Updated May 2, 2022

If you are looking for guidance on what is in a message header and how to interpret a message header, check out my article here: https://madmike.net/what-is-an-email-message-header/

This article shows how to read an email message header. With 345 million active users in Office 365, Office 365 & Outlook remain the top clients.  However, most consumers will have a Gmail or Yahoo account. Is a popular service missing from my list?  Suggest it in the comments below!

How To Read a Message Header In Microsoft Outlook

1. Double Click On The Message to open it into a new window
2. Go to file
3. Choose properties
4. At the bottom of the window, you will see the Internet Headers Section with the message header
5. I like to copy and paste the header into notepad to read it more easily

If you need to provide this message to an Administrator to review:

1. Create a new message/reply to their message
2. On the Insert tab, choose the Attach Outlook Item option
   1. You may need to click on the “meatballs” / the three dots / more icon to see this option
3. Choose the message and attach it
4. By attaching the whole item, the administrator can read the full message, including the header

How To Read a Message Header Office.com, Outlook.com, Outlook Web Access (OWA)

1. Go to www.office.com & sign-in
2. Click on Outlook
3. Double click on a message to open a new window.  If you have conversation view enabled, expand the conversation and open the incoming message you want to look at.
4. Next to the forward link, click on the “meatballs” / the three dots / more icon
5. Choose View, and then Message Details
6. The header is now displayed in a pop-up window
7. I like to copy and paste the header into notepad to read it more easily

If you need to provide this message to an Administrator to review:

1. Ok – this isn’t very pleasant; you have to drag & drop it.
2. Create a new message/reply to their message in a new window
3. Go back to the main Inbox screen and resize it smaller.
4. Drag the message you want to attach into the window the new message, and it will attach
5. By attaching the whole item, the administrator can read the full message, including the header

IOS Mail App for iPhone & iPad  / Android Mail App for Android Mobile Devices  / Outlook Mobile App

1. You can’t read message headers in these mobile solutions.  I know it would be hard to read this on a small screen, but I would rather have it than nothing when a fraud emergency hits.  Ideally, an option to send the header to a new email or something simple would help.
   1. Please consider voting to add this to the Outlook Mobile App here: https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/2b20151a-01ca-ec11-a81b-000d3a03dba2
2. You must access the mail with a browser or mail client

How To Read a Message Header in Gmail

1. Go to www.gmail.com & sign-in
2. Double click on a message to open a new window.  If you have a conversation view enabled, expand the conversation and open the incoming message you want to look at.
3. Next to the forward link, click on the “kebab” / the three dots / more icon.  Choose Show Original
4. The bottom half of the screen will show the message header
5. I like to copy and paste the header into notepad to read it more easily

How To Read a Message Header in Yahoo Mail

1. Disable pop-up blockers / disable pop-up blockers for mail.yahoo.com
2. Go to www.yahoo.com and sign-in
3. Click on the email with the header you want to read.  If you have conversation view enabled, expand the conversation and open the incoming message you want to look at.
4. Next to the Spam button, click on the “meatballs” / the three dots / more icon.  Choose View raw message.
5. A new window will open and show the entire header.  If you have a pop-up blocker, this may be blocked