Backup/export/save webmail as service stopping?

I've used Talk21 for my email for years and years. It went to Yahoo, then BT and I've just had an email saying that its going to stop and I have 3 options. Buy BT broadband, pay £1.60/month or leave.

I have Virgin BB, don't want to pay a monthly fee, and although not too happy with it, I'll have to let it go and use my Gmail email.

So how can I backup my Talk21 email? It was my prime email (I learnt not to use a ISP email in case you leave...).

I have numerous emails and folders etc that I want to keep. I've always just used it as webmail and on my iPhone nits also on my iMac mail app.

Is there any easy way to backup/export/save all my email? I suppose I could forward all the email to my Gmail one, but this would take ages with the number I have. I also don't have that long to do it, finishes around start of Sep.

Any help on someone who has done similar, or anything I can do.

Cheers

Weaselboy said:

How many messages are we talking about?

You can just go to gmail.com and enable IMAP then add the GMail account to Mail and make some folder in Mail/Gmail then drag them form the current folder to a GMail folder. You might want to do a hundred or so at a time so Mail does not choke.

Click to expand...

Wow cool, I think I understand what you mean. It's numerous emails, like 300+ and organised in folders.

So I open Mail app on my iMac
Enable imap on gmail.com
Add the gmail account into mail
Drag the emails in the mail app from Talk21 to Gmail, this will auto upload them to gmail, if for example I look in Safari on my iPhone at gmail.com I'll see the emails there?

Thanks

Weaselboy said:

You've got it.

You can do 300 like that no problem.

Click to expand...

Wow thanks, it sounds (to) easy, thought I'd have a nightmare to do this. I've used Talk21 for years, about a year ago, I started using this email address as my primary, and not relying on my ISP for when I leave.....typical.

Is Gmail the best option for a free webmail based email now then? As I say, to me, it's pointless using an ISP one in case in future you leave that ISP, you lose the email address associated with it. I do have an Apple iCloud one...?