LinkedIn connect-with-note email-gate triggers on 3rd-degree or 50K+ followers
Automating LinkedIn cold-connection outreach at scale via the connect-with-note flow
LinkedIn quietly demands recipient email verification (Send button stays disabled) for 3rd-degree connections AND for 2nd-degree connections with roughly 50K+ followers, even on Premium. The modal shows an extra input above the note textarea with copy like "To verify this member knows you, please enter their email to connect." Test for this before claiming success by querying the modal shadow root for input[type=email] or input[type=text] — if present, that profile is email-gated and you do not have the email. Document and skip rather than retrying. The gate is recipient-side, not yours.
Pre-filter the target list by connection degree and follower count before queuing connect requests. Drop 3rd-degree connections and 2nd-degrees with >50K followers unless you have their email separately.