How to find your email Headers

We’re often sent support requests for issues that can be outside our control and where an understanding of what a particular emails’ headers would help establish any problems with emails. With this in mind we’ve put together a short tutorial on how to find your headers (if you’re not sure where to find them) and then how to interpret them.

How to find your email headers:

Apple Mail

Launch Apple Mail. Select the email from the message list, double-click on it (opens in new window). Then from the top menu, select “View” -> “All Headers” will display the headers top of the open window. Alternatively, you can view the raw message selecting “View” -> “Raw Source”, this will open in a new window.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Launch Thunderbird.

Method 1: Locate the message, double-click on it (so it opens in a new window). From the menu bar, select View -> Headers then select All. The headers will be displayed above.

Method 2: Select/locate the message from the list, click “CTRL+U”. A new window will be opened containing the raw header source.

Outlook 2003

Launch Outlook. Go to the list of email, double click on the message you want to view the header of. Then select “View” -> Options from the menu. You should see the headers under “Internet Headers” in the “Message Options” dialog box.

Outlook 2007

Launch Outlook 2007. Select the email from the list of messages.

Method 1: Right click -> “Message Options”. You should see the headers under “Internet Headers” in the “Message Options” dialog box.

Method 2: Double click on the message ( a new window opens ). Select the “Other Actions” Icon and click on “Message Header”.

Outlook 2010

Launch Outlook 2010. Select and double-click the message you want to view from the list of messages. In the message window, select the “File” tab and click on the “Properties” icon at the bottom. You should see the headers under “Internet Headers” in the “Message Options” dialog box.

Mailcore Webmail

Login to Webmail. Locate the message from list of email, click on the “Gear” icon and select “Show Source”. The header/message source will be displayed in a new tab/window.

Mailcore Pro Webmail

Login to the Mailcore Pro Webmail Locate the message from list of email, double-click on it. In the new window/tab click on “Source” The header/message source will be displayed in a new tab/window

Zimbra Webmail

Select message from list, right click and select “Show Original”. The header/message source will appear in a new window.

Now you have them – you’ll want to understand what they mean!