How time stamps appear in messages - Outlook

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How time stamps appear in messages

Applies to: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

Applies to
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 Microsoft Outlook® 2000 and 2002

Time stamps on messages show when a message was sent and received. In the case of Internet messages, time stamps also show when the message passed through each e-mail server between the sender and the recipient.

This information can be useful in diagnosing delivery delays for Internet messages. By examining the time stamp in the Internet header, you can determine which server caused the delivery delay.

Time stamps in Internet headers are available only when a message is sent over the Internet. They are not available for messages between two users who share the same Microsoft Exchange network.

Show View the sent and received time stamps

Open a message.
On the File menu, click Properties.

Note The sent and received times are displayed in your local time.

Show View the time stamps on Internet messages

Open a message.
On the View menu, click Options.
In the Internet headers box, scroll to the bottom of the text and find the time stamp. This is the time when the message was received by the sender's e-mail server. As a message travels from e-mail server to e-mail server, information, including time stamps, is added to the top of the entry. The time stamp nearest the top of the Internet headers box shows when your e-mail server received the message.

Time stamps in Internet headers appear in the local time of the e-mail server. In addition, a time differential from Coordinated Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time) immediately follows each time. For example, -0800 means that the server time is eight hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This means that a message with a time stamp of Tue, 23 Nov 2004 10:12:32 -0800 was sent at 18:12:32 UTC.

By default, the received time is displayed in a column in the Inbox. In Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002, you can add a column for the sent time.

Show Add the sent time stamp to the Inbox view

Right-click a column heading, and then click Field Chooser on the shortcut menu.
Click Sent, and then drag it onto the column heading bar. To remove a column, drag the column heading off the column heading bar and then release the mouse button.

Time stamps displayed in Outlook views are converted to your local time zone. For example, a message sent from New York City at 10:12:32 is displayed as sent at 7:12:32 AM if your computer is set to use the local time zone for Los Angeles.

Note You might notice cases where the sent time is after the received time. This delay might be caused by a difference between the system clocks on the sender's computer and on your e-mail server.