How To Retrieve Full Email Header Information

Every email is made up of the Body of the Email and the Header.

Most of the time when you view an email in your email program you see an abbreviated version of the email header. Oftentimes this Brief Header can be spoofed or forged by spammers and does not give us any useful information when trying to troubleshoot an email issue.

However, if we look at the Full Email Header we can see a wealth of information about the path the email took to get to you. This information is much more difficult to forge or fake.

If you are experiencing an email issue, MightyMerchant will often ask for the Full Email Header information to help us troubleshoot and diagnose the problem.

Almost all email programs provide a way to see the Full Headers of incoming email messages. Below are instructions for finding this information within various email programs.

Webmail

• Double-click the message, opening it in a new window.
• In the top right corner of the new window it will have a link "Full Header".
• Clicking on this link will expand the header at the top of the message and show the full header information.
• Highlight the contents, then right-click. You can copy the headers and paste them into an email message or another application.

Outlook 2007

• Right-click the message without opening it, then click "Message Options" from the drop-down menu.
• A box called "Message Options" pops up.
• Near the bottom of the box you'll see a text area titled "Internet headers".
• Highlight the contents, then right-click. You can copy the headers and paste them into an email message or another application.

Outlook 2002

• Right-click the message without opening it, then click "Options" from the drop-down menu.
• A box called "Message Options" pops up.
• Near the bottom of the box you'll see a text area titled "Internet headers".
• Highlight the contents, then right-click. You can copy the headers and paste them into an email message or another application.

Outlook 2000

• Right click on the message without opening it.
• Select Options, then Full Headers.
• The information can then be copied and pasted elsewhere for reporting abuse.

Outlook 98

• Open the message and select View, then Options from the drop-down menus.
• Near the bottom of the screen you'll see a section titled INTERNET HEADERS.
• You can copy the headers and paste them into an email elsewhere to get them to the proper people.

Outlook 97

Microsoft Outlook 97 may require an update called the Internet Mail Enhancement Patch in order to display the email headers. After applying the patch, you should be able to view the headers by selecting the message, then going to the File menu and selecting Properties.