option to deactivate your profile while preserving your connections and account details for when you are ready to return.
The key is to weigh the pros and cons vs your specific needs. As long as you go in with clear eyes about the potential risks and downsides, deactivating for a period can provide a useful break. Just be sure to keep backup records, maintain occasional contact with connections, and have a plan to reactivate your profile so you can hit the ground running upon your return.
| Pros of Deactivating LinkedIn | Cons of Deactivating LinkedIn |
|---|---|
|
– Take a professional break without notifications – Increased privacy for job searching – Escape unwanted messages – Address security concerns – Mental health/burnout recovery |
– Miss out on new connections – Fewer job opportunities – Lose profile visibility – Harder to re-engage connections – Skills can become rusty |
Key Takeaways
– LinkedIn allows temporarily deactivating your profile through account settings
– Your account remains deactivated for as long as you want – there is no time limit
– While deactivated, your profile is hidden and you cannot access messages
– Connections and account data remain intact so you can later pick up where you left off
– Risks include fewer networking opportunities and rusty skills if deactivated for too long
– Have a plan to periodically reactivate your account and refresh your profile