How to Analyze and View Message Headers in Outlook

Email headers contain valuable technical information that can help you trace email routes, verify senders, troubleshoot delivery problems, and investigate suspicious messages. Whether you're an IT administrator, support technician, or simply trying to determine where an email came from, understanding message headers is an essential skill.

In this guide, you'll learn several ways to view and analyze message headers in Outlook, including a faster and more user-friendly solution with Kutools for Outlook.

Why Analyze Message Headers?

Message headers contain hidden information such as:

• Sender and recipient details
• Mail server routing information
• Message IDs
• Delivery timestamps
• SPF authentication results
• DKIM signatures
• DMARC verification results
• MIME information

Analyzing this information can help you:

• Identify phishing and spoofing attempts
• Troubleshoot email delivery issues
• Verify sender authenticity
• Investigate spam messages
• Trace email routing paths

View Internet Headers in Classic Outlook

Method 1 A built-in way to view email headers

Steps

1. Double-click the email to open it in a separate window.
2. Click File > Info > Properties.
   
3. Locate the Internet headers box at the bottom of the Properties window.
4. Review the header information.
   

Limitations

• Only shows the header section.
• The information is displayed in a small text box.
• Difficult to read and analyze long headers.
• Requires several clicks to access.

Method 2: Show Hidden Information of Email with Kutools for Outlook

As you can see from the image above, the information displayed in Outlook's built-in Message Header window is extensive and often cluttered, making it difficult to quickly locate the details you need.

This is where Kutools for Outlook's Message Header Analyzer becomes especially useful. It automatically organizes and categorizes header information into clear sections, allowing you to quickly find and analyze the specific details you're looking for without manually searching through long blocks of raw header data.

Steps

1. Select the email whose hidden information you want to view.
2. Click:
   Kutools > Utilities > Message Headers Analyzer
   
3. The message headers will be displayed in a dedicated window, with all information neatly categorized into four sections for quick and easy analysis.
   

   Summary

   

   Sender Headers

   

   Other Headers

   

   Source Data

   

View Message Source in Outlook on the Web

If you use Outlook on the web, you can view the message source directly.

Steps

1. Open the email.
2. Click the More Actions (···) menu.
3. Select View > View message details or View message source (depending on your version).
   
4. Review the email source information.
   

Final Thoughts

While Outlook provides basic access to email headers, manually analyzing raw header information can be difficult and time-consuming.

Kutools for Outlook's Message Header Analyzer simplifies the entire process by presenting key header information in an organized and readable format. Whether you're troubleshooting email issues, investigating suspicious messages, or verifying sender authenticity, it provides a faster and more efficient way to analyze Outlook message headers.