I’m a big fan of LinkedIn and find it a very useful tool for both professional networking and job hunting, but as I have used it for a year or two I have found that my list of connections no longer reflects my current career direction and I would like to axe a few people from the list. I still like them, just don’t want to have a formal LinkedIn connection. How the heck do I delete LinkedIn connections, Dave??
With so many different social network sites cropping up, it’s pretty amazing to me how few actually let you edit the connections you establish. There are two facets to this: deleting obsolete contacts and adjusting or changing the “strength” or “quality” of a connection, for those few sites that allow you to specify how well you know someone else rather than just a simple know/don’t know.
LinkedIn doesn’t yet allow you to grade the quality of your contacts, but it does let you axe a connection that is no longer necessary, relevant or desired. Getting to it, however, can be a bit tricky.
Here’s how…
Log in to your LinkedIn account, then click on Connections within the “My Contacts” area. On the right side you’ll see:
Click on “Remove Connections” and you’ll be taken to an area of LinkedIn that looks curiously similar to an old-fashioned Rolodex:
Simply check the name or names you want to remove – they’ll show up immediately on the right side – then click the big “Remove Connections” button.
You’ll then be asked to confirm the action and reminded that it’s irreversible:
Ready to proceed? Just click “confirm”. If you’ve changed your mind, go ahead and select “cancel” and your action will be cancelled.
Hope that helps you clean up your LinkedIn connection list.
Pls help me!! I want to add a contact back, I deleted from my linked in connection, I have sent him request but he did not receive it, what could be the reason? Pls suggest.
Great, Real help. Did not knew it was so simple. But like facebook linkedin remove contacts button should be there also.
I have spent more than one hour trying to delete an unwanted Linkedin contact I have read the insrtructions, but they must be “old hat” because there are no such links Can you help
I am on skype lytton123456 and can share my screen
Thank you
Thanks, this was very helpful.
I want to delete my co worker,but i dnt want that the recommendation he did would delete out from my recommendation Page..what procedure i follow to do this act. Please help me regarding it,He usually visiting my account and check out about my professional life.
Thank you So much!!It was very helpful tips
Thanks. Was much helpful.
Thank You.
I want to delete myself from there
How come the “remove” button isn’t shown for me? I’m using chrome.
Just go to http://www.linkedin.com/connections?displayBreakConnections=&goback=%2Econ
here is a different answer from LinkedIn:
https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/49/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwMTc5NDQ2Ni9zaWQvdnJBRmZ3cWs%3D
Very helpful.
THANKS DAVE, VERY HELPFUL!!!
Thanks so much, your explanation was very straight forward and to the point!
Dave – You might be my last hope. My linkedin connections list has been mysteriously deleted. i ertainly didn’t do it and I need to get this list reinstated. How might I do it? Linkedin have so far been worse than useless and haven;t managed to get back to me in over a week. Be grateful for any assistance.
Manell, you’re not stupid. 🙂 LinkedIn has again changed their user interface and changed “contacts” to “connections” throughout the system.
Here, I have an updated article with the new UI featured:
https://www.askdavetaylor.com/delete_a_connection_linkedin_updated.html
Hope that helps out!
Thank You, Dave! The updated article was extremely helpful.
I must be stupid or things have changed on linked in.
1. there is no “connections” tab when you sign in! The tabs are- Home, Profile, Contacts, Groups, Jobs, Inbox, Companies, News and More
So assuming you meant to say Contacts instead of connections. so I go there
2. There is no option for “My contacts” the options are-My connections, add connections, and network statistics once again having to assume you meant to say “My connections” I go there
now my third problem is on the right hand side of the page are modules or boxes titled “people you may know, ads by linkedin members, whos viewed your profile, your linkedin network, jobs you may be interested in, groups you may like, and companines you may want to follow. then nothing
Where is this box you describe???????????
I think you need to update this info because LinkedIn changed the way it works. It is described in the help section of LinkedIn under “Removing connections”.
All the best,
John
Hi Dave,
I was wondering if you could please help me out. I had a LinkedIn account a while back but, I never used it and decided to close it down about a year ago. But, when I google my name for some odd reason the LinkedIn file shows up. How do I delete that from the google search engine.
thanks
To answer a question that seems to be cropping up here a lot: no, the people you delete from your contacts will not be notified in any way by Linkedin that you have deleted them.
However, their names will no longer show up in your connections. So, if they go to your name, click on your connections list, and do not see their own names in your list, they WILL know that you have deleted them.
Thanks so much for this. I guess I could’ve found it myself, eventually, but the website sure doesn’t make it easy.
Thankyou for your help.
Thanks, it worked !!
Like all other comments I see, this was not the top Google result for removing LinkedIn Contacts and very easy & helpful as well. Thanks Dave:)
Dave – thanks so much for posting this. I needed to delete a connection on LinkedIn (The guy sent a pretty rude email to me regarding my wife), and this was the top #1 Google result guiding me through the process 🙂
thanks!
— Jeff
hi,
I have a question. If I delete a connection on my contacts, will the person I delete know I deleted her/him?
thankz
thanks, was able to do it after reading ur post!
This is very useful post. Removing a contact in LinkedIn is tricky and without this post it might have been a struggle. Thanks!
Thanks for the post. I was able to delete a contact via your instructions!
Hi Dave, I m having some problems with my linkedin profile and wonder if you could help me. Since lots of people I tried to be friends with claimed they didn t know me, Linkedin restricted my account and I can t ask new people to join my network.. I have already sent an e mail appologizing and saying understand the policy and won t do it again but still haven t received an ansewer..
What can I do? Is it possible they won t allow me back in?
Hope you can help me out!! Thankss
Thanks.
great, thank you!
Thanks for this. Had a guy filling my inbox with announcements I did not care to receive!
Thanks.. Once the contact is removed wil that removed contact person be informed automatically that he is removed from list..???
Pl advise
Why can’t I just eliminate the Linkedin account? I don’t want to go through the research of all that have signed on from my address book. I am happpy using yahoo and don’t need nor do I use Linkedin. What can be done???
John
I’m still confused. Will a deleted contact be notificed that they have been removed from your linkedIn contact or not? Also, once removed will they still be able to see my network contact?
Wait – When I go to delete a contact Linkedin says they WILL be notified:
“Note: These connections will not be notified that they have been removed. They will be added to your list of contacts in case you want to reinvite them later.”
Any way around this?
when you delete a contact, is there a notification for him ? Can he see my network contact even if i delete him from my network ?
Thanks, very helpful.
I think there should be an option to let the axed person be notified… so that he knows.
Thanks…This helps a lot. I was finally able to delete some contacts off my list.
I have deleted 1 contact and now i want to add it again. Linkedin does not allow me to do so. Please suggest.
Thanks, great support!
Can you tell me how to delete someone from LinkedIn? This is the partner of my niece who died recently and he remains in LinkedIn.
Thank you for this! The fact that the party being dumped is not notified sure helps. No point in hurting feelings if you can avoid it.
Hi… I still have the same question as this thread it titled.
How do I remove a CONTACT from LinkeIn. You show how to remove CONNECTIONS that are already established with CONTACTS.
I want to remove all the contacts I uploaded from Outlook that are not relevant.
Thanks!
Hello Dave
Thank you for writing the above. My question is what does the ‘deleted contact’ see or be told? Do they get an email saying ‘you’ve just been deleted from XYZ’???
Thx/Rod
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