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You Can No Longer Immediately Export Your Contacts From LinkedIn The website removed the tool to instantly download connections to an offline file.

By Kate Taylor

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Something that recently took you seconds on LinkedIn is now going to take you up to 72 hours.

LinkedIn has removed the tool that allowed users to easily export contacts. Now, users who wish to download their first degree connections will need to go through a process that can take up to 72 hours to complete. The change was first spotted by a Twitter user and confirmed by VentureBeat.

The disappearance of the export contacts feature was spotted by a user on Thursday. Now, instead of a button that allows you to quickly download your connections' contact information, LinkedIn has posted instructions on how to request a download of all your data, including not only a list of your first degree connections, but also everything from your search history to ads you've clicked on.

Related: 10 Winning Tactics for Marketing Online to Other Businesses

The company took to Twitter to confirm that it had removed the ability to instantly export connections. The data hasn't changed, according to the company, just the manner in which you access it.

While LinkedIn has been adamant that the information has not changed, waiting 72 hours is certainly less time-efficient than having your contacts downloaded in an instant. The company has not disclosed a reason for the removal of the tool at this point.

Related: 5 Key Outlets for Building a Strong Personal Brand

Kate Taylor

Reporter

Kate Taylor is a reporter at Business Insider. She was previously a reporter at Entrepreneur. Get in touch with tips and feedback on Twitter at @Kate_H_Taylor. 

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