LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 800 million users worldwide. As one of the most popular social media platforms for professionals, LinkedIn allows you to build your professional brand, connect with other professionals, join industry groups, and search for jobs.
With so much activity happening on LinkedIn, it’s natural to want to look back on your own LinkedIn history and see things like your old connections, past jobs, shared content, and more. Having access to your LinkedIn history can help you reflect on your professional journey so far.
Unfortunately, LinkedIn does not have a built-in feature to let you browse through your entire history on the platform. However, there are still a few ways you can see glimpses into your LinkedIn activity over time.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain the options for viewing your LinkedIn history and timeline, including:
Viewing your LinkedIn profile changes
One of the only ways LinkedIn lets you look back at your actions is through the “View profile changes” page. Here you can see a history of all the edits made to your profile, like when you added a new position, education, skill, etc.
While profile changes don’t show a complete picture, it can give you an idea of how your profile has evolved over time.
Checking old emails from LinkedIn
LinkedIn will regularly send you emails updating you about platform activity and notifications. By looking back through these emails, you can get a snapshot of your past connections, content shares, and other actions.
Your email inbox essentially serves as an archive of your LinkedIn notifications over time.
Browsing old messages
Within LinkedIn’s messaging section, you can view all past conversations with your connections. This can give you a window into who you were connecting with and what you were discussing years back.
Messages are a helpful way to reminisce about your relationships and career path.
Using LinkedIn’s data download
LinkedIn lets you request an archive of your data through its data download tool. After requesting your download, LinkedIn will compile profile info, connections, messages, interests, and more into downloadable files.
While data downloads don’t provide a user-friendly interface, they can be useful for seeing your raw LinkedIn data and activity over time.
Checking third-party tools
Some third-party services also offer the ability to view your LinkedIn history and archive information.
For example, the app Privacy Bee can create a snapshot of your LinkedIn profile over time. Other tools like DataCatch and InfoCatcher can capture more of your LinkedIn activity history and data as well.
Monitoring your public profile
Your public LinkedIn profile acts as a timeline of your professional experiences and achievements. By regularly viewing your own public profile, you can monitor how it has evolved.
You can also use the Wayback Machine to look at archived versions of your public profile from several years ago.
Enabling profile viewing notifications
Within LinkedIn’s settings, you can enable notifications that alert you whenever someone views your public profile. This provides visibility into who is looking you up over time.
The profile viewing notifications can give you another small glimpse into your LinkedIn history and usage.
When was LinkedIn founded?
LinkedIn was founded on December 28, 2002 and officially launched on May 5, 2003. It was created by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant.
Originally based in Mountain View, California, LinkedIn was one of the first mainstream social networks designed specifically for professionals. Its mission was to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
In its early days, LinkedIn focused on seeding engagement through email contacts and member invitations. The platform experienced rapid growth in its first few years. By 2004, there were over 1 million users on LinkedIn.
Some key milestones in LinkedIn’s history include:
- 2005 – LinkedIn begins generating revenue through paid subscriptions, advertising, and recruiter accounts.
- 2006 – LinkedIn opens up to any professional and reaches 5 million members.
- 2008 – International expansion begins with version of site translated into French, German, Spanish.
- 2009 – Company reaches 30 million registered users.
- 2011 – LinkedIn holds its initial public offering (IPO) and starts trading on the NYSE.
- 2012 – Membership hits 150 million as mobile apps for iOS and Android launch.
- 2016 – Microsoft acquires LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
- 2021 – LinkedIn crosses 800 million members worldwide.
In less than 20 years, LinkedIn has become the dominant professional networking platform and an important site for recruiters and job seekers around the world. It continues to regularly add new features to empower professionals and evolve the LinkedIn experience.
How do I download my LinkedIn data?
Downloading your LinkedIn data is a convenient way to access and archive your personal activity and information from the platform. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to download your LinkedIn data:
1. Go to your LinkedIn Account Settings
First, log into your LinkedIn account on the desktop site. Click on your profile image at the top right and select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.
2. Choose “Get a copy of your data”
On the “Settings & Privacy” page, click on the “Get a copy of your data” option. This will redirect you to the “Get a copy of your data” page.
3. Select data to download
On this page, you can choose what LinkedIn data you want to download:
- Your profile data
- Your connections
- Your network information and jobs
- Your interests and groups
- Your activity and history
- Your ad preferences
- Other information (email settings, demographics, etc.)
Check the box next to each data type you want to include. You can select all or just a few categories.
4. Request archive
Once you’ve chosen what to download, click the “Request archive” button.
LinkedIn will start compiling your archive. You’ll get notified via email when your download is ready.
5. Save archive files
Within about 72 hours, you’ll receive an email from LinkedIn with a download link for your archive. The email will come from the address `[email protected]`.
Your archive will be divided into multiple ZIP files for each data category. Save these ZIP files to your computer in a secure location.
You can now view and search your LinkedIn data archive offline! LinkedIn will hold your download files for 14 days before deleting them.
How far back does LinkedIn’s archive go?
When you request a data download from LinkedIn, how much of your historical activity will it contain?
Unfortunately, LinkedIn’s data archive has some limitations when it comes to older data:
- Profile information – Goes back to when you joined LinkedIn.
- Connections – Includes all current connections but only shows when a connection began if it was in the last 90 days.
- Messages – Only includes messages from the past 30 days.
- Notifications – Limited to notifications from the past 90 days.
- Group activity – Only includes your more recent groups and activity.
- Job applications – Includes all submitted through your account.
So while LinkedIn’s download gives you some glimpse into your profile history, it lacks a full long-term perspective in certain areas. Much of your older LinkedIn activity gets excluded.
Some areas that would be useful to see further back include:
- All connection start dates.
- Full messaging history.
- Comprehensive group memberships and activity.
- Complete notifications archive.
- Your profile edit history.
Being able to download your comprehensive years-long LinkedIn history could offer valuable insights and perspective. But for now, LinkedIn’s download tool can only give you a snapshot from the past few months. Third-party services may be able to retrieve more of your historical LinkedIn data.
Does LinkedIn delete or deactivate inactive accounts?
You may be wondering – if I go inactive on LinkedIn for a while, could my account get deleted? What happens if you haven’t logged in for months or years?
The good news is that LinkedIn generally does not deactivate accounts due to inactivity alone. As long as you occasionally sign in to your account and keep your profile updated, your LinkedIn presence will remain intact.
Here are some key things to know about inactive LinkedIn accounts:
- Accounts are not disabled due to inactivity. You can pick back up where you left off.
- LinkedIn may eventually restrict some features on inactive accounts, like messaging.
- Accounts can be deactivated if flagged for serious policy violations.
- Completely abandoned accounts may get deleted but this is very rare.
- Keep your email address updated so you can get any important notifications.
- Inactive accounts may sometimes stop appearing in search results.
So feel free to take a break from LinkedIn without worrying about losing your profile and network! Just come back and login every few months to keep your account active.
LinkedIn wants to preserve your professional presence and connections. Unless there are policy issues, your account lifespan is fully in your hands.
Can I recover my closed LinkedIn account?
If you choose to permanently close your LinkedIn account, is it possible to recover or reopen it down the line?
Unfortunately, once you close your LinkedIn account, it is gone forever and cannot be recovered. Some key things to know:
- After closing an account, your profile and connections are permanently deleted.
- There is no way to retrieve or restore a closed account.
- You would have to start a brand new account from scratch.
- Make sure to download your data before closing your account.
- Closing your account is irreversible – be 100% sure before doing it.
- Consider deactivating your account first before permanent closure.
For these reasons, it’s crucial to think carefully before making the decision to close your LinkedIn account for good.
You have other options like temporarily deactivating your account or restricting visibility. But account deletion will erase your presence so that it cannot come back.
Does LinkedIn show who viewed your full profile?
On LinkedIn, your public profile visibility settings control how much of your profile visitors can see without being connected. But what about viewing your full profile?
By default, LinkedIn does not show users who has viewed their full profile. However, there are two ways you can get this visibility:
1. LinkedIn Premium
With a premium LinkedIn subscription, you gain access to the “Who’s viewed your profile” feature. This shows you the names and headlines of members who have viewed your full profile within the last 90 days.
You can sort by recency and industry to gain insights on who’s been looking you up.
2. Profile viewing alerts
Without premium, LinkedIn also gives you the option to turn on notifications when someone views your profile. You’ll get email alerts informing you that your profile was viewed, but not the viewer’s name.
So in summary:
- LinkedIn Premium subscribers can see full details on profile viewers.
- Non-premium members will only get view count totals and email alerts.
- Your public profile visibility settings still apply.
- You can control whether your own profile viewing activity appears to others.
Profile viewing insights give you perspective on how peers and recruiters engage with your profile. For the full details, a premium account is required.
What happens when you delete LinkedIn?
Permanently deleting your LinkedIn account is a major decision with lasting consequences. Here’s an overview of what happens when you delete your LinkedIn account:
- Your profile is removed from LinkedIn and search engines.
- All connections are lost and your network is gone.
- You lose access to messages, posts, content, and groups.
- Job applications and history through LinkedIn are erased.
- Potentially decreased discoverability for career opportunities.
- Loss of platform benefits like news, learning, and insights.
- Removal from other users’ connections lists.
- No option to ever reactivate or retrieve the deleted account.
In most cases, there is no going back after account deletion. Be 100% confident before choosing to permanantly delete your account.
Consider downloading your data for records. Also, deactivating your account first can be a safer temporary option.
With account deletion, your professional presence on LinkedIn will be gone entirely. Make sure you are ready for the major effects on your networking capability and personal brand.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn doesn’t offer full access to your historic activity, there are still ways to get glimpses of your profile’s past through profile changes, messaging history, and data downloads.
Third-party tools may also help reveal more of your LinkedIn timeline and data footprint. But ultimately, LinkedIn limits your ability to dive deep into years past on the platform.
Regularly engaging with your profile and monitoring changes is the best way to keep tabs on your LinkedIn presence over time. Before making any major changes like deactivating or deleting your account, be sure you understand the permanence of those actions.
With LinkedIn being so crucial for networking and career-building, protect your profile by keeping it updated and active even during periods of less frequent usage. Your professional presence on LinkedIn can take years to build – be careful before relinquishing it!
