Known Quirks of Activity Data
Why LinkedIn posts, comments, and reactions can differ between two fetches.
Known Quirks of Activity Data
Every LinkedIn Activities call returns activity as it stands at the moment you ask. That's what makes the data current. It also means the same request doesn't always return the same thing twice, even for the same profile a few minutes apart.
What you might see
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Page 1 returns more results on a second fetch | The first fetch came back partial. The extra items are usually older activity |
| A next page comes back empty | You've reached the end of the feed, and you aren't charged for that page |
| A next page comes back empty or fails, but you know more activity exists | The feed came back partial. Retry later from page 1 |
| A page holds fewer results than the listed page size | Normal. Page sizes are ceilings, not guarantees |
| A request fails outright | Transient. Failed requests aren't charged, so a retry costs nothing extra |
A first page can grow
When only part of a feed is available, we return that part rather than failing the call, because a partial feed is still useful. Fetch the same page later and you may get the original items plus older ones that didn't load the first time.
This shows up most on high-activity profiles, where a person has left many comments or reactions.
A cursor means "you may ask", not "there's more"
When a response includes a cursor, you can request the next page. It doesn't
promise that the next page holds anything, and there's no field that marks
the true end of a feed.
An empty page is the end-of-feed signal, and we don't charge for it.
Later pages are less reliable than the first
Deeper pages are more likely to come back short or empty than page 1. A cursor can occasionally lead to an empty page even though more activity is visible on LinkedIn. If you need that deeper activity, start a fresh pagination run later rather than retrying the same cursor.
Cost
You pay 2 credits per page that returns results. Empty pages and failed
requests cost nothing, so paginating until you hit an empty page and retrying
failures don't add to your bill. The chargeInfo on each response is what you
were actually charged; see Billing & credits.
Related
- LinkedIn Activities — the seven endpoints, their inputs, and page sizes.
- Tracker — get alerted on changes instead of polling for them.