A system and method for processing track identifier errors to mitigate head instability in data storage devices is disclosed. The system and method includes computing a track id differential between an expected track id and a received track id, encoding the expected track id and the received track id, initiating a first action if the track id differential exceeds a pre-determined threshold and the encoded expected track id varies from the encoded received track id by a pre-configured number of bits, and initiating a second action if the track id differential does not exceed the pre-determined threshold or the encoded expected track id does not vary from the encoded received track id by a pre-configured number of bits.