How to get old LinkedIn app in China

TLDR -- The China-localised LinkedIn app has been replaced with InJobs app. If you are unfortunate like me, that localised LinkedIn app is not easily replaceable with a non-China-localised version on your phone (e.g. on most Samsung phones) -- which means you simply cannot use the LinkedIn app on your phone anymore because if you open it, you are prompted to download InJobs app instead. Scroll to 'The solution' section to see how to fix this.

The Problem

Recently, the LinkedIn mobile app exited the China market -- more specifically, they sunsetted the normal LinkedIn app and replaced it with a new application called InJobs specifically for China region.

So as the new InJob app rollout is underway, users of the old China-localised LinkedIn app are now blocked from logging in and are instead prompted to download the new InJobs app. This happened to me yesterday.

This would usually be fine because it means all you have to do is uninstall the China-localised LinkedIn application and install a non-China-localised LinkedIn application from the Google Playstore to continue using the LinkedIn app you are used to.

But... What happens when you cannot remove it? Unfortunately for most Samsung users, apps like Facebook (HK, TW, Rest of the world), LinkedIn (Mainland, HK, TW, Rest of the world) and many Microsoft apps are in most cases pre-installed bloatware. This means they cannot be uninstalled easily -- only disabled.

These are apps I use (or at least did not mind being bloatware) so this hasn't been an issue for me -- until now. Unfortunately for users who got their Samsung (and probably other phones) from China region (Mainland, HK, Taiwan) the uninstallable LinkedIn app is the now discontinued China-localised version.

Since I'm no longer in the China region (where I bought my phone), the InJobs app is useless to me. And even if I wasn't I would probably still want to use the regular LinkedIn app and not a stripped down version.

The Solution

Fortunately, there is a work-around. It is quite technical so I hope you know how to use the terminal.

NOTE: Don't attempt this if you don't know what you are doing or have never used the terminal. I am not responsible for you bricking yor phone.

Pre-requisites

• Computer
• Data wire
• Your mobile phone
• Internet

Initial Steps

1. Enable USB debugging on your Phone
2. https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-223020/
3. Download Android SDK platform tools for your operating system (I use Linux and it is what I will show from now on)
4. https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
5. Unzip platform tools you just downloaded
6. Enter the platform tools folder and open your terminal there
7. Connect your phone to computer and allow it to share data if prompted
8. Download the latest version of LinkedIn APK from APKPure. Download here. We need this non-China-localised version to overwrite the existing China localised version -- Don't worry its safe to install. Also, we only need it for a few minutes and all future versions will be from your trusted Google Playstore. Copy the location of the downloaded LinkedIn APK
9. Prepare your phone -- Set the screen timeout to be at least 10 minutes. You don't want your screen going odd during this process. Make sure you do not disconnect the wire during any of the following steps.

Next steps

1. Open your terminal and do the following

./adb devices

You should see your device connected.

1. Run the following command to ensure you grant permissions to run commands on your device

./adb shell pm list packages | grep linkedin

You should see that linkedin is installed

1. Install the LinkedIn apk you just downloaded

./adb install -r -d ~/Downloads/LinkedIn\ Jobs\ Business\ News_v4.1.649.1_apkpure.com.apk

In this command, -r will force the APK to update with the new APK and -d will force the phone to ignore the possibly lower LinkedIn version you want to install

1. If prompted to grant permission on your phone, ensure you grant it. If the command fails because of this, just run it again.
2. When it is done (may take a while -- give it up to 3 min) -- You should see success

That's it. You can now disconnect your phone from your computer and now you should have the correct non-China localised LinkedIn application installed on your phone.

If the version you downloaded from APKPure is lower than the latest version on Google Play, you will see a prompt to update the app in Google Play. Update it.

That's all.

Hi I'm Emmanuel! I write about software, devOps and other random technical stuff.

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