What does “recipient has disabled all communications” mean on Linkedin?

Have you ever seen this notification in your Linkedin inbox: “Sorry, you can’t send a reply because the recipient has disabled all communications.” In this article we’ll discuss what causes it and more importantly how to get around it.

What it looks like

Once a connection request sent from Linkedin Sales Navigator is accepted usually you can message that 1st degree connection from the Sales Navigator inbox. But occasionally you’ll see this unexpected notification in the messaging window:

What it means

This notification is very confusing. After all, the ability to message someone without using an InMail is one of the perks of being connected – right?

If you see this notification you cannot send any direct messages using Linkedin Sales Navigator to this connection. Not even via InMail. There is a way around it. But first, let’s talk about what causes it.

Why it’s happening

Linkedin is treating normal messages (even to 1st degree connections) sent through Sales Navigator as InMail. Because of that, if your Linkedin account setting “Allow others to send you InMail” is set to No it restricts both InMail and normal messaging in Sales Navigator. To see this setting on your own Linkedin account Go Here. It will look like the screenshot below:

How to message someone who has disabled all communications

That’s the big question and there is a simple solution. While you cannot send a message using Sales Navigator you can still message that connection using a normal Linkedin message (see below).

It is important to realize this will begin a new message thread – meaning your connection request text will not appear as the first line in the thread. It’s also much more inconvenient to regularly communicate with that connection if you rely primarily on the Sales Navigator inbox. Now go have a high quality conversation with whoever you wanted to talk to.