How to Get Email Headers: A Step-by-Step Guide

Email communication has become an important part of our daily lives, both personally and professionally. One often overlooked aspect is how to get email headers effectively. Email headers contain detailed information about the sender, the path the email took before reaching the recipient, and various technical details like timestamps and unique identifiers. They play a critical role in diagnosing issues with email delivery, identifying spam, and verifying the authenticity of the sender. They are essential for maintaining the integrity and reliability of email communication.

Full internet email headers include useful and sometimes necessary diagnostic information. Typical reasons include:

• Blocking spammers (unsolicited junk email)
• Problems with delivery or receipt of a particular message
• Certain identity troubleshooting issues that involve fake "from" addresses.

This article will guide you on how to get email headers in your email applications.

• Why is Viewing Email Headers Important?
• How to View Email Headers in Popular Email Clients
• Email Header Information
• Summary

Why is Viewing Email Headers Important?

When you know how to view email headers, you gain access to critical information that contributes to maintaining the reliability of email communication. Here are a few reasons why viewing email headers is important.

• Troubleshooting Delivery Issues: Email headers provide a detailed path of the email’s journey from the sender to the recipient. This information is invaluable for IT professionals and network administrators to diagnose and resolve issues related to email delivery, such as delays or failures.
• Identifying Spam and Phishing Emails: By examining email headers, users and email services can identify potential spam or phishing attempts. Headers contain information that can reveal inconsistencies, such as a mismatch between the sender's email address and the originating domain, which is a common red flag for malicious emails.
• Authenticating Sender Identity: Email headers include various authentication details, like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records, which help in verifying if the email is genuinely from the sender it claims to be from. This is crucial in preventing email spoofing and ensuring email security.
• Forensic Analysis: In the context of cybersecurity, email headers are vital for forensic analysis. They can be used to trace back the origin of an email, identifying the IP address and the servers it passed through. This information can be used in investigations related to cyber threats or email-based attacks.
• Improving Email Management: Advanced users and organizations can use header information to fine-tune email sorting and filtering rules. For example, headers can help in creating more effective rules for organizing emails into folders or prioritizing them based on the sender or the path they took.

How to View Email Headers in Popular Email Clients

The steps to access email headers may vary slightly depending on your email provider, but the general steps are as follows:

Select your email client from the list below:

• AOL
• Gmail
• Hotmail
• Mail for Mac OS X
• Mozilla & Netscape (all versions)
• Mozilla 1.4 and earlier
• Mozilla 1.5 and later
• Outlook 365
• Outlook Express
• RoundCube
• Thunderbird

AOL

1. Open the message for which you want to view headers.
2. Above the subject line, click on More.
3. Select View Message Source to open a new window with the HTML code of the email.

Gmail

1. Click the vertical 3-dot icon on the right of the email message.
2. Select Show original from the options.
3. Click on the Download Original button to get the email header. You can also click the Copy to clipboard button to copy the email header.

Hotmail

1. Open the email.
2. Click the menu button (down arrow next to the Reply button).
3. Choose View source.

Mail for Mac OS X

1. From the View menu, select Message.
2. Select All Headers.

Mozilla & Netscape (all versions)

1. Turn off any HTML formatting that may be present.
2. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
3. Mail & Newsgroups.
4. Click Send.
5. Format and select Convert the message to plain text.
6. Open the message in question so you can see it on your screen.

Mozilla 1.4 and earlier

From the View menu, select Headers and then All when displaying the message.

Mozilla 1.5 and later

1. Click the View menu.
2. Select Message Source.

Outlook 365

1. Click on the 3-dot icon on the top-right of the email.
2. Click on View, and then select View message details.

   

Outlook Express

1. From the File menu, select Properties.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Select Message Source.

RoundCube

1. Log in to RoundCube Webmail.
2. Double-click to open the email message.
3. Click on More at the top menu, then select <> Show source.

   

   You can also click on the down arrow at the right of the email message.

   

   The raw email headers will be displayed.

   

Thunderbird

1. Double-click the email message and click on the 3-line icon in the top-right corner.
2. Click View, then select Headers.
3. Select Message Source.

Email Header Information

Email headers play an important role in understanding the context of an email. They precede the actual body of the message and contain essential metadata, such as

• Sender's email address, IP address, and domain name: This identifies the email's origin.
• Recipient's email address: This specifies the intended recipient(s) of the email.
• Timestamps: The timestamps record the date and time the email was sent and received.
• Message ID: This unique identifier helps track individual emails.
• List of mail servers: This shows the mail servers that handled the email during its transmission.

Understanding these details can help you gain valuable insights into the email's authenticity and delivery path. For more information on how to interpret email headers, you can check the What's the Difference Between Full & Partial Headers? article.

