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Understanding Profile Access and Optimizing Data Handling

When working with LinkedIn, the “Profile is Not Accessible” error often occurs when profile handles (the part of the LinkedIn URL after /in/) change. Since handles can be updated by users, workflows referencing outdated URLs may break.
To avoid this issue, it’s essential to focus on immutable and unique identifiers, like the LinkedIn Profile ID, rather than relying on mutable handles.
By using Profile IDs, you can ensure stable, efficient, and reliable data access across your systems.

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Why Immutable Profile IDs Matter

  • Handles Can Change: Users may update their LinkedIn handles, which can break automation workflows or CRM integrations.
  • Profile IDs Are Permanent: Unlike handles, Profile IDs are immutable, offering a consistent way to reference profiles without disruption.
  • Versatile Use: Profile IDs are essential for a variety of actions, such as creating outreach sequences or tracking user activities or updates
Traditional identifiers like emails, phone numbers, and handles can be problematic:
  • Not Immutable: Emails and LinkedIn handles can change.
  • Not Always Unique: Some domain names and company URLs overlap.
  • Region-Specific: Phone numbers can be region-specific, limiting global reach.
By relying on Profile IDs and other immutable identifiers, you ensure:
  • Consistency: Prevent errors caused by changing handles, emails, or phone numbers.
  • Scalability: Profile IDs support global operations.
  • Advanced Insights: Track job changes, new hires, and company growth without missing key data points.

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How to Effectively Use Profile Handles and IDs

1️⃣ Retrieve the LinkedIn Profile Handle To find the LinkedIn profile handle, simply look at the URL, e.g. https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume12345/ corresponds to the handle guillaume12345. However, since handles are mutable and can change, LinkedIn Profile IDs offer a more stable solution to store IDs. 2️⃣ Integrate Handles into Workflows Use handles in your workflows for actions like:
  • Sending LinkedIn follow-ups using Message LinkedIn Profile
  • Filtering specific connections or job changes
  • Tracking updates to companies or individuals
3️⃣ Focus on Immutable Identifiers Relying solely on mutable identifiers, like emails or phone numbers, in your database, can lead to system errors. For long-term reliability, stick with Profile IDs.

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Optimizing Operations with Unique Identifiers

To streamline your operations, use unique, immutable identifiers for both individuals and companies: For People:
  • LinkedIn Profile ID linkedin_profile_id: The most reliable way to track individuals.
  • Sales Navigator Profile ID sales_navigator_profile_id: Useful for many workflows, though not unique, you can have up to 2 IDs.
For Companies:
  • LinkedIn Company ID linkedin_company_id: An immutable identifier for companies on LinkedIn, e.g., Edges’s is 27193685.
  • Sales Navigator Company ID sales_navigator_company_id: Ideal for more advanced workflows.
For Conversations:
  • linkedin_thread_id: Key for retrieving messages in a specific LinkedIn conversation, essential for communication tracking.
By focusing on these immutable identifiers, you can ensure smoother integrations and avoid common issues with changing handles.

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Recovering LinkedIn Profile URLs When Handles Change

When a LinkedIn profile handle changes, the old URL may continue working temporarily but will eventually return a 404 error. Here are two effective solutions to recover the new profile URL: A “profile handle” is the final part of the URL, for example:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amaury-riviere/ → here, the handle is amaury-riviere
When this handle is changed, the old URL keeps working for a while, but eventually it will return a 404 error. If you’ve previously enriched profiles using Edges, you might have saved the sales_navigator_profile_id.
Note: There can be two different IDs for the same user, so it’s not strictly unique.
However, this ID is very powerful, as it allows you to rebuild the LinkedIn profile URL, even if the handle has changed.

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💡 Solution 2 — Using the Extract People Profile

  1. Enrich your list using the Extract People Profile action.
  2. If you get a 404 error, it means the handle is no longer valid.
  3. Keep track of all profiles with inactive handles.
  4. Then, use a LinkedIn People Search with this syntax: 
    "FULL NAME" AND "COMPANY NAME"
    Example: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?keywords=%22John%20Doe%22%20AND%20%22Company%20Name%22 → with the parameter extract only unique profile.
  5. If you find the profile, you can re-enrich it to retrieve the new handle. The LinkedIn Profile ID itself normally remains the same.

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Best Practices for Long-term Reliability

In summary, it’s important to keep both identifiers — the LinkedIn Profile ID and the Sales Navigator Profile ID — for every profile you enrich.
  • The Sales Navigator ID is especially useful because it allows you to rebuild or regenerate a LinkedIn profile URL later, even if the profile handle has changed.
  • The LinkedIn ID serves as a stable, unique identifier that never changes, making it ideal for long-term storage and data consistency.
Keep in mind that in some cases, a profile may have two different Sales Navigator IDs, so always verify which one is currently active before using it.
By keeping both IDs, you ensure better reliability, traceability, and flexibility for any future LinkedIn data operations.