Why Technical Professionals Recommend Updating Your LinkedIn Email

Your LinkedIn email address serves an essential communication and identification purpose. As a core account credential, it enables critical system interactions behind the scenes. There are several technical factors that can necessitate changing your primary email.

Technical Reasons to Change LinkedIn Email

Email Server Changes

If the email server hosting your current address implements infrastructure changes, it can disrupt delivery of LinkedIn notifications. Updating to a new reliable email provider prevents misses.

Enhanced Security Protections

Cybersecurity experts advise periodically changing important email credentials to limit exposure from potential breaches. Rotating your LinkedIn email every year or so reduces this risk.

Email Storage Limits

Many free email providers impose storage limits. If your inbox exceeds the cap, incoming messages may bounce. Migrating to an email with sufficient capacity avoids lost notifications.

Workplace Email Communication Statistics

The average employee sends and receives 122 emails per day, with email dominating workplace communications:

Keeping your primary LinkedIn email current ensures you don‘t miss job opportunities, partnership requests, or important messages.

Impacts of an Outdated Email

Using an outdated or invalid email for your LinkedIn primary address can produce the following issues:

• Missed messages and notifications
• Bounced back system emails
• Legal or ethical issues if previous company domain
• Misrepresentation on publicly visible profile

Now let‘s get into the step-by-step technical process for changing your primary email.

Follow this visual walkthrough to update your LinkedIn account email via desktop web browser:

Access LinkedIn Account Settings

First, log into your LinkedIn account and access the account settings section:

1. Navigate to www.linkedin.com and log in
2. Click profile picture > Settings & Privacy:

Locate Email Settings

Next, go to the email addresses page as shown:

1. Click Account tab
2. Under Email Addresses, click Change

Input New Email

To specify the new email, input as follows:

1. Click Add email address
2. Enter new email and LinkedIn password
3. Click Send verification

Confirm Verification Link

Verifying the email involves checking inbox:

1. Open verification message from LinkedIn
2. Click confirm link in email
3. Enter your password
4. Click Verify

You will get an on-screen verification success message.

Set Email as Primary

Finally, set new address as the primary:

1. In Email Addresses, click Make Primary by the verified email
2. Confirm your LinkedIn password
3. Click Save

Your new email is now set as primary!

Optional: Remove Old Email

To entirely remove original email:

1. Click Remove by old email
2. Confirm your LinkedIn password
3. Click Save

The multi-step verification process allows LinkedIn to validate email ownership. Here is more context on what is occurring technically:

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Validation

The first way LinkedIn checks your email legitimacy is via SPF policies published by your email domain:

• Domains publish SPF records indicating authorized mail servers
• Receiving servers check if email originated from designated servers
• If not, the message may be flagged as spam or invalid

So when you add an email, LinkedIn first checks with the domain that they are authorized to send mail to that address by verifying against the SPF record.

Confirmation Link and Token

The second method LinkedIn uses to validate the email is sending a confirmation link containing a short-lived token.

This randomly generated alphanumeric token ties the email address to your LinkedIn account. Redeeming the token by clicking the confirmation link proves that you own the email inbox.

The token also contains an expiration, usually lasting only an hour or two. That way, if another user attempts to intercept and use the token fraudulently, it will already be expired.

Resending Expired Tokens

If too much time elapses before you click the confirmation link, the token may expire as a security measure.

But you can easily have LinkedIn regenerate and retransmit a new token by:

1. Going back to Email Addresses in account settings
2. Clicking Resend next to the email requiring verification

As a technology professional, I wanted to provide some additional troubleshooting advice for common verification issues:

Debugging SPF Policies

If your address domain has published complex or restrictive SPF policies, it can inadvertently block LinkedIn‘s validation emails.

Try using an email from a major webmail provider instead. Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo provide reliable deliverability.

Monitoring Blocked IPs

Some companies block traffic from LinkedIn‘s IP ranges. To test, attempt accessing LinkedIn from the corporate network.

If unavailable, your IT team will need to add exceptions for LinkedIn‘s sites and mail servers.

LinkedIn Compatibility Checker

For signup problems, LinkedIn provides an Email Compatibility Checker that diagnoses configuration issues like blocked IPs that may be preventing verification.

Integration Apps Using Old Email

If you have integrated LinkedIn with other apps to access your account data, check that the credentials are updated.

For example, Sales Navigator may still be syncing with the old email. The integration will need to be reconfigured.

LinkedIn also allows changing your primary email conveniently via their iOS or Android apps:

LinkedIn App Permissions

To receive email verification messages, ensure the LinkedIn app has permission to access:

• Camera: Scans login QR code
• Contacts: Finds connections
• Notifications: Sends alerts
• Storage: Saves offline data
• Mail: Allows changing email

On iOS, disable "Limit Ad Tracking" for full functionality.

Multi-Step Mobile Authentication

LinkedIn apps provide enhanced security by requiring identity confirmation when users:

1. Login from an unrecognized device
2. Attempt sensitive account changes
3. Access after extended inactivity

So you may need to verify your number or scan a QR code token when updating email.

Potential Mobile OS Issues

With iOS or Android OS updates, new features sometimes break LinkedIn app features.

If unable to change emails on mobile, check LinkedIn‘s known issues page for any disabled functionality due to OS clashes. Updating the app may resolve.

Some professionals utilize alias emails or email forwarding to consolidate messages:

Pros

• Single inbox for multiple emails
• Associate personas with addresses
• Reduce number of accounts

Cons

• Miss messages if alias deactivated
• Lose email identity if provider closes
• Privacy implications if provider breached

Evaluate tradeoffs before using an alias email as your LinkedIn primary address.

As technologists, we have additional considerations around account security and continuity when selecting and updating credentials like a LinkedIn email.

Here are the vital takeaways:

• Validate SPF and DKIM policies match configured mail servers
• Monitor corporate firewalls blocking access
• Check app permissions and compatibility
• Enable secondary authentication protections
• Consider encryption, storage duration, privacy, data portability, redundancy, and deliverability when choosing email providers

Keeping your LinkedIn profile current opens doors to new technologies and opportunities. Following these technical guidelines helps maintain access while upholding security best practices.