Sample of a full email header:

Return-path:
Envelope-to: [email protected] 
Delivery-date: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:06:11 -0600 
Received: from [46.165.209.232] (port=36531 helo=delivery.antispamcloud.com) 
  by box309.%%brandDomain%% with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) 
  (Exim 4.82) 
  (envelope-from ) 
  id 1WVSMM-0003oR-Ny 
  for [email protected]; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:06:10 -0600 
Received: from mail-ig0-f195.google.com ([209.85.213.195]) 
  by mx7.antispamcloud.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) 
  (Exim 4.82) 
  (envelope-from ) 
  id 1WVSMJ-00049k-3X 
  for [email protected]; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 23:06:10 +0200 
Received: by mail-ig0-f195.google.com with SMTP id uq10so212231igb.2 
        for ; Wed, 02 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT) 
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; 
        d=gmail.com; s=20120113; 
        h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; 
       %%brandCode%%bhovkRL3Im017b5m7rMRTWVa1olgzE1U+yr8FXykLSM=;  b=I9n1lRLh2EbEic44CPWv6doKf6m9+z1G9tVmowbugj99p5jn5ImorW2oBqZ1BRbOFD 3CnQkj7koUZfajma0Q0bbjJFB27CHfIMKvFLzOeWjeLP2bu3Z5X/d+lmCdFMSG8FQBoO c2Pz5n0d85zQyxkzy4lvL4D5kVevuJ5n+s7y6nCZTpYw1iwtQciGgr8XO77wGJq0S2FY WZC7jqB5c3CmpT8EytMEJwsH3UQAD7hxYq3FZHL7Ici89x8vDG/ZNQOla9TsfSrmC9qO mMLFWCZs1A1Hfe2gwOxBpRXgAqxf1/hlFfAf0CIIRTcD/03kSaWB7L/lPy++CTvkzpbB
         Ro4A==
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Received: by 10.42.107.67 with SMTP id c3mr2836464icp.28.1396472762166; Wed,
02 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.50.216.193 with HTTP; Wed, 2 Apr 2014 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT) 
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 15:06:02 -0600 
Message-ID:  
Subject: I can haz headers 
From: %%brandName%% Tutorials 
To: [email protected] 
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=20cf302075e4ed71d604f615a6cd 
Received-SPF: pass (mx7.antispamcloud.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.213.195 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.213.195; envelope-from=%%brandName%%[email protected]; helo=mail-ig0-f195.google.com; 
X-SPF-Result: mx7.antispamcloud.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.213.195 as permitted sender 
X-Filter-ID: XtLePq6GTMn8G68F0EmQveOvoFo7+04sHaU+aQGjobYi0opp2x9AytcIxrAv/iEuaWmMHd4i6wCz 
ASsx7ILyBvmrHcqsgpX6d4SIG6yP47bDMFgiN2el8cbE99y5VERdERWeKKG4PAQYNyavp7c49C7S
5JHQ4xOsiG8cGbGY8Ju2qts0ILWtXEEZmkE2vLlbG/45LuYWJsWNKzGzAznZ/oq+Kj8XsfH6M1iC 
r9Pl7cS2FeLaw8TKFNoyhNvcmkCU2LIKoGx11NpkPoCtYTihVFvHjmVhGT2LR+SRHRnJSjexOaDD 
7DhwsYoQmALxTDsg5YE5enyccp7RH4WQio3uGcdGxQ6d5hivGO7oPpIBNraJdlCnvQ+khpxZdnh3 
Rg+eq6FYx9JcxaWalMnLitersKkGD1ysZpHhKaUh/7HiGlCtDNmfymkhdU0FFLdsJzH+bncTWq+l 
t2yLUdZkS4XDsBY2SdcAejSFbwPMuc/8+8bnfBK8XMz156Rrx4gJt1rfVwqJrV8TZUiWxNy0V2Qu 
LFYFvf25LVONYbYifH5OzZDcKP8EIfERgwZdrj+yX3bZ9HVqUY3tkBcsuKQ2aA7N/8zfymEUbuPk 
n06aNthuTeE=
Authentication-Results: antispamcloud.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=%%brandName%%[email protected] 
Authentication-Results: antispamcloud.com; dkim=pass header.i=gmail.com 
X-Spampanel-Class: unsure 
X-Spampanel-Evidence: Combined (0.15) 
X-Recommended-Action: accept 
X-Identified-User: {0000:box309.%%brandDomain%%:local:local} {sentby:Delivered locally}

Summary

This guide shows why email headers are important: they help figure out email problems, spot spam, and check if an email is really from who it says it is. It gives steps to find these headers in different email services like Gmail and Outlook. This helps make email safer and more organized.

If you don't have an email yet, you can get Professional Email that matches your domain. This will reinforce your brand, improve your company's professional image, and build trust with your customers.