download & archive emails as txt files?

[reetcher]

I have about 1400 old emails on an internet email account that I have never downloaded to my computer, I've always read and responded to them logging into the online service. I would like to archive these old emails onto my own hard drive.

Is there any easy way to download this bulk amount of emails, turn them into text files so I can archive them? If I need to set up an email program to connect with the email account in order to download them onto the hard drive, is there one more preferred than mac mail? And once I have them downloaded into an email program is there an easy way to convert the bulk into text files?

Any insights will be very much appreciated.

thanks,

 

[Fishrrman]

I've heard of an app named "Mail Steward" that can archive emails. It's "pay for" software but the registration fee is reasonable.

There may be some others out there, as well.

Where are these emails located?
What service?

 

[chscag]

I'll second the recommendation for "Mail Steward". It received high marks from Macworld Mag which did a review on the program several issues ago.

 

[reetcher]

Thanks for your responses and suggestions, however putting them into a proprietary database is exactly what I don't want to do. Because they're work emails I feel obligated to archive them preferably in a very open form that's why I think txt doc would be great but there is no info I'm every going to want to search for. The service is a very small hosting service not a gmail, yahoo or hotmail.

Thanks again for your insights.

 

[CoastalOR]

Email Archiver Pro might work for you if pdfs are ok.

 

[prisstratton]

Here is a utility I used when I moved my email from Windows to Mac:

https://www.littlemachines.com

The only qualification with this application is you need to run it on a Windows PC that is using Outlook. If you do not have this option available maybe you could do this on a friends PC.

As I remember, the process was very simple and quick and the output is in standard mbox format, which is text and non-proprietary. You could store all of the mbox files as they are in an archive or import them all into Mac Mail in their own folder.

The software is very reasonably priced ($14) and you can try a free download first to see if it will do what you want.