By Closing a LinkedIn account is quick. Understanding what you give up, and whether you can undo it, takes a little more care. This guide walks through the exact steps on desktop and mobile, what LinkedIn deletes and when, the 14-day window to change your mind, and what to do in the messy cases: an account you can't log into, a restricted account, or the profile of someone who has passed away.
Quick answer: To close a LinkedIn account, open Settings & Privacy > Account preferences, choose Close account under Account management, pick a reason, enter your password, and confirm. LinkedIn generally deletes closed-account data within 30 days, and in most cases you can reopen the account within 14 days.
How to close your LinkedIn account on desktop
These are the current steps from LinkedIn's official Close and delete your LinkedIn account page:
- Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
- Under Account management, find Close account and click Change.
- Select the reason you're closing the account and click Next.
- Enter your account password and click Close account.
On the mobile app
- Tap your profile picture, then Settings.
- Tap Account preferences.
- Tap Close account under Account management, then Continue.
- Choose your reason and tap Next.
- Enter your password and tap Done.
If the app bounces you around or shows an error, try the desktop site in a browser. Several of the odd failure cases people report happen only in the mobile flow.
What happens when you close a LinkedIn account?
Closing is deletion, not a pause. According to LinkedIn's help documentation, closing your account deletes the recommendations and endorsements you've given and received, your messages, and your connections. Your profile disappears from LinkedIn, and you lose access to everything you've added to the account, including purchase history. Search engines like Google may keep showing a cached copy of your public profile for a while, but that fades on its own as their indexes refresh.
On timing, LinkedIn's privacy policy states: “We generally delete closed account information within 30 days of account closure, except as noted below.” The exceptions are the ones you'd expect from any large platform: data kept where reasonably necessary for legal obligations, regulatory requirements, dispute resolution, security, and fraud prevention. Two more caveats worth knowing:
- Content you shared with other people, such as messages you sent, may remain visible to them. LinkedIn can't claw back what others already have.
- De-personalized (anonymized) information is retained even after closure.
Can you undo it? The 14-day reopen window
In most cases you can reopen your account if it's been closed for less than 14 days, either by logging back in or using the link in the closure confirmation email. After 14 days, LinkedIn can't reopen it. And even inside the window, some things don't come back: endorsements, recommendations, pending invitations, followings, and group memberships are gone for good.
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Closing vs. hibernating: which one do you actually want?
If you want a break rather than a permanent exit, LinkedIn offers hibernation: your profile becomes invisible to everyone, including your connections, but nothing is deleted. Your old posts, comments, and messages remain, attributed to “A LinkedIn member” instead of your name, and your profile stops appearing in LinkedIn search.
| Close account | Hibernate account | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile visibility | Removed from LinkedIn | Hidden from everyone, including connections |
| Connections & messages | Deleted | Kept; shown as “A LinkedIn member” |
| Reversible? | Only within ~14 days, with permanent losses | Yes; log back in (available 24 hours after hibernating) |
| Time limit | Permanent after 14 days | No maximum duration published by LinkedIn |
| Data deletion | Generally within 30 days | Nothing deleted |
You'll find hibernation in the same Account management section of Settings & Privacy. Note that LinkedIn may require you to complete a few things first, such as settling outstanding balances or reassigning admin roles on pages you manage, and if you pay for Premium you should sort out that subscription before you disappear. If there's any chance you'll want your network back, hibernate first and decide about deletion later. Deleting means rebuilding connections one by one if you ever return.
Why is it so hard to delete a LinkedIn account?
The close flow itself is five taps. When people get stuck, it's usually one of these situations:
- Your account is tied to a company's enterprise contract. If your profile is connected to an employer's enterprise products (Recruiter, Learning, Sales Navigator seats), you'll need the account administrator, possibly at a former employer, to remove you from the enterprise account before you can close the personal one.
- The mobile app blocks the flow. Some users get a message telling them to finish on desktop. Switching to a computer, or a desktop-mode browser tab, usually clears it.
- You don't remember the password. The close flow requires it. Run a password reset first, then close.
- The account is restricted. You can't close what you can't open. Restricted accounts go through identity verification before anything else (see below).
How to close a LinkedIn account you can't access
This is the most common real-world snag: an old account from years ago, registered to an email address that no longer exists. You can't reset the password because the reset email goes nowhere.
LinkedIn's path for this is identity verification. Per LinkedIn's official recovery process, you verify who you are through Persona, LinkedIn's identity-verification provider, by uploading a clear photo of a government-issued ID (driver's license, passport, or national ID card). In some cases you'll also be asked for a photo of yourself so your face can be matched to the ID. Once you regain access, you close the account through the normal Settings flow.
The same route applies to restricted accounts and to duplicate profiles you created with a work email you've since lost. If verification fails or your situation doesn't fit the form, LinkedIn's Help Center has logged-out contact forms for exactly these cases.
Closing the account of someone who has died
LinkedIn handles this with a dedicated process, documented on its deceased member help page. There are two paths: if you're authorized to act on the person's behalf (an executor or immediate family member with documentation), you can request that the account be closed. If you're not, you can report the member as deceased and LinkedIn will memorialize the profile, which locks the account and adds a memorial badge.
Before you close it: is LinkedIn the problem, or the workflow?
Some closures are simple hygiene: a duplicate account, a profile you never use, a privacy decision. Close it and don't look back.
But if you're a founder or seller deleting the account because LinkedIn feels like a time sink that never produces pipeline, it's worth pausing. LinkedIn is still where professional buyers are: Pew Research Center's 2025 survey found 25% of U.S. adults use it, and among 30-to-49-year-olds, the age band where most decision-makers sit, it's 40%. Walking away from that reach because manual prospecting burned you out is solving the wrong problem. Tools like Linkdify exist for exactly this gap: it runs your LinkedIn outreach, from finding leads matched to your ICP to personalized connection requests and follow-ups, so the account earns its keep without eating your week. Hibernate if you need the break. But if the account could be generating conversations while you build, fix the workflow before you delete the asset.
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Frequently asked questions
Does closing a LinkedIn account delete it?
Yes. Closing your account deletes your connections, messages, recommendations, and endorsements, and LinkedIn generally deletes closed-account data within 30 days. Limited data is retained longer for legal, security, and fraud-prevention purposes, and anonymized data is kept.
Can I get my account back after closing it?
In most cases, yes, if you act within 14 days, by logging in or using the link in your closure email. Endorsements, recommendations, pending invitations, followings, and group memberships are not restored. After 14 days the closure is permanent.
How long can I keep my LinkedIn account hibernated?
LinkedIn doesn't publish a maximum hibernation period. You can reactivate whenever you're ready by logging back in, any time from 24 hours after you hibernated.
Can I close a LinkedIn account without access to the email?
Yes. Verify your identity through LinkedIn's recovery process (a government-issued ID uploaded via Persona, sometimes plus a selfie), regain access, then close the account from Settings & Privacy.
Will my profile still show up on Google after I close my account?
Possibly, for a short time. Search engines may retain a cached copy of your public profile until their indexes refresh; LinkedIn itself removes the profile when you close the account.