Does LinkedIn randomly remove connections?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 810 million members worldwide as of October 2023. Given its vast user base, LinkedIn connections are an important part of many professionals’ online presence and networking strategy. However, some LinkedIn users have reported experiences where some of their connections were suddenly and randomly removed from their network. This has led many to ask: does LinkedIn really randomly remove connections?

What triggers LinkedIn to remove connections

According to LinkedIn’s published policies, there are a few specific cases where LinkedIn will remove connections:

• If a member closes their account, all their connections will be removed.
• If a connection request is canceled or ignored for 30 days, LinkedIn will remove the pending connection request.
• If a user specifically chooses to remove a connection, that connection will be removed.
• If a user blocks another member, that member will be removed from the user’s connections.
• If LinkedIn detects spam or abusive activity from an account, it may terminate that account and remove all connections.

Therefore, LinkedIn does regularly purge connections in certain circumstances or if users specifically delete connections. However, the platform claims they do not randomly or arbitrarily end connections that are in good standing.

Why does it sometimes appear connections were randomly removed?

Even though LinkedIn states they do not randomly remove connections, many users still report what appears to be spontaneous removal of some of their connections. There are a few reasons why this perception arises:

• Connections closing accounts: Often times when a user finds some of their connections have disappeared, it is because that member closed their LinkedIn account. This appears random from the user’s perspective, even though it was initiated by the departing member.
• Connections removing the user: Similarly, sometimes connections will preemptively remove the user from their own connections list without informing them. This again looks random and unexplained to the user who was removed.
• Dormant connections being removed: If a connection is completely inactive for a very long period of time, such as years, LinkedIn may prune the dormant connection even if both accounts are still active. This can appear random to users.
• Bugs or account issues: In some rare cases, technical bugs or account issues could result in erroneous removal of connections. While not intended functionality, bugs can sometimes cause connections to disappear in an unexplained way.

In most cases where connections seem to spontaneously vanish, it can be explained by one of the above factors. While frustrating for users, it is seldom due to LinkedIn removing active connections without reason or notice.

How often does LinkedIn remove connections?

LinkedIn has not provided data on how often connections are removed from accounts on their platform. However, we can make some educated guesses based on LinkedIn’s user statistics:

• LinkedIn has over 810 million registered members.
• The average number of connections per user is around 530.
• Roughly 5 million new members join LinkedIn every month.

Given this information, here are some estimates on connection removal frequency:

Based on these estimates, it is likely that 10s of millions of connections are actively removed or severed on LinkedIn each month. The majority are driven by user choice, either closing accounts or pruning connections. So while connections disappearing often takes users by surprise, it is actually quite a common occurrence when looking at LinkedIn’s hundreds of millions of members.

Does the number of connections matter?

Some LinkedIn users pursue connections aggressively in hopes of inflated their count as a status symbol. Does having more connections reduce the chance of abrupt removals?

In general, the total number of connections a user has does not appear to impact the chance of losing connections over time. No matter how many connections a user has, the same issues can arise:

• Your contacts closing accounts
• Former connections removing you
• Pruning of inactive contacts by LinkedIn

Additionally, the more connections someone has, the less likely they are to notice if they lose a few. For example, dropping from 20,000 connections to 19,800 is only a 0.1% change. So high connection counts can hide modest connection loss.

In summary, having more connections does not inherently reduce the chance of losing connections over time. Maintaining a high count may require constant outreach to continuously add new connections at pace with removals by existing contacts.

Quality over quantity

While a high connection count seems impressive, focus on quality over quantity. 50 genuinely engaged contacts are more valuable than 500 inactive contacts. Periodically prune your own connections to remove inactive and irrelevant contacts. Consolidate on building meaningful relationships with your connections over amassing vanity metrics.

Does removing connections hurt your LinkedIn presence?

Some users worry that having connections removed, especially by the other party, may hurt their account standing with LinkedIn. In reality, routine connection removal is unlikely to impact your account:

• Having connections end relationships is very common on LinkedIn, and does not signal anything negative about your account.
• LinkedIn expects users to continuously add and remove connections to meet their networking needs.
• The visibility of your profile and activity is driven by engagement, not connection count.
• As long as you are using LinkedIn appropriately, removing connections should not limit your reach or presence.

In general, don’t worry about connections removing you or pruning your network. Focus on posting valuable content, commenting, and engaging with your contacts. That will do far more for your LinkedIn presence than an inflated connection count.

How to minimize connections being removed

While you can’t fully prevent connection removal, here are some tips to reduce it:

• Be selective about who you connect with. Only connect with those you want to establish an ongoing professional relationship with.
• Nurture your network. Like your connections’ posts, congratulate them on work anniversaries, and periodically reach out.
• Avoid spamming. Don’t over-message connections or send copy-pasted content.
• Contribute value. Share useful articles, insights, and opportunities relevant to your network.
• Prune stale connections. Periodically remove contacts you no longer interact with.

Investing in your connections makes it less likely that they will want to remove you. And regularly pruning stale contacts prevents LinkedIn from cleaning them up later.

What to do if connections disappear

If you notice connections suddenly disappearing from your account, here are some tips:

• Check if the user closed their LinkedIn account entirely. You’ll no longer see their profile.
• Check if you are still connected on their end. They may have removed you.
• Politely ask contacts if they closed their account or removed you to understand why.
• If it seems like a bug, contact LinkedIn support.
• Focus future outreach on quality connections versus quantity.

While frustrating, remember connection loss is common. Be gracious, focus on your best contacts, and keep providing value to your network.

Conclusion

Does LinkedIn randomly remove connections in a capricious or arbitrary way? Based on their policies and user experiences, this does not appear to be the case in most instances. Connection loss is usually triggered by user choice or intentional policies by LinkedIn.

However, connection removal can feel random or unexplained from the individual user’s perspective. Understanding the range of issues that cause connection loss can help users contextualize these experiences.

Maintaining strong relationships, regularly pruning contacts, and not fixating on connection counts can help minimize unwanted removal. But some loss of connections over time is inevitable on a platform as large and dynamic as LinkedIn.