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A Guide to Viewing Full Email Headers in Gmail

Email headers reveal important clues about a message's origin

By Heinz Tschabitscher Heinz Tschabitscher Writer University of Vienna A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on July 9, 2021 Reviewed by Jon Fisher Reviewed by Jon Fisher Wichita Technical Institute Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years' experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Email Gmail Yahoo! Mail

What to Know

Display full headers: In an open message, select the More menu (three vertical dots) and choose Show original.Email headers contain information that can identify how a message arrived in your inbox. Email messages contain essential information in the header area: the sender, recipients, subject, and tracking information. The latter data points can be used to troubleshoot email problems, for example, or to trace an unwelcome message back to its likely origin. Gmail supports full header inspections on a per-message basis when you're accessing it form you desktop with a supported web browser.

How to View Full Email Headers in Gmail

To display a message's full email headers in Gmail: Open the email message in Gmail, then select the More menu to display additional options. Select Show original from the menu. Gmail opens a new tab that shows the full message. In the original message view, Gmail offers two links—one to download the email as an .EML file (a plain-text format that many email programs can read) and another to copy the message to the clipboard. In both cases, what gets clipped or downloaded is the actual message content, which appears in the lower pane. The summary information at the top of the window repeats and makes reader-friendly information within the source headers.

Email Header Content

Email headers contain a significant amount of information—like digital postmarks—that identify how the message got from the sender to the recipient. If you report inappropriate messages to the authorities, paste the full header content. It's not unusual for some header blocks to run more than 100 lines long and be filled with gibberish-looking strings. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to View Full Message Headers in Mozilla Thunderbird How to Send Email to Undisclosed Recipients From Gmail How to View the Source of a Message in Gmail How to Forward Multiple Emails in Gmail How to See Full Email Headers in Outlook.com How to Retrieve Archived Emails in Gmail How to Find the IP Address of an Email Sender How to Create a Gmail Alias How to Recover Missing Emails in Gmail Find the Sent Timestamp on Gmail Messages Differences Between the Email Body and the Header How to See Full Message Headers in iCloud Mail How to Use Gmail's Confidential Mode How to Reply to an Email in Yahoo Mail How to Access an Email Message Source in Outlook.com How to Show Email Headers in Windows Mail and Outlook Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies