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How to View All Email Headers in Mac OS X Mail

Email headers can come in handy during troubleshooting

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 December 2, 2020 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email

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Expand Jump to a Section View All Email Headers in Apple Mail Hide Full Header Display in Mail Are Headers Displayed With Their Original Layout View Raw Source Headers The Mail app in macOS and OS X can show you all an email's header lines, which contain possibly important and usually hidden information. You may never need to look at the header lines, but if you ever have problems with your email, a technician may ask you for information contained in the normally hidden header. Information in this article applies to the Mail application in macOS Catalina (10.15) through OS X Lion (10.7). Email headers offer access to many of an email's details, such as its path, email program, and spam filtering information. In Mail, you don't have to open the full message source to access all the header lines for a message. You can get a display of all the usually hidden header lines right in the message itself. Once there, you can look for X-Unsubscribe information, for example, that lets you know how to sign off an email list or examine Received lines to see which path an email took to get from the sender to your Mail inbox.

View All Email Headers in Apple Mail

To have the Mac Mail app display all an email message's header lines for a specific email: Open the message in the macOS or OS X Mail reading pane or in its own window. Select View in the menu bar and choose Message > All Headers from the drop-down menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+H to reveal (or hide) the expanded email headers. Look at the top of the email for the expanded headers. They may be only a few lines, but most emails have lengthy headers. You may need to scroll down to see all the headers, and most of them won't make a lot of sense to you, but in the right hands, they are valuable.

Hide Full Header Display in Mail

To revert to the message in the regular display, select View > Message > All Headers again from the menu bar or use the Command+Shift+H keyboard shortcut.

Are Headers Displayed With Their Original Layout

Note that macOS Mail and OS X Mail show some header lines out of their original order and with formatting when you turn on full header view, including: The From header appears as the message's sender.The To header appears as the To line with formatted email address or addresses.The Cc header appears as the Cc line, either with a formatted email address or an expandable link to additional email addresses.The Subject line appears in formatted text with the Re: prefix.

View Raw Source Headers

If you prefer to access all the header lines in their original order and without any formatting—just as they arrived in your email account—you open the raw source code: With the email open in macOS or OS X Mail, select View on the Mail menu bar and choose Message > Raw Source in the drop-down menu.​ You can also use the keyboard shortcut Command+Alt+U to reveal the raw source headers. View the email's raw source in a separate window titled Source of [Email Subject]. You may have to scroll down to see all the content. 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 Group Messages by Thread in Mac Mail Program How to Insert a Link in an Email With Mac OS X Mail How to Send Email to Bcc Recipients in iPhone Mail Learn Where Mac OS X Mail Stores Your Emails How to Forward an Email as an Attachment in Outlook Add a Sender on OS X Mail Contacts How to See Full Email Headers in Outlook.com How to Send a Web Page With the Mac's Email Program How to Send a New Email With iPhone Mail App How to Search Mail in iPhone Mail How to Access an Email Message Source in Outlook.com Hide the Preview Pane and Delete Mail Without Opening It How to Whitelist a Domain in Mac OS X Mail App How to View the Source of a Message in Apple Mail A Guide to Viewing Full Email Headers in Gmail 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