Metadata

Hi, I have a public records request that wants emails with the metadata.  Can emails be forwarded to a .pst file and still contain the original metadata.  I am using Outlook 2013 with Exchange.  I would also have some gmail that would need to be included.   I do not have any programming experience so a third party app would work also.  Please help!  Thank you.  Eve
evejohnsonAsked:
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Michael-BestCommented:
"Can emails be forwarded to a .pst file and still contain the original metadata."
Yes.
The metadata is embedded in every file you make, receive or send.
Metadata is how your government tracks all your digital correspondence.  
You do not need a third party app.
ThomasMcA2Commented:
When you forward an email you lose most of the metadata (except From, To, Date, and Subject.). To view all of the metadata for an individual message, open the message, select the More Info icon (the small arrow in the corner) in the Tags section of the Messages tab. The Internet Headers (that's the metadata for this message) are in a scrollable box.

To forward a group of email messages, complete with their headers, first put them into a folder within the mailbox. You can then export that folder to a separate PST file by following these steps: select File > Open & Export > Import/Export > Export to a file > Next > select Outlook data file > Next > select the folder that you created previously > Next > type the desired path of the PST file > Finish > send the generated PST file to the requestor

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Phillip BurtonDirector, Practice Manager and Computing ConsultantCommented:
If you forward it, then you lose the metadata.

If you copy it, then you will retain it.

You can also save it in MSG and catalog it.

Have a look at the Email metadata that you can extract.

For the gmail data, you should probably download it into Outlook.
Dave HoweSoftware and Hardware EngineerCommented:
pst would work, as that will have the header and other metadata too - but of course that is (relatively) hard to read and work with.

Another solution would be to use Thunderbird, which will store the mails (with metadata) in MBox format, and further, can be used to pull data from exchange, gmail etc via imaps, mbox format is essentially just the "raw" mails written (with all headers and other metadata intact) sequentially into a text file.
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