It’s happened to all of us: You’re making a new account and you get the message that says, “that email address is already in use.” You can’t seem to find the old account, so you make a new one. This can happen with social networks too, which is why we’re covering how to merge LinkedIn accounts.
Follow these steps and you’ll be back to a single account in no time.
How to merge LinkedIn accounts
Remember: you can only merge your accounts on desktop. It’s not a feature for the mobile app, so you’ll need a laptop at the very least to do this.
After logging in on a desktop device, make sure that you have access to both accounts. That’s the single easiest way to proceed. If you don’t have access to the second account, then keep scrolling for different next steps!
If you do have access to both accounts, then follow this process:
Click on your own profile icon in the menu, then click on Settings and Privacy.
On the next screen, click on the Account preferences tab and then Account management subheader. This will take you to the Merge accounts option.
Clicking on “merge accounts” will open up the screen that you’ve been looking for. From here, make sure that you’re logged into the account you want to keep as the “dominant” one.
Just enter the email address and the password of the second account that you want merged with your main one, and LinkedIn will do that for you. The connections from the duplicate account will be moved into the one you’re logged into at the moment.
This means a few things worth keeping in mind:
- Your profile will remain intact.
- You won’t lose any connections from either account.
- Your posts, blogs, and other activity will all remain intact.
- You will not need to start over with any part of your profile.
Note: You’ll be able to review everything before the merge is finalized, so don’t worry about stuff going sideways.
What if I can only access one account?
If you don’t have access to the second account to merge it with your main one, then try these methods to regain access before trying anything else:
- Reset the password (if you have access to the email address).
- Try various email addresses you’ve held over the years if you’ve forgotten which one you used the first time.
- Add secondary email addresses to your main LinkedIn account to see if one is tied to another account.
If you don’t have access to one of the email addresses anymore (like an old school account), then follow the identity verification process. This involves using photo identification to prove that you are entitled to the second LinkedIn account, so come prepared.
You’ll need a valid, government-issued piece of photo ID that includes these elements:
- First name
- Last name
- Date of birth
- Document expiration date
Another heads-up: LinkedIn may reject identity verification attempts for these reasons:
- Blurry photographs obscuring details.
- Obstructions on the photo or ID, like smudges, stains, or anything getting in the way.
- Photocopies of identification used in place of the real one.
- Using an invalid or expired piece of ID.
P.S. LinkedIn deletes records of your photo ID within 14 days, so you won’t need to worry about that hanging around.
That’s the long and short of it. After going through the process to merge LinkedIn profiles, you’ll find that all of your connections have been added to your “main” account. No other changes should have been made to your profile, and the second one will disappear.
Now that you have one profile again, it’s time to improve your LinkedIn score with an all-star profile.
Happy hunting, job seekers!
