Guide

Save the delivered test from Gmail as a .eml file

Gmail can hand you the exact message that arrived — headers, rewritten links and all — as one .eml file. It takes a moment on a computer. Here is the path, and the two things to check before you upload.

Last verified: 2026-08-24 Applies to: Gmail on the web, on a computer

Prerequisites

  • A computer with a browser signed in to Gmail — the mobile app does not offer message download.
  • The delivered test email in your inbox: a real test sent from your sending platform to your own address, not the draft in the platform.
  • Nothing else — no extension, no settings change.

Steps

  1. Open the test email

    In Gmail in a browser, open the received copy of your test — the one in the inbox, after your platform rewrote the links.

  2. Open the message's More menu

    On the message itself, open the three-dot More menu.

  3. Choose "Download message"

    Your browser downloads the complete message as a single .eml file.

  4. Check the saved file

    Confirm the name ends in .eml and the file is under 2 MB — the upload accepts only the .eml extension and messages up to 2 MB.

If your menu looks different: Gmail's menus shift between updates and account types. Look for a "Download message" action in the three-dot menu on the open message; if it is truly absent, the "Show original" route in troubleshooting below reaches the same source.

What you should end up with

One .eml filethe complete delivered message, headers and HTML included
.eml extensionthe only extension the upload accepts — keep it if you rename
Under 2 MBlarger messages are rejected with an explicit error

Testing from another mailbox? The same file comes out of Outlook and Apple Mail. Upload steps live on the help page.

Troubleshooting

You're in the Gmail mobile app

There is no download-message path in the Gmail app on phones or tablets. Open Gmail in a browser on a computer and use the steps above.

You found "Show original" but no "Download message"

"Show original" opens the same raw source in a new tab, and copying that text into a file saved with a .eml extension usually produces a file the upload can read. It is easy to lose characters or encoding in the copy-paste, though — when you have the choice, downloading is the less error-prone route.

The file has an odd name

Gmail may name the download after the subject line. The name does not matter to the upload; only the .eml extension does. Rename freely, keep the extension.

The upload says the message is too large

The accepted maximum is 2 MB, and a test padded with large inline content can exceed it. An over-limit message is rejected with an explicit error rather than partially checked — trim the heavy content from the test and send it again.

Privacy: this guide handles a test email you sent to yourself — no recipient data is involved. After upload, the message is parsed transiently and SendProofs does not retain the raw message body after parsing; what a report does keep is listed under data handling.

The .eml is ready — get the evidence

Upload it to a free workspace: 100 resource checks each month, no card at signup.

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