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Viewing Raw Email Files

To understand the structure of an email, it can be helpful to view the raw email file. This raw view shows the full message with headers, boundaries, and the contents of each part, providing insights into how the email was constructed and routed, and how the client will interpret and display the message. Here’s how to examine a raw email in detail:

  1. Accessing the Raw Email File:

    • MSPintegrations: If the email is listed in the History page of MSPintegrations, you can download the raw email file directly. While viewing the history, click the download button at the top-right corner of the screen to obtain the full message source.
    • Web-Based Email Clients (Gmail, Outlook.com): These often have options like “Show Original” (Gmail) or “View Source” (Outlook) in the email options menu.
    • Desktop Clients (Outlook, Thunderbird): Most desktop clients have an option such as “View Source” or “View Raw Message” that displays the email in its original MIME format.

  2. Open the Raw Email File using a Text Editor:

    • Once you have downloaded the raw email file, you can open the file using a regular text editor (Text Editor, Notepad++, etc).

  3. Identifying Headers and Contents:

    • The email headers appear at the very beginning of the raw file. They contain essential metadata fields such as From, To, Subject, Date, Received and Content-Type.
    • Headers are always separated from the main body of the email by a blank line. The first blank line after the headers signals the start of the email’s content.
    • Look for the Content-Type header within the email headers, as this specifies if the email is in multipart/alternative or multipart/mixed format, indicating it contains multiple parts. This header also includes the boundary string, a unique delimiter that separates each part of the email.