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Trace an email with its full headers
Trace an email with its full headers
Updated over a week ago

About email delivery delays

It is a common misconception that email delivery is instantly completed.

Email is designed to be sent from Mail Server to Mail Server until it reaches the ultimate destination with no guarantee on how long it will reside at each intermediary stop.

Most cases of delayed email are due to slow or overloaded mail servers.

Email delivery delays are caused by spam, frequency of checking one's email, or other hardware issues.

When an email is delayed for a significant amount of time , the best way to check why an email is delayed is to analyse the email header on the delivery delay notification to see where the delay is occurring.


Finding the email header

Below are steps on how to locate the email headers for some common email providers:

AOL

  • Log in to your AOL account

  • Open the email you want to see the headers for

  • In the "Action" menu, select View Message Source

  • The headers will show in a new window

Excite Webmail

  • Log in to your Excite account

  • Open the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click View Full Headers

  • The headers will show in a new window

Hotmail

  • Log in to your Hotmail account

  • Click Inbox

  • Right-click the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click View Message Source

  • The headers will show in a new window

Yahoo! Mail

  • Log in to your Yahoo! Mail account

  • Select the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click More View Raw Message

  • The headers will show in a new window

Apple Mail

  • Open Apple Mail

  • Open the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click View Message All Headers

  • The headers will show in the window below your inbox

Mozilla

  • Open Mozilla

  • Open the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click View Message Source

  • The headers will show in a new window

Opera

  • Open Opera

  • Click the email you want to see the headers for so it shows in the window below your inbox

  • Right click the body of the email

  • Click View All Headers and Message

  • The headers will show in the window below

Outlook

  • Open Outlook

  • Open the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click File Properties

  • The headers will show in the "Internet headers" box

Outlook Express

  • Open Outlook Express

  • Right click the email you want to see the headers for

  • Click Properties

  • Click the Details tab

  • The headers will show in the box that pops up

Squirrel Mail

  • Open the email

  • In options click “View Full Header”

Roundcube

  • Log in to open your mail

  • You will find a drop down arrow at extreme right of the date within the email on clicking it you will see the raw headers

Horde

  • Login to open your mail

  • In the top menu you will find a drop down header menu, when you click it you will see show common headers which will reveal the header


How to read email full headers

To read your email full headers:

  1. Open the email you want to check the headers for

  2. Next to Reply, click the Down arrow

  3. Click Show original

  4. Copy the text on the page

  5. In "Paste email header here," paste your header.

  6. Click Analyze the header above


See if message is delayed

To see if a message is delayed:

  1. Open the email you want to check the headers for

  2. Next to Reply, click the Down arrow

  3. Click Show original

  4. Next to "Created at", look to see how much time it took for the email to be delivered after it was sent

Example: The email reaches with a delay of 8 minutes in this case. In practicality we have come across some emails which came up hours after transmitted. The mail in this case goes through only two servers but there are cases where mail passes from 4 to 5 servers

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Finding the reason

After getting to the headers of the mail the task further is much easier with the help of Google’s Email Analyzer


Utilize the link to use Google’s Email Analyzer: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader/

Copy and paste the raw headers in the box and you get the full report of the mail from the point it was transmitted until it reached your mailbox.

The delay should be in the route in between. This tool facilitates the analysis rather than looking through the raw headers.

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