How to Use the LinkedIn Message Thread Scraper

Before you start

• Awareness of safety and scope:
  • You can extract from multiple conversations in one run, but keep volumes moderate.
  • By default, the Phantom extracts the most recent 5 conversations and the latest 5 messages per conversation, unless you set other values.
  • If you want to follow up automatically, you can chain this with the LinkedIn Message Sender.

Step 1: Provide conversation URLs

Tell the Phantom which LinkedIn conversations to extract by giving it the profile URLs of the people you’ve messaged. The Phantom will look up your message thread with each of those profiles.

1. My Lists:
   Choose a saved LinkedIn Leads list you’ve already created in PhantomBuster.
2. A URL:
   • Paste a single LinkedIn profile URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with LinkedIn profile URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).

   • Upload a CSV file with LinkedIn profile URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

     → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing profile URLs.”

3. My Phantoms:
   Use results from another Phantom as input (e.g. LinkedIn Search Export results).

Step 2: Connect your LinkedIn account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your LinkedIn session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account. 
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 3: Configure extraction settings

Fine-tune how many conversations and messages are scraped per run:

1. Number of conversations to extract per launch (optional):
   • Default = 5.
   • Leave empty to scrape all conversations in one run (not recommended if your list is large).
   • Example: If your spreadsheet has 20 profile URLs and you set this to 5, the Phantom will extract the first 5 in run #1, the next 5 in run #2, and so on until all are processed.
2. Number of messages to extract per conversation (optional):
   • Default = 5.
   • Leave empty to extract the full conversation history.
   • Example: If you set this to 10 and have 5 conversations per run, you’ll extract up to 50 messages per launch.

Advanced settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Get messages from oldest to newest (optional):
   • By default, the Phantom extracts newest first.
   • Enable this if you’d like messages extracted in chronological order instead of most recent first.
2. Process all URLs even if they were scraped in past executions (optional):
   • By default, once a profile’s conversation has been extracted, it’s skipped in future runs.
   • Enable this if you want the Phantom to refresh and re-extract every conversation each time.

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Name your results file (optional)

   • You can customize the file name.

     If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

2. Fields to keep (optional)
   • Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
     Example: profileUrl, author, conversationUrl.
   • This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
   • Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.

Step 4: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 5 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see the data collected.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Using a private Google Sheet → make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link.”
• Renaming your results file mid-process, which resets progress.
• Exceeding practical volumes → keep runs moderate to avoid rapid session cookie expiration.

If you run into issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

For full outreach workflows:

• LinkedIn Inbox Scraper → collect thread URLs to feed into this Phantom.
• LinkedIn Message Sender → follow up automatically with extracted leads.