If you don't associate all of your email addresses with your LinkedIn account, then you will not be able to accept invitations to connect for all of your email addresses unless you register multiple LinkedIn accounts. Registering multiple LinkedIn accounts can cause problems: some people are connected to one profile, and others are connected to the other profile.
Trouble can really start if you have a LinkedIn account that is only associated with a work email address from a former employer. If you forget the LinkedIn login password associated with your former employer's email address, and then try to use the "forgot password" feature, LinkedIn will send an email to your company email address. But you can't access the email because you have left the company.
Minimize confusion and problems by doing the following:
- Make a personal email address your primary email address in your LinkedIn profile.
- Add all other email addresses to your profile as non-primary addresses.
By setting your personal email address as your primary email address, you ensure that you will always have access to your account even if you change companies (as long as you don't lose access to your personal email address).
By adding other email addresses to your profile, LinkedIn can recognize that any invitations sent to any of your email addresses all belong to you and should all point to the same profile.
To set your primary and alternative email addresses:
- Log into LinkedIn.
- Go to the drop down menu in the top right corner of any LinkedIn page. This menu will have your profile picture if you have a profile picture.
- Click the work "Manage" next to "Privacy and Settings".
- Next to "Primary Email" click "Change/Add".
- In the list of email addresses:
- Do not remove any email addresses that no longer function. Why? Because someone may want to try to connect to you using LinkedIn, and they may only know your non-functional email address. By keeping the non-functional email address in your profile, the person can connect with your profile, and you will receive an email notification at your primary email address.
- Add any email addresses that may be missing. After adding an email address, you will need to log into your email address to open an email from LinkedIn and click a link in the email to confirm the email address.
- Ensure that you have at least one personal email address listed in LinkedIn, and that one is marked as the "Primary address". If you don't have a personal email address, you can create one for free using one of many services, including Yahoo! Mail, Google Gmail, and Microsoft Outlook.com.
