Message Headers

When you send and receive an email, information about your message is transmitted along with the subject line, recipient email address and email body. This information provides a list of technical details about the message, including who sent it and the mail program used, and information about the email servers that it passed through during it's delivery to the recipient's mailbox.

It also provides valuable error reporting information if the message cannot be successfully delivered or is marked as spam during transmission.

If you are having trouble sending or receiving mail and you report it to our support department, you may be asked to provide the message headers a particular email in order to give our support team the best chance of quickly and accurately answering your questions or resolving any issues. You will only ever be asked to retrieve the message headers for an email that you have received, never one that you have sent.

See below for instructions about finding the message headers in popular mail programs. Once you have them, copy and paste the header text into an new email message or text/word document and send it support@webclick.com.au.

Please note: Forwarding the email will reset the message headers. If you are asked to provide the message headers, it is important that you retrieve it from the original email.


Apple Mail

  1. Open Apple Mail
  2. Double-click to open the email message
  3. Choose "View" at the top menu and select "Customize Toolbars"
  4. Drag the "Full Headers" or "Long Headers" icon into your toolbar and save changes
  5. Now, you can click on "Full Headers" or "Long Headers" to the top of the toolbar

Eudora

  1. Open Eudora
  2. With the message open, click the "blah blah blah button" at the top of the message box.
  3. The full headers display in a new window.

Gmail

  1. Log into Gmail
  2. Open the message
  3. Click the down arrow next to "Reply", at the top-right of the message pane
  4. Select "Show original"
  5. The full headers will appear in a new window

Horde Webmail

  1. Log into Horde Webmail
  2. Open the email message
  3. Click the "Message Source" link in the text menu at the top of the message
  4. A new window, with the full message and headers, will open

Hotmail

  1. Log into Windows Live Hotmail
  2. Click on the desired message in the list with the right mouse button
  3. Select "View source" or "View message source" from the menu
  4. The headers will open in a new window

Microsoft Entourage

  1. Open Entourage
  2. Double-click to open the email message
  3. Select "View" from the menu and click on "Internet Headers"
  4. You may need to use your mouse to pull down on the line below the header so that the entire header is visible

Microsoft Outlook (2010-2013)

  1. Open Outlook
  2. Select the email message for which you'd like to view the headers
  3. Click on File, see Figure 2
  4. Click on Properties
  5. The new window contains the headers

Microsoft Outlook (2007)

  1. Open Outlook
  2. Open the email message
  3. Under the Message tab, in the Options group, click on the Dialog Box Launcher icon
  4. In the Message Options dialog box, the headers appear in the Internet headers box

Microsoft Outlook (2000-2003)

  1. Open Outlook
  2. Double-click to open the email message in a new window
  3. Select View > Optionsfrom the message's menu
  4. All header lines appear under Internet Headers at the bottom of the dialog box

Microsoft Outlook Express

  1. Open Outlook Express
  2. Right click on the message and select Properties
  3. Choose the Details tab and select the Message Source Button

Mozilla Thunderbird

  1. Open Thunderbird
  2. Double-click to open the email message
  3. From the menu bar, select View > Headers then choose All
  4. The headers should be immediately displayed

Yahoo! Mail

  1. Log in to your Yahoo! Mail account
  2. Right-click on the message containing the headers you want to see
  3. Click "Actions" > "View Full Header"
  4. The full headers display in a new window

Yahoo! Classic Mail

  1. Log in to your Yahoo! Mail account
  2. Open the message
  3. At the very bottom right of the email, select "Full Header"
  4. The full headers display in a new window
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