Webmail and Storing E-mails Locally; how do I do it?

Please excuse the basic nature of my question; but I'm not very knowledageable about matters computer and internet related.

On another thread about changing ISP's I mentioned that �I have many thousands of e-mails� stored on my BT webmail. That comment brought these responses:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

HINT: Storing emails at the ISP is not a good idea, as there is no comeback if they delete them by mistake. It is worth downloading and storing any crucial ones locally on the PC as well as keeping them at the ISP.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Start another thread - maybe in the BT section about emails and someone will take you through what to do.

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

Thanks.

Once I've decided whether to stick with BT or move to Plusnet; I'll post in the appropriate forum regarding the e-mails.

Cheers.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Wrong. Your question is about handling the BT email system so the people most likely to be able to help will be in the BT forum, not the Plusnet one. The ISP your connection is running through is in most cases irrelevant.

In reply to a post by MHC:

As RobertoS says - it is a BT issue.

And if you decide to migrate - make sure you have downloaded all of your emails from the server before you do. There is always that very small, minuscule chance (that could happen with any ISP) a small error causing the mail account to be deleted or locked.

In fact - I would suggest do it NOW.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I was unaware that you could store e-mails locally and with the ISP. I thought it was either one or the other; not both. I'm not sure how to do this

To do that you need an eMail client on your PC, like Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows (Live) Mail, Thunderbird. You can then either tell it to download everything or download and leave on server.

So given that I have been urged to download my e-mail locally; how do I go about it? The last post tells me that I need one of these: � Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows (Live) Mail, Thunderbird�

Which one is best? Which is the easiest to set up and use? Where do I find these programmes?

I think I would like to download my e-mail locally and keep a copy on the Webmail server if this is possible.

Thanks.

In my copy of Outlook, I have the option of "download email but keep on server" so it can be done.

In reply to a post by hypertony:

In my copy of Outlook, I have the option of "download email but keep on server" so it can be done.

Thanks.

I do not seem to have Outlook on my laptop.

Where can I get it?

Cheers.

You probably have Windows 7, so may have Live Mail installed if not visit
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/esse...

The configuration you need is at
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6876

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I do not seem to have Outlook on my laptop.

Where can I get it?

Cheers.

Sorry, Outlook is part of Office 2013 setup. You can get a 'freebie' like Live Mail or Thunderbird - I'm pretty sure they have similar settings.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

You probably have Windows 7, so may have Live Mail installed if not visit
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/esse...

The configuration you need is at
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6876

Thank you again for your help.

Yes; I do have Windows 7. The 'Home Premium' version if it's relevant.

I'll check out those links; much appreciated.

In reply to a post by hypertony:

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I do not seem to have Outlook on my laptop.

Where can I get it?

Cheers.

Sorry, Outlook is part of Office 2013 setup. You can get a 'freebie' like Live Mail or Thunderbird - I'm pretty sure they have similar settings.

Thank you.

I'll check out the link given to me by Mr Saffron for Live Mail first. If I'm too confused by that; I'll look at Thunderbird.

Cheers!

As suggested, set it to "leave emails on server". You can also tell it to delete emails from server when deleted locally.

Set it up offline and make sure your settings are correct. Then, when you go back online initiate a download and sit back for an hours or two ... if you have thousands of emails it could take a while to download.

I've installed Live Mail and it seems to have automatically copied my Inbox; once I entered my e-mail address and password.

Thank you everyone!

In my webmail I have created numerous contacts where I have filed e-mails from particular people and organisations.

These do not seem to be in the contects section of Live Mail. Do I have to create my contacts manaully and then transfer e-mails from my inbox?

Is there anyway that I can transfer e-mails from the contacts section of my BT webmail to the contacts section of Live Messenger?

Cheers.

More specifically, I would suggest that you set up your email client to use IMAP to collect your email.

Basically, IMAP synchronises the email between your local email client and the webmail system.

If you write an email in your client, or delete one from there then it wil be reflected on the server as well. If you write an email in the webmail then a that will be reflected in your email client.

Though you will need to make sure that you enable whatever setting there is to download all the emails - by default using IMAP email client don't actually download copies of all the emails,

The alternative collection method is called POP3. This is a more basic protocol, that just downloads emails sent to you. This will download copies of emails you have been sent. But it won't download copies of any emails you have sent to others for example.