You export your own LinkedIn connections by requesting a data archive. LinkedIn's Help documents the larger-archive route: open the Me icon, choose Settings & Privacy, click Data privacy, click Get a copy of your data under the "How LinkedIn uses your data" heading, select the option to "Download larger data archive, including connections, verifications, contacts, account history, and information we infer about you," and click Request archive (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). LinkedIn then emails a download link to your primary address, and the connections arrive as a CSV you can open in a spreadsheet.
Running the connections export
The whole procedure is a handful of clicks:
- Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Select Settings & Privacy.
- Click Data privacy in the left pane.
- Under How LinkedIn uses your data, click Get a copy of your data.
- Select Download larger data archive.
- Click Request archive.
- Open the email sent to your primary address and download the file.
When the archive arrives, look for the connections file inside it. LinkedIn's page does not list the file's column headers, so treat any column list — including the one below — as a description of the format rather than a guarantee from LinkedIn itself.
What the Connections.csv columns contain
One third-party guide describes the connections file as having these columns: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Company, Position, and Connected On, the date you connected (Kondo (opens in a new tab)). That is the vendor's description of the file, captured on 2026-10-19, not a LinkedIn statement.
The column that causes the most confusion is Email Address, and LinkedIn explains exactly why. It states you will "only see email addresses for connections who have allowed their connections to see or download their email address" (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). A blank email cell is a privacy setting, not a data error, and it is the single most important thing to know before you plan an import.
Two more limits come from the same page. The CSV and vCard formats do not support all characters, so LinkedIn notes that languages with extended character sets such as Chinese, Japanese or Hebrew are not supported, and you cannot export contacts who are not your 1st-degree connections.
A worked cleanup (illustrative)
Say the file has 1,400 rows and 600 blank email cells. A clean import into a CRM runs in four small steps:
- Split the columns once. Keep first name and last name separate; concatenating them makes reversal and deduplication harder later.
- Fix the date format. Convert Connected On to a single ISO format (
YYYY-MM-DD) so an import does not read it as text. - Set a rule for the 600 blanks. Do not invent addresses. Import the rows without email, mark them as "no email available", and leave enrichment for later.
- Deduplicate before import. Match on the profile URL or on name plus company, not on email alone, because the blank rows will not match on email.
Every number here is illustrative, chosen to show the shape of the task. Use your own counts. For the wider question of how CRM and LinkedIn data fit together, see LinkedIn CRM integration.
Mapping the file to a CRM
Most CRMs want a small standard set of fields, and LinkedIn's export gives you a comfortable match for a few of them. Before importing, write the mapping down rather than dragging columns across in the import wizard:
- First Name and Last Name to the contact's name fields.
- Company to the contact's company field, not to a separate account record, unless your CRM creates accounts on import.
- Position to the job title field.
- Connected On to a custom field such as "LinkedIn connected date". This one has no natural home in most CRMs and its real value is reporting on how long a relationship has existed.
- Email Address to the email field only where a value exists.
Import a small sample first — ten rows — and confirm that names, companies and dates land where you expect. Bulk imports are expensive to undo.
What the Connections.csv file does not give you
The Connections.csv file is a snapshot of your connections, not of your network activity. It does not include your message history with those people, the tags or notes you keep inside LinkedIn, or anyone outside your 1st-degree connections. It does not fill in the missing email addresses, and it does not refresh itself: run it again when you want an updated file. LinkedIn also warns that these archives are not a route to someone else's network; the answer to "how do I export all of my contacts?" is that you can only export the contacts you are connected to as 1st-degree connections (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)). This covers the connections file; it is not a statement about the other files in the larger archive.
If your goal is a working prospect list rather than a backup, an export is a slow tool. The list-building workflow lives in how to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator and LinkedIn sales prospecting.
Before you commit to a manual export routine, you can visit Clapa.
Why the file goes stale
The archive is a point-in-time copy of your own connections. Anyone who removed you since your last export, anyone you added after it, and every email address hidden by a privacy setting will be absent or stale, so the file is a starting point for your own database rather than a live sync with LinkedIn.
FAQ
How do I export all of my contacts?
Request the larger data archive: Me > Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Get a copy of your data > Download larger data archive > Request archive, then download the file from the email LinkedIn sends to your primary address. The export covers your 1st-degree connections; contacts outside your connections are not included (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)).
Why are some email addresses missing in the export?
Because the address is only shared with you if that connection chose to allow connections to see or download it. LinkedIn states you "will only see email addresses for connections who have allowed their connections to see or download their email address" (LinkedIn Help (opens in a new tab)).
Does the Connections.csv file include my LinkedIn messages?
No. Connections.csv is a list of your connections and their public profile fields; your conversations are not part of that file. This answer is about the connections file, not about every file in the larger archive.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help, "Export connections from LinkedIn": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a566336 (opens in a new tab)
- Kondo, "Exporting LinkedIn Connections" (third-party description of the CSV columns): https://www.trykondo.com/blog/export-linkedin-connections-sales (opens in a new tab)
