If you are a LinkedIn user and noticing issues with sending InMail messages, there could be several potential reasons why your InMails are not going through. InMail is LinkedIn’s internal messaging system that allows you to directly contact other members outside of your network. However, InMail has certain restrictions and limits in place to prevent spam and abuse. Here are some of the most common reasons why your InMails may not be working, and what you can try to resolve the issues.
You’ve reached your monthly InMail limit
LinkedIn imposes monthly limits on how many InMail messages you can send based on your account type. The free Basic account only gets 5 InMails per month. Premium Business accounts get 25 InMails per month, while Sales Navigator accounts can send up to 50 messages. If you’ve already reached your allotted InMail quota for the month, any additional InMails you try to send will fail with an error saying you’ve reached your limit.
The easiest fix is to wait until the next month when your InMail count resets. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a paid Premium or Sales Navigator account which gives you more InMails per month. Just keep track of how many messages you’ve sent so you don’t go over the limit.
Your InMail privileges are restricted
If you’ve sent inappropriate InMails or spammed members in the past, LinkedIn may restrict your account’s InMail capabilities as a penalty. Restrictions could include:
- Lower InMail sending limits
- Requiring multi-step confirmation before InMails are sent
- Disabling InMail entirely
Check your account status under Settings & Privacy > Communications to see if you have any active restrictions due to past violations of LinkedIn’s policies. You’ll need to wait out the restriction period and avoid any further policy violations in order to restore your full InMail capabilities.
Recipient isn’t accepting InMail
Some LinkedIn members configure their account settings to not accept messages from people outside their network. So even though you can send InMails to anyone, the recipient can simply opt out of receiving your message.
There’s no indication to the sender if this is the case. Your InMail will show as sent on your end, but will not be delivered to the recipient. The only solutions are to try contacting the person through other means, or seeing if you have any shared connections that could facilitate an introduction.
Incorrect email address on recipient’s profile
InMail messages are delivered to the email address associated with the recipient’s LinkedIn account. If their profile has an outdated or incorrect email configured, your InMail won’t go through even if you can send it from your end.
Double check that the recipient’s profile has the right email address listed. If needed, you can alert the recipient through other channels that their LinkedIn email needs to be updated for InMail capabilities.
Recipient marked your message as spam
LinkedIn members can report received InMails as spam or inappropriate. If your message gets flagged this way by multiple people, LinkedIn may throttle or block additional InMails from being sent from your account.
Always make sure your InMail content is professional, relevant, and not overly promotional. Personalize each message specific to the recipient. Follow up politely if you don’t get a response, but avoid sending the same InMail repeatedly.
Your account is too new
To prevent spam and misuse, LinkedIn restricts brand new accounts from being able to send InMails until the account meets certain activity thresholds. This “probation” period usually lasts a couple weeks to a month.
There’s no set criteria, but completing your profile, adding connections, engaging with content, and generally using LinkedIn more will help your account graduate to full InMail capabilities sooner.
Recipient’s inbox is full
LinkedIn members have a limit on how many unread InMail messages can be in their inbox at once. The cap is around 100 messages. If the recipient you’re trying to reach has hit their maximum, your new InMail won’t be able to deliver.
Unfortunately the sender receives no indication if the InMail didn’t go through due to a full inbox. Try periodically resending the InMail, or connecting through other methods so the recipient can free up space to receive your message.
LinkedIn system issues
Like any software platform, LinkedIn can occasionally suffer outages or glitches that affect services like InMail. Issues on LinkedIn’s side can result in delayed or failed delivery of InMail messages.
Check LinkedIn’s status page to see if there are any ongoing incidents impacting InMail or other features. You may also want to check sites like Downdetector to see if other users are reporting problems with LinkedIn.
If it appears to be a widespread technical issue, unfortunately all you can really do is wait for LinkedIn engineers to resolve the problem on their end. Your messages should go through normally once service is restored.
Overactive spam filters
Both LinkedIn and recipients’ email providers have spam filters that can sometimes incorrectly flag legitimate InMail as spam and prevent delivery. Filters seem to be especially sensitive to messages containing links or coming from newly created LinkedIn accounts.
If your InMail contains a link, try removing it and seeing if the message sends. Avoid sending mass InMails with identical content, as that risks getting picked up by a spam filter. There’s no guarantee, but personalizing each message can improve deliverability.
Sent from a banned IP address
If your network or IP address has been banned by LinkedIn, any activity originating from that blocked IP will be restricted – including sending InMails. LinkedIn blacklists IP addresses that have been associated with spam, scraping, automation violations, or other abuse in the past.
Try sending InMail from a different network or IP. The other option is to request your current IP be removed from LinkedIn’s blacklist, but you’ll need to convince them you’ve put measures in place to prevent further misuse if the IP was blocked for legitimate reasons.
Using third-party tools or plugins
LinkedIn prohibits using third-party applications or browser plugins that interact with LinkedIn messaging without explicit approval. Examples include schedulers, mailing list services, productivity plugins like Mixmax or Yesware, etc.
If LinkedIn detects InMails being sent through an unapproved third-party solution, those messages may fail to deliver properly. Restrict your LinkedIn activity to official first-party interfaces to avoid potential delivery issues.
Account is suspended or banned
If your LinkedIn account has been outright suspended or banned due to severe or repeated violations of LinkedIn’s user agreement, you will lose the ability to send any messages – including InMails. Account suspensions can happen if you are caught spamming, scraping, automating, or otherwise abusing LinkedIn in prohibited ways.
You would need to appeal the suspension and have it removed to regain access to InMail. But since bans are only handed out for egregious offenses, it’s unlikely to be overturned unless it was done in error.
Testing different solutions
If your InMails are consistently failing to send, you’ll need to diagnose the potential culprit from the list of issues covered above. Try testing with different conditions to isolate the problem:
- Send an InMail to another test account you control to rule out recipient-side problems
- Remove any links from your InMail content in case they are getting flagged by spam filters
- Switch to a different network or IP address to see if your current one is blacklisted
- Use a desktop web browser instead of mobile to eliminate device-specific problems
- Send an InMail immediately after LinkedIn platform maintenance to verify services are fully restored
Documenting details around what works versus what doesn’t can help you identify the specific reason your InMails are not going through. Reach out to LinkedIn customer support if you are still unable to resolve the issue after troubleshooting.
Waiting and retrying
For transient issues like full inboxes, inactive accounts, or temporary system glitches, time may resolve some InMail delivery failures. Consider waiting a day or two and resending any failed messages to see if they go through on a second attempt.
You can also gradually spread out resending in case volume was triggering spam filters to block you. Don’t overly harass recipients, but periodic polite follow up can overcome obstacles that kept your initial InMail from landing.
KEYWORD: LinkedIn InMail
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1. Extract the root keyword from the article title, pls keep it to 2 or 3 words, it must at least contain the word “LinkedIn”, and format it as KEYWORD: root keyword.