What tools can help analyze email headers?

Raw headers are dense and hard to read. Analysis tools parse them into human-friendly formats and highlight important information.

Google Admin Toolbox Messageheader: Free tool from Google. Paste headers and get a visual timeline of the message route, delay analysis, and formatted header breakdown. Excellent for tracing timing issues. toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader

MXToolbox Header Analyzer: Shows routing path, authentication results, and identifies potential issues. Color-coded display highlights problems. mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx

Mail Header Analyzer (whatismyipaddress.com): Simple interface that parses headers and displays key fields clearly. Good for quick analysis.

Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer: Includes header analysis along with other mail flow diagnostic tools. Useful for Exchange/Microsoft 365 environments.

Command-line options: For automation, tools like email-header-analyzer (Python) can parse headers programmatically.

How to use them:

1. Export or copy raw headers from your email client

2. Paste into the tool

3. Review the formatted output, focusing on authentication and routing

These tools don't fix problems; they make problems visible so you know what to fix.