LinkedIn is reviving a tool that lets you download your contact list the day after it quietly removed it to the frustration of many users.
The site had shelved the feature on Friday and replaced it with a new option that bundles your contacts' emails with an archive of every other file in your profile and takes up to three days to request, Venture Beat first reported.
The switch was made to thwart third-party services who were able to use the tool to scrape mass amounts of user contact information
The site explained in a blog post on Saturday that it would turn the download back on until it was able to determine how to cut down the wait time for the profile archive bundle.
"We’ve heard you loud and clear -- that is too long to have to wait for a download of connection information," LinkedIn's vice president of product management, Michael Korcuska said in the post. "Effective immediately, we have turned the CSV download link back on."
Rankled users were quick to spot the original change on Friday and loudly protested it.
@LinkedInHelp Yeah we got that part, but in a world where speed is important 72 hours waiting for your own information is a lot of time— ONICA (@OnicaNL) July 23, 2015
@OnicaNL Correction, you can still get an export of data stored on your acct. No data changes, just how you get it http://t.co/UtFTceNlkP— LinkedIn Help (@LinkedInHelp) July 24, 2015
this is absolutely horrible, even by @LinkedIn’s normal walled garden standards: https://t.co/AVAlQv03Qn— Mitali Pattnaik (@mitali) July 24, 2015
Seems @LinkedIn think it's OK now to make you wait 3 days to export your contacts. Not sure how this improves #UX #loyalty— Justin Kirby (@juzzie) July 23, 2015
UPDATED July 25, 6:30 p.m. PST to reflect LinkedIn's reversal.