How do I unconnect multiple people on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn allows you to connect with professionals around the world to build your network and further your career. However, over time you may wish to prune your connections for various reasons. While you can unconnect from people one at a time, LinkedIn doesn’t provide a simple way to unconnect from multiple connections at once.

In this article, we’ll explain why you may want to remove connections en masse, discuss LinkedIn’s limitations for unconnecting from multiple people, and provide workarounds that will allow you to efficiently unconnect from many connections on LinkedIn.

Reasons to Remove Multiple Connections

Here are some common reasons you may want to unconnect from a lot of your LinkedIn connections at one time:

• You have too many superficial connections from accepting requests too freely and want to pare down your network.
• You changed jobs or careers and want to remove contacts who are no longer relevant.
• You want to keep your LinkedIn network focused on close professional contacts instead of distant acquaintances.
• You are concerned about privacy and want to limit who can see your full profile and activity.
• You had connections from a previous role or employer you no longer want tied to your profile.

Removing many irrelevant or dormant connections helps keep your LinkedIn network focused, your profile less cluttered, and your activity feed filled with useful updates instead of noise.

LinkedIn’s Limitations for Unconnecting Multiple Connections

Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t have a built-in feature for easily unconnecting from multiple people at once. Here are the limitations of LinkedIn’s tools for removing connections:

• You can only remove connections one at a time via each person’s profile.
• You have to confirm each individual unconnection, which is tedious for large numbers.
• There is no way to bulk select connections to remove them as a group.
• You can’t filter or search connections to target those you want to remove.

These severe limitations make pruning a large LinkedIn network an extremely tedious and time-consuming task. Next we’ll discuss workarounds that can help speed up the process of removing multiple LinkedIn connections.

Using Groups to Remove Multiple Connections

One effective workaround is to use LinkedIn Groups to target connections you want to remove. Here are the steps:

1. Create a new private group on LinkedIn. Name it something like “Connections to Remove.”
2. Go through your connections list and add any connections you want to remove to the new group.
3. Once you’ve compiled the group, go to the group’s membership page.
4. Select all members on the page.
5. Choose “Remove from group” to remove everyone en masse.

While this still requires adding the connections one-by-one to the group, it makes the actual unconnecting process much simpler. You can remove up to 50 connections at one time using this group method.

Using Excel to Manage Mass Unconnections

For very large networks, you can use Excel to compile a list of connections to remove and work through them methodically. Here is a step-by-step guide:

1. Export your LinkedIn connections to Excel using the Add Connections Chrome extension.
2. Review the list closely and flag any connections you want to remove.
3. Sort or filter the sheet to put the flagged connections at the top.
4. Open the first connection’s profile in a tab.
5. Disconnect from the connection.
6. Return to Excel and repeat for each flagged connection.

This technique allows you to cleanly compile everyone you want to remove in one place. You can then work through the list without having to hunt down each connection manually. Using Excel is best for networks with hundreds or thousands of connections.

Using a LinkedIn Connections Cleaner Tool

Several third-party tools have been developed to address LinkedIn’s limitations for removing multiple connections. Here are some of the top LinkedIn connection remover tools:

These tools help streamline the process of removing multiple LinkedIn connections by letting you filter and target specific groups of connections and remove them in bulk. They provide a cleaner and simpler alternative to LinkedIn’s standard tools.

Things to Keep in Mind When Removing Connections

When unconnecting from people on LinkedIn, keep the following tips in mind:

• Be thoughtful about removing active business contacts who may provide value.
• Consider unfollowing inactive connections rather than removing them entirely.
• Avoid mass connection invites if you end up pruning connections frequently.
• You can provide feedback when unconnecting to be polite.
• Removing connections takes them out of your network permanently.

While keeping your LinkedIn network focused is wise, you don’t want to burn bridges or cut out potentially useful contacts without considering the implications. Proceed carefully and strategically when removing large numbers of connections.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it bad to remove a lot of LinkedIn connections?

It’s generally not bad to remove a significant number of LinkedIn connections as long as you do it thoughtfully. Keeping inactive contacts and “casual acquaintances” cluttering your network dilutes its value. Pruning back to truly useful professional contacts improves the quality of your LinkedIn network.

What happens when you unconnect someone on LinkedIn?

When you remove a connection on LinkedIn, that person is permanently removed from your connections list. They will no longer be able to see your full profile or activity. You will no longer appear in each other’s networks or be able to message one another.

Is there a limit to how many you can unconnect on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn doesn’t impose a hard limit on how many connections you can remove. However, rapidly disconnecting from large numbers may trigger security protections designed to prevent bots. It’s best to remove connections at a measured pace to avoid temporary account restrictions.

Can you mass unconnect on LinkedIn?

There is no native LinkedIn tool for mass unconnecting. You have to remove connections one by one. However, you can use groups or Excel plus third-party tools to compile connection lists and speed up bulk removals even if you can’t mass remove them.

Is there a downside to disconnecting LinkedIn connections?

Before disconnecting, consider whether the other person may have value by sharing job leads, expertise, or business opportunities. Inactive connections can simply be unfollowed. Aggressively pruning connections can hurt your reputation or cut you off from useful contacts.

Conclusion

While LinkedIn doesn’t make it easy, you have several options to clear out your network by efficiently disconnecting from multiple connections. Use groups, Excel, third-party tools, and other workarounds to expedite the process. But exercise discretion – a focused network provides the most value, while removing connections indiscriminately can backfire.