Trace a single message
The Email Traffic Log can answer almost any question about a message, once you've pointed at the right one. The panel can't search for "the invoice from Tuesday", and subjects and senders repeat.
This mail server marks every message it handles with identifiers in the headers. They take you, and your provider's support team, from a message in a mailbox to its delivery record.
The two identifiers
| Header | What it is |
|---|---|
X-Elpan-Delivery-ID | The panel's identifier for the delivery. It matches exactly one delivery record. |
X-Rspamd-Queue-Id | The mail server's queue identifier for the message. |
Either is enough. Open Email Traffic Log, go to the Lookup tab, and paste the value into Delivery ID or Queue ID. The panel opens the record it belongs to.
The server adds the headers as a message passes through it, so mail this server received has them.
The copy in your own Sent folder usually doesn't: your mail client or webmail files that copy itself, without sending it through the mail server. To trace a message you sent, find it in the traffic log by date and recipient, or ask the recipient for the identifiers from their copy.
Copy the delivery ID in webmail
Webmail has a shortcut, so nobody has to read raw headers:
- Open the message.
- Open the More menu in the message toolbar.
- Choose Copy Delivery ID.
The identifier goes to the clipboard, ready to paste into the traffic log's Lookup tab or into a message to your provider's support team.
Read the headers in a mail client
Every client can show the full headers, which include the two identifiers.
| Client | Where |
|---|---|
| Webmail | More → Show source |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | More → View source, or Ctrl+U |
| Microsoft Outlook | Open the message, then File → Properties, and read Internet headers |
| Apple Mail | View → Message → All Headers |
| Gmail | The ⋮ menu on the message, then Show original |
What the delivery record shows
The record's Headers tab holds the message's headers as this server saw them, and a Copy Headers button copies the whole set.
Where a header names another delivery, the panel links to it. A message the server forwarded carries the identifier of the hop before it, so you can follow a message back through every delivery it produced.
Forward a message as an attachment
When support asks you to "forward it as an attachment", this is why. A
normal forward is a new message that quotes the old one; the original
headers, including the two identifiers, the authentication results, and
the whole Received chain, aren't part of what your client sends. It
removes exactly the evidence a diagnosis needs.
Forwarding as an attachment sends the original message whole, inside the new one. Nothing changes.
| Client | How |
|---|---|
| Webmail | Select the message, open the Forward menu, and choose Forward as attachment |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | Right-click the message, then Forward As → Attachment |
| Microsoft Outlook | Select the message, then More → Forward as Attachment in the Respond group |
| Apple Mail | Message → Forward as Attachment |
| Gmail | No such option. Use Download message in the ⋮ menu, save the file, and attach it to a new message by hand |
Webmail, Thunderbird, and Outlook all let you select several messages and forward them together, each as a separate attachment. That's the fastest way to report a pattern rather than a single event.
Several webmail services, Gmail and Yahoo Mail among them, have no option to forward as an attachment.
Save the message as a file instead and attach it to a new message. Most
clients can: Gmail's ⋮ menu offers Download message, and our own
webmail offers More → Export. Both produce an .eml file, the whole
original message.
Where even that isn't available, send the full headers (see Read the headers in a mail client) and forward the message normally alongside them.