If your LinkedIn InMail messages are failing to send, there are a few potential causes and solutions to try. The most common reasons InMails may not be sending include hitting your monthly sending limit, the recipient’s inbox being full, or your messages being flagged as spam.
Check Your Monthly InMail Sending Limit
LinkedIn limits the number of InMail messages you can send each month based on your account type. The monthly limits are:
- Basic Accounts – 0 InMails per month
- Premium Business Accounts – 15 InMails per month
- Sales Navigator Accounts – 25 – 100 InMails per month depending on plan
- Recruiter Accounts – 25 – 200 InMails per month depending on plan
If you try to send an InMail after reaching your account’s monthly limit, you’ll get an error message that the message did not send. To fix this, you’ll need to wait until the next month when your InMail allotment resets.
You can check your remaining InMail count by going to your LinkedIn inbox and looking at the top right corner – it will show a number like “12 of 25 InMails Remaining.” If you’ve hit 0, you’ll need to wait for your limit to reset on the 1st of the next month before sending more InMails.
The Recipient’s Inbox is Full
Another common reason your InMail may fail to send is because the recipient’s inbox is full. LinkedIn members can only have a certain number of unread messages at one time before their inbox limits new messages.
Basic account members can have up to 10 unread messages at once, Premium members up to 30, and Sales Navigator accounts up to 50. If the person you’re trying to InMail already has their max unread messages, your new InMail will get bounced back.
Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do in this situation except to periodically try sending your InMail again, or connect with that person through other means like sending a connection request first. Try clearing out some of your existing conversations to make room for new InMails.
Your Messages are Being Flagged as Spam
If you are sending InMails to people you have no existing connection with, LinkedIn’s algorithm may flag your messages as spam. This is most likely to happen if you are sending InMails en masse as part of a sales outreach or recruiting campaign.
To prevent your messages from being labeled as spam, make sure you are personalizing each InMail to the recipient. Reference their profile and make it clear you read it. Establish common ground and explain why you want to connect. Avoid generic templates.
Also avoid sending the exact same InMail to too many people at once. Spread out your outreach in batches over time. This helps build your reputation with LinkedIn as a legitimate user vs a spammer.
Check for LinkedIn Connection Issues
In some cases, your InMails may fail to send due to a temporary connection problem between LinkedIn’s servers. Server issues can prevent InMails from being delivered properly.
Before assuming another problem, check LinkedIn’s status page to see if they have reported any ongoing issues. You can also try basic troubleshooting like disconnecting from WiFi and using cellular data, switching browsers, or trying on a different device to rule out any problems on your end.
If LinkedIn seems up and running normally, the problem likely lies elsewhere. But during real service disruptions, you’ll have to wait for LinkedIn to resolve the outage before InMails can go through.
You May Be Blocked or Banned
In some cases, the person you are trying to reach via InMail has actively blocked you from contacting them or reporting you as a spammer to LinkedIn. This can result in your InMails to them not going through.
Similarly, if LinkedIn has banned your account due to policy violations, you may lose the ability to send InMails at all. Check your account standing and make sure you haven’t been restricted in any way.
There isn’t much you can do about individual recipients blocking you, but if you’ve been banned overall, you’ll need to appeal to LinkedIn customer support to regain full access.
Free Account Restrictions
Keep in mind that if you are using a free basic LinkedIn account, you do not have access to send any InMail messages. InMail is considered a Premium feature. To lift this restriction, you would need to upgrade to a premium paid account.
Free account holders are limited to connecting via the standard connection requests. So if you’re trying to InMail someone while on a basic free account, your messages will always fail to send.
Customize Your LinkedIn Settings
There are a few LinkedIn account settings you can customize that may help ensure your InMails get delivered properly:
- Two-step verification – Turn this on for added security to confirm you are the one sending InMails from your account.
- Save InMail copy – Automatically save a copy of sent InMails in your Sent folder for reference.
- Request read receipts – Get confirmations when your InMail is opened by the recipient.
Enabling these types of options can help you monitor your InMail activity and deliverability more easily. You can access these settings under your account Privacy & Settings.
Retry Sending Your InMail
Before getting too concerned, one quick fix is to simply try sending your InMail again. Sometimes transient errors or a temporary network problem can cause a message to fail to send on the first attempt.
Wait a few minutes and then retry sending your InMail. If it goes through on the second or third try, problem likely resolved itself.
Contact LinkedIn Customer Support
If you continue experiencing LinkedIn InMail failures and you can’t diagnose the cause yourself, consider reaching out to LinkedIn’s customer support for assistance.
You can contact them online through their help center to open a ticket. Describe the InMail delivery issues you’re encountering in detail.
LinkedIn support can look into your account logs and identify any problems. They may spot issues you can’t see or don’t have access to as a user. Their technical teams can also resolve account restrictions or spam flags if needed.
Consider Switching Tools
While InMail can be a powerful outreach tool, it does have limitations like sending limits and higher spam risks.
If you are consistently having deliverability issues, it may be worth testing out other tools for contacting people on LinkedIn. Some popular alternatives include:
- Connecting via standard connection requests
- Mentioning the person in a post comment
- Sending individual messages once connected
- Using third-party tools like LinkedIn contact outreach services
Experiment to see if you have better luck reaching your targets using other LinkedIn communication and messaging options.
Key Takeaways
- Check your monthly InMail sending limit hasn’t been reached.
- The recipient’s inbox may be full so messages can’t be delivered.
- Spam filters may be blocking your InMails.
- Connection issues could disrupt InMail delivery.
- Customize your LinkedIn settings for better visibility into InMail activity.
- Retry sending your InMail again later.
- Contact LinkedIn support if problems persist.
- Consider alternative outreach tools beyond InMail.
