Introduction
This article shows you how to see the email header. Headers contain tracking information for an individual email, detailing the path a message took as it crossed mail servers. Select your webmail provider or email client below for instructions on finding headers for a message.
Webmail providers :
- Gmail
- Log in to Gmail
- Open the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the down arrow next to Reply, at the top of the message panel.
- Select Show Original.
- AOL
- Log in to your AOL account.
- Open the message you'd like to view headers for.
- In the "Action" menu, select View Message Source.
- Excite Webmail
- Log in to your Excite account.
- Open the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the View Full Headers icon located on the right of the "From:" line.
- Hotmail
- Log in to your Hotmail account.
- Select Inbox from the left-side menu.
- Right-click the message you'd like to view headers for and select View Message Source.
- Yahoo! Mail
- Log in to your Yahoo! Mail account.
- Select the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the Actions drop-down and select View Full Header.
Other webmail application :
- Squirrelmail
- Log into SquirrelMail.
- Double click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Under Options, click on View Full Header.
- Atmail - Simple (Any Browser)
- Log into Atmail - Simple (Any Browser).
- Double click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click on View Headers inside the left menu.
- Atmail - Simple (Ajax)
- Log into Atmail - Simple (Ajax).
- Double click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click on View Headers inside the left menu.
- Atmail - Advanced (Mozilla)
- Log into Atmail - Advanced (Mozilla).
- Double click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click on the View Headers icon in the top menu. The icon is an envelope in front of a piece of paper.
- Atmail - Advanced (IE6+)
- Log into Atmail - Advanced (IE6+).
- Double click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click on the View Headers icon in the top menu. The icon is an envelope in front of a piece of paper.
- Horde
- Log into Horde Webmail.
- Click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the Message Source link in the text menu at the top of the message.
- Roundcube
- Log into Roundcube Webmail.
- Click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click on the Show Source icon. The icon is a piece of paper with a S on the front.
Email clients :
- Apple Mail
- Open Apple Mail.
- Click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Go to the View menu.
- Select Message, then Long Headers.
- Thunderbird
- Open Thunderbird.
- Click on the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the View menu, and select Message Source.
- Opera
- Open Opera.
- Click the message you'd like to view headers for so it displays in the window below your inbox.
- Click Display all headers, across from the To field.
- Outlook
- Open Outlook.
- Open the message by double-clicking on it.
- Click on the File tab.
- Click on Properties.
- In the Properties dialog box, the headers appear in the Internet headers box.
- For older versions of Outlook
- Open Outlook.
- Open the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Click the View menu, and select Options.
- Outlook Express
- Open Outlook Express.
- From your inbox, locate the message you'd like to view headers for.
- Right-click the message, and select Properties.
- Open the Details tab in the dialogue box.
- Microsoft Entourage
- Open Entourage.
- Double click the message you'd like to view headers for so it displays in the window below your inbox.
- Select View from the menu and click on Internet Headers.
- You may need to use your mouse to pull down on the line below the header so that the entire header is visible.