Email Headers – Headers Are An Email’s Best Friend When they Bounce They become Original Besties
The full header of a bounce message is the complete set of headers that are included in the bounce notification email. These headers provide information about the original message, the delivery attempt, and the reason for the bounce. The full header can be found in the body of the bounce notification email, typically after the human-readable explanation of the bounce.
The headers are typically organized into sections, such as:
- General headers: These headers provide basic information about the email, such as the message ID, the sender’s email address, and the date and time the message was sent.
- Delivery headers: These headers provide information about the delivery attempt, such as the receiving server’s address, the SMTP status code, and the reason for the bounce.
- Original message headers: These headers are from the original message that was sent and can be helpful for troubleshooting the bounce.
The specific headers that are included in the full header of a bounce message will vary depending on the email server that generated the bounce notification. However, some common headers include:
- Return-Path: This header specifies the email address where bounce notifications should be sent.
- Received: This header provides a timestamp and the name of the server that received the email.
- Message-ID: This header is a unique identifier for the email message.
- From: This header specifies the sender’s email address.
- To: This header specifies the recipient’s email address.
- Subject: This header specifies the subject line of the email message.
- Date: This header specifies the date and time the email message was sent.
- X-Failed-Recipients: This header lists the email addresses of the recipients who could not be reached.
- Diagnostic-Code: This header provides a more detailed explanation of the reason for the bounce.
If you are troubleshooting a bounce message, it is important to review the full header to identify the specific cause of the bounce. This information can then be used to correct the problem and ensure that future emails are delivered successfully.
About e-mail message headers
E-mail headers provide low-level details about a message, such as:
- Who sent the message and from what server.
- The path the message took to arrive at its destination.
- Anti-spam testing results.
If you experience e-mail issues and open a support ticket with our Guru Crew, they may ask you to provide header data for one or more of your messages. To do this, follow the appropriate procedure below for your own e-mail client application.
To get a Gmail header, you can follow these steps:
- Open Gmail in your web browser.
- Open the email you want to view the headers for.
- Next to Reply, click More, and then click Show original.
- A new window will open with the email’s full header.
The full header can be helpful for troubleshooting email delivery problems. It can also be used to track the path of an email message.
If you need to copy the full header, you can click the Copy to clipboard button in the new window. You can then paste the header into a document or email message.
Mozilla Thunderbird
To view a message’s e-mail headers in Mozilla Thunderbird, follow these steps:
- Open the message in Thunderbird.
- On the
- You can view the complete message, including headers and content, in a separate window suitable for copy-and-paste or saving to a file. To do this, on the menu, click .
- To save the message as an EML file, on the Save Message As dialog box, in the Name text box, type a name for the file, and then click . menu, click , and then click . In the
menu, click , and then click .
Microsoft Outlook
To view a message’s e-mail headers in Outlook, follow these steps:
- Open the message in Outlook.
- On the File menu, click Info, click Properties, and then look under Internet headers.
To save the message as a MSG file, on the Save As dialog box, in the File name text box, type a name for the file. In the Save as type list box, select Outlook Message Format (*.msg), and then click .menu, click . In the
Microsoft Outlook Express
To view a message’s e-mail headers in Outlook Express or Windows Mail, follow these steps:
- Open the message in Outlook Express.
- On the menu, click .
- Click the Details tab.
- You can view the complete message, including headers and content, in a separate window suitable for copying and pasting. To do this, on the Details tab, click .
- To save the message as an EML file, on the Save Message As dialog box, in the File name text box, type a name for the file. In the Save as type list box, select Mail (*.eml), and then click . menu, click . In the
Apple (Mac) Mail
To view a message’s e-mail headers in Apple (Mac) Mail, follow these steps:
- Open the message in Mac Mail.
- On the
- You can also view the complete message, including headers and content, in a separate window suitable for copying and pasting. To do this, on the menu, click , and then click . To return to the normal message view, on the menu, click , and then click .
- To save the message as an EML file, on the Format list box, select Raw Message Source, and then click . menu, click . In the
menu, click , and then click .
Roundcube webmail
To view a message’s e-mail headers in Roundcube, follow these steps:
- Open the message in Roundcube.
- In the main toolbar, click More, and then click Show source.
To save the message as an EML file, in the main toolbar, click More, and then click Download (.eml). In the Save File dialog box, in the Name text box, type a name for the file, and then click .