When LinkedIn limits your searches
A LinkedIn Search agent reads the results of a LinkedIn people search, one page at a time. Two things can stop it from getting more results. The search can come to an end, or LinkedIn can show your account fewer results for a while. The agent shows a different status for each.
| Completed | Limited by LinkedIn | |
|---|---|---|
| What happened | The agent read every result the search has. | LinkedIn shows your account fewer results than before. |
| Is the search finished? | Yes. | No. |
| What the agent does | Stops for good. | Keeps its place and checks again later. |
| What you do | Create a new agent with a narrower search. | Nothing. |
Completed: the search has no more results
Section titled “Completed: the search has no more results”LinkedIn never shows more than 1,000 results for one search, and some accounts see fewer. A broad search can therefore end before it reaches every person who matches it.
For example, your search on LinkedIn reports 8,000 people. The agent can read at most 1,000 of them. When it has read every result LinkedIn shows, the agent shows completed and stops.
A completed agent keeps every prospect it found. It does not check the search again, and you cannot resume it. To find more people, create a new agent with a narrower search. Split the broad search by region, industry, job title, or connection degree. Several narrow searches together reach more people than one broad search.
Limited by LinkedIn: the search is not finished
Section titled “Limited by LinkedIn: the search is not finished”Sometimes LinkedIn lets an account see fewer results for a search than before. For example, a search shows 1,000 people one day and 150 the next, while the agent has read 540 of them. The search itself did not change. LinkedIn only shows fewer of its results to that account right now.
When this happens, the agent shows Limited by LinkedIn. It does not mark the search as completed, and it keeps its place in the search.
While the limit lasts:
- Vaam checks the search again on its own, with one small request.
- The checks are a day apart at first. Then Vaam waits longer each time, up to about a week between checks.
- Open the agent to see when the next check is.
- When LinkedIn shows the full results again, the agent continues from where it stopped, and the status goes away.
- A paused agent makes no checks.
Why Vaam waits instead of searching again
Section titled “Why Vaam waits instead of searching again”Searching again and again while LinkedIn limits your account may keep the limit in place longer. So Vaam searches as little as possible: one small check at a time, with longer waits while the limit lasts.
What you can do
Section titled “What you can do”- You do not need to do anything. Vaam checks on its own and continues when it can.
- It may help to use this LinkedIn account for fewer searches for a while, including the searches you run yourself on LinkedIn.
- You can create new agents with narrower searches, for example by region, industry, job title, or connection degree.
- Do not delete the agent and create it again. A new agent starts from the beginning of the search and finds the same people again. While the limit lasts, the new agent sees only the smaller number of results from the start, so it can stop as completed too early. When you delete an agent, you also lose its list of found prospects. Prospects already in a sequence are not affected.
Questions
Section titled “Questions”Will I lose the prospects the agent found?
Section titled “Will I lose the prospects the agent found?”No. The prospects the agent found stay in the agent, and prospects in your sequences continue as normal. Prospects that the agent found but did not add to your sequence yet can wait until the next check.
How long does a limit last?
Section titled “How long does a limit last?”Vaam cannot know. LinkedIn decides this and does not publish how long a limit lasts. Vaam keeps checking and continues as soon as LinkedIn shows the full results again.
Can I make the agent search now?
Section titled “Can I make the agent search now?”No. Pause and resume do not start a check early. After you resume a limited agent, it still waits for its next planned check. If that time passed while the agent was paused, the agent checks on its next run.
Should I pause a limited agent?
Section titled “Should I pause a limited agent?”You do not need to. A limited agent keeps the status active, but it does not run between checks. It runs only for a check. You can still pause it, and then it makes no checks until you resume it.
Will LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator remove the limit?
Section titled “Will LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator remove the limit?”Vaam cannot promise that. LinkedIn does not publish how these limits work. Also, a LinkedIn Search agent does not accept Sales Navigator search URLs.