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View Full Headers in Google Workspace

If you are having problems with your email, one common diagnostic aid is a complete list of the message's headers. Headers show the path a message took to get from the sender to the recipient. The IT Service Desk or other technical support may ask you to provide a message's headers.


  1. Open the message.
  2. Click the small, downward-facing arrow next to the Reply arrow icon near the top right of the message window, just under the Subject of the message.
  3. Select Show original. A separate window will open, showing a few summary rows at the top, then the complete message below.

If you need to copy the headers (to paste somewhere else),

  1. Drag over the text from the beginning of the message (do not include the summary rows at the top) down to the beginning of the body of the message.
  2. Press ctrl-c (on a Mac, command-c) on your keyboard; this copies the text to the clipboard.
  3. With an email message or other document open, press ctrl-v (on a Mac, command-v) to paste the header text into that document.

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