How can I change my primary email on LinkedIn?

Having the right primary email set on your LinkedIn profile is important for managing notifications and keeping your profile up-to-date. However, changing your primary email on LinkedIn is not straightforward. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk through everything you need to know about changing your primary email on LinkedIn.

What is the Primary Email on LinkedIn?

The primary email on your LinkedIn profile is the email address you use to login to LinkedIn and receive all notifications from LinkedIn. This includes things like:

• Emails when someone connects with you
• Messages from other members
• Notifications when someone likes or comments on your posts
• Reminders about birthdays and work anniversaries in your network
• Newsletters you may have subscribed to

So in summary, your primary email on LinkedIn is the main email inbox LinkedIn uses to communicate with you. It is very important to keep this email address up-to-date so that you don’t miss any important notifications.

Why Would You Need to Change Your Primary Email?

There are a few common reasons why you may need to change your primary email address on LinkedIn:

• You got a new job and want to use your work email as the primary email for LinkedIn notifications
• You are not checking the old email inbox regularly anymore
• The old email address has been deactivated or closed
• You want to consolidate LinkedIn notifications into a single primary inbox
• You want to increase privacy by using a more private non-work email address

Changing your primary email on LinkedIn ensures all communications from LinkedIn are going to an inbox you actively monitor and access frequently.

Requirements to Change Primary Email on LinkedIn

To change your primary email address on LinkedIn, there are a few requirements:

• You must first add the new email address you want to use as the primary email to your LinkedIn profile
• You must confirm / verify the new email address after adding it
• The new primary email cannot already be associated with another LinkedIn account

LinkedIn has these requirements in place for security and spam prevention reasons. Verifying ownership of the new email prevents unauthorized changes. Let’s look at how to actually meet these requirements and update your primary email.

How to Change Your Primary Email on LinkedIn

Follow these steps to successfully change your primary email address on LinkedIn:

1. Add the new email to your LinkedIn profile
   • Go to your profile and click “Add profile section”
   • Select “Contact info” and click “Email”
   • Type in the new email address and click “Save”
2. Confirm the new email address
   • Check the inbox of the new email address
   • Open the confirmation email from LinkedIn and click the “Confirm email” button
3. Set the new email as primary
   • Go to your LinkedIn account settings
   • Under “Email addresses” click “Make primary” next to the new email address
4. Check your new primary email inbox
   • LinkedIn will send a confirmation email to the new primary email address
   • All notifications going forward will be sent to the new primary email inbox

It may take up to 24 hours for the change to fully take effect across LinkedIn. And that’s it! Those are all the steps required to successfully change your primary email on LinkedIn.

Changing Back to an Old Primary Email

If you need to switch your primary email on LinkedIn back to a previous email that was already confirmed, the steps are simpler:

1. Go to LinkedIn account settings
2. Under “Email addresses” click “Make primary” next to the old email address you want to restore as the primary
3. Check your inbox for a confirmation email from LinkedIn

Since the old email was already confirmed with your account previously, you can instantly switch back without going through the verification process again.

What Happens to the Old Primary Email?

When you change your LinkedIn primary email, your old primary email is not deleted or removed from your account. Here is what happens to it:

• It is saved as a secondary email address on your LinkedIn profile
• You can still use it to login to LinkedIn
• It will no longer receive LinkedIn notifications
• You can delete it completely later if desired

So rest assured, your old primary email will not be lost when you change to a new primary inbox.

Does Changing Primary Email Affect Connections?

Changing your primary email on LinkedIn does not affect your connections or network in any way. Here are some key points:

• All your existing connections remain intact
• You do not have to resend connection invites
• You remain a connection in your network’s profiles
• You can still message connections without reconnecting

The only thing that changes is where your LinkedIn notifications are sent going forward. So you can update your primary email without disrupting your network connections.

Best Practices for Updating Primary Email

Follow these best practices when changing your primary email on LinkedIn to ensure a smooth transition:

• Verify the new email works before setting as primary
• Check for a confirmation email from LinkedIn after updating
• Review your LinkedIn notification settings
• Update your LinkedIn login credentials if needed
• Check both inboxes during the transition period
• Add auto-forwarding from old to new primary email

Taking these steps will help prevent any issues with missed messages or loss of access when transitioning between primary emails.

Troubleshooting Issues

Here are some troubleshooting tips for common issues when trying to change your LinkedIn primary email:

If you are still having trouble changing your primary email on LinkedIn after trying these troubleshooting tips, you may need to contact LinkedIn customer support for additional help.

Conclusion

Changing your primary email address on LinkedIn is important to manage your notifications and profile. By adding the new email, verifying it, and setting it as the primary account email, you can successfully update your primary inbox. This change will not affect your LinkedIn network connections or history. Just be sure to use email best practices during the transition to avoid missing any important messages. With this guide, you now have all the key information needed to smoothly change your primary email on LinkedIn